Who died on The Simpsons and did the Family Guy crossover work? | Television & radio | theguardian.com

Stewie meets Bart in The Simpsons Guy. Photograph: Uncredited/AP

After months of frenzied speculation over which Simpsons character would die, the victim was finally revealed in Sunday night’s season 26 premiere in the US. And it was Krusty’s father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky (voiced by Jackie Mason, who won an Emmy for the role in 1992), who finally met his maker.

The episode’s title, Clown in the Dumps, had led to severe fan panic that Krusty himself might be off to the big top in the sky. In July, The Guardian’s Stuart Heritage was outraged at the mere thought of it:

... simply put, this would be a travesty. Krusty the Clown – or, to use his birth name, Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky – is an institution. An icon. Almost everything the man says is a catchphrase.”

Thankfully, Krusty lived to smoke another cigarette. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Al Jean explained that the storyline had taken on a far bigger life than he had intended. “It was something that we did not plan in any way as a possible event,” he said, suggesting that viewers should not be too disappointed that it was the death of a relatively minor character, after all.

“I love True Detective, but I was convinced that Woody Harrelson was going to be the Yellow King. I thought there were all these clues that they planted. So when it didn’t turn out to be him, I was disappointed. The one thing I wanted to do with this story is if people figure it out correctly, they shouldn’t be disappointed because there should be a very logical answer with the limited clues we provide.”

Sunday night also saw the debut of the much-hyped crossover episode with Family Guy, entitled The Simpsons Guy, for which reviews have been mixed. Entertainment Weekly called it “an episode composed entirely of loving reheated cultural detritus, of characters replaying old jokes and self-deprecating themselves into the void”, while TheWrap was more positive, asserting that it was a “once-in-a-lifetime experience that was worthy of a big-screen presentation”.

There has been continuing controversy over the inclusion of a joke, which had already appeared in an earlier trailer, in which Stewie delivers the punchline, “Your sister’s being raped.” Tim Winter of the Parents’ Television Council said he found the line “troubling”.

Have you seen the crossover episode? Were you pleased that Krusty escaped the axe? Let us know below.