One of ‘The Simpsons’ Most Loathsome Characters Never Made It to the Air
The world of The Simpsons is chock-full of memorable characters that aren’t related to the titular family — from Krusty the Clown to Hans Moleman to the surprisingly chill Hugh Jass.
But as a fan on Reddit recently pointed out, there’s one Simpsons character who never actually made it onto the show. The aptly-named “Mrs. Gross” was designed way back when the series first began, and 36 years later, she has yet to appear in a single episode.
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Former Simpsons writer and showrunner Josh Weinstein once bemoaned the fact that the show “never did any Mrs. Gross stories.” He also shared a drawing of the character from an “early Simpsons design guide.”
Mrs. Gross, as evidenced by the illustration, was a crossing guard. And she would have been voiced by Marge Simpson herself, Julie Kavner. Gross was originally set to be in “Moaning Lisa,” the Season One episode that focused on Lisa’s existential malaise.
As you may recall, Lisa’s depression is only exacerbated by Springfield Elementary’s soul-crushing faculty, including Mr. Largo, the music teacher who can’t stand “unbridled creativity” and a gym teacher who can’t wrap her head around the fact that a student would be “too sad” to play dodgeball.
In the version of the episode that aired, an early scene in the Simpson family’s living room is immediately followed by the confrontation in Mr. Largo’s music class. But the original script included a scene in which we see Bart and Lisa arrive at school and encounter Mrs. Gross.
To the horror of the students, Mrs. Gross refuses to help them cross the street. “What do you want me to do — hold your hand?” she barks at Lisa. When the kids point out that there are a number of cars coming, she hits Lisa with her stop-sign paddle. At this point, the kids attempt to cross the road, forcing the oncoming vehicles to brake and swerve in order to avoid killing the children.
Even after being scrapped from “Moaning Lisa,” Mrs. Gross came close to making an appearance in Season Four’s “A Streetcar Named Marge.” As YouTuber Kid Leaves Stoop pointed out, a character who distinctly resembles Mrs. Gross was included in the animatics for the episode, although her look was changed for the finished episode.
Had she been included in the show, Mrs. Gross arguably would have been the worst employee in the history of Springfield Elementary — which is saying something, considering that the school’s lunch lady has been known to serve “Malk” and “Grade F meat,” and the Principal Skinner once imprisoned a group of children without food or water for several days.
