He was shot in the episode where Krusty meets his daughter (Insane Clown Poppy).
I don’t know if he died, or if he shows up in later episodes, but there ya go.
What I wanna see is more of the Happiest Man In Town.
“No, folks, he means himself… but thanks for looking!”
Bleeding Gums was only in two episodes, and died in the second one. He was one of my favorite characters. He was voiced by Ron Taylor, who starred on Broadway and won a Tony for “It Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues.” Taylor was dying of cancer at the time. I miss both Ron Taylor and Bleeding Gums.
Jacques the French bowler. I guess he was really a one-shot deal, though he did appear as a background character a few times during the early years, iirc. Anyway:
And then, of course:
The real answer on some of these is that during the first two or three seasons background characters were just filled up using the existing model sheets so people like Wendel and Jacques would show up here and there. However, some of those models weren’t really in the style of the Simpsons so those characters were dropped, though you do occasionally see them sneak in.
One of my favorite lines of all time and favorite characters. And Bleeding gums singing the Star Spangled Banner still kills me every time. 
Wendell is injured (possibly a broken arm) on the trampoline in season 5’s episode Bart’s Inner Child. That’s later than I expected to see him show up.
Me, I’m waiting for an episode that highlights the Spanish Bee Guy.
Is Wendell that guy who looked like he was an albino?
If so, it’s correct that he didn’t look right for Simpsons, not including the fact that everyone was yellow and he was chalk white.
Yeay, Aslan2, that was Wendell. I admit he was kinda goofylookin and out of place, but that was his schtick! He was always ill with something. I remember his first appearance, it was the episode where the class went on a trip to the box factory, I believe, and Bart had to sick next to him. They make the comment that he always throws up on the bus. anyway, they get there safe and sound, and Bart congratulates him. “Way to go Wendel, you didn’t throw up!” With that, Bart pats him on the back, his eyes get huge, then an overhead shot of the bus shows the kids all jumping out the window following a well placed “Huargh!”
But yeah, outside of that, I haven’t seen much of him, and was rather supirsed to see his toy just released now.
It was his sickness.
I saw Wendell on a rerun last night. It was the episode, “Little Girl in the Big Ten”, where Lisa takes gymnastics to pass gym class and hooks up with some college students, then winds up impersonating a college student herself. Wendell appears as one of a group of nerds being shaken down for their lunch money by the bullies, until they’re rescued by “The Sphere” (Bart in his plastic bubble, because he was infected by the “pandavirus”.)
The episode is from Season 13, making it far more recent than KneadToKnow’s last sighting. Wendell lives!
As a hijack, did “The Simpsons” ever have an episode where Dr. Monroe was “officially” killed-off, or was it limited to a mention of the “Marvin Monroe Memorial Hospital”?
Didn’t the Dr. only appear in that one episode, the one where the family went to therapy and kept shocking each other?
While not exactly a lost characther, I do like Captain Mcalister. He should have more episodes based around him.
Dr. Monroe also appeared in the episode where Marge takes on the makers of Itchy and Scratchy.
Marge called him on his radio show when she was having problems with Homer in an early episode, I think.
Dr Munroe also appeared in the first season episode were the Simpsons got lost in the woods. He was one of the scientists called in to determine whether Homer was a human or a bigfoot.
I believe his character was killed off because his voice was very difficult to perform.
—In “Bart’s Friend Falls In Love”, the subplot was Homer ordering subliminal weightloss cassettes and getting vocabulary instead. They were read by Dr. Marvin Monroe. “Abbatoir! The cow was slaughtered in the abbatoir!” No, there was no episode where he was officially killed off.
—Bleeding Gums was in three episodes, including “Dancin’ Homer”, where he took 26 minutes to sing the national anthem.
—Jacques reappeared (but didn’t speak) in “Team Homer”, the one where Burns forces his way onto Homer’s bowling team. He was a member of The Homewreckers: four people who had all posed threats to Homer and Marge’s marriage. The other three were Lurleen Lumpkin, Mindy Simmons and Princess Kashmir.
Another reason for Wendell’s general absence (along with most of Bart’s other friends) is that during the first couple seasons Bart was the main character, but very soon the focus moved more generally to Homer.
–Cliffy
He had a nice run the the “32 Short Stories about Springfield” episode didn’t he? I think it’s time. Bumblebee Man and Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel in a “on-the-road” comedy episode!
