The Simpsons: 12 Things You Missed If You Stopped Watching in 2000

4. Gil Gunderson Gets An Expanded Role

When Phil Hartman died suddenly in 1998, murdered in cold blood in his sleep by his drunken, drug-abusing wife who would later take her own life, The Simpsons lost one of its most popular actors, and the characters of Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz. McClure, the washed up actor who frequently appeared in educational films and always opened with the line "Hi, I'm Troy McClure! You might remember me from....," had been the star of "A Fish Called Selma" and always stole the show. Lionel Hutz, attorney-at-law, was the bumbling lawyer who rarely won a case, yet whom the Simpson family continued to employ. For years there was really no replacement for either character. However, a character who debuted in the final episode to feature a voice role for Lionel Hutz, December 1997's "Realty Bites," has since taken over (albeit sometimes indirectly) Hutz's role. That character was Ol' Gil himself, Gil Gunderson. Gunderson is probably one of the most popular "new" characters on the show. Turning up as a real estate agent at the agency Marge joins after obtaining her real estate license, Gil is a luckless, down-and-out sort of character, likable yet always finding a way to fail. He's based on Jack Lemon's Glengarry Glen Ross character Shelley Levene, the nervous middle-ager who just can't hold down a job. He's been a real estate agent, a car salesman, a farmer, a lawyer - his schemes rarely seem to pan out. Which is a lot like Hutz - who moonlighted as a real estate agent while practicing law. Gunderson would eventually see an episode featuring him moving in with the Simpson family in Kill Gil: Vols. 1 & 2 in season 18.