http://nativopartenopeo.blogspirit.com/images/medium_troy_mcclure.jpg

Sure, Phil Hartman wasn't a regular on the Simpsons,but he played a very important part. He was just as important as the regular cast was. When he was brutally murdered, did The Simpsons "Jump The Shark?"

I don't know if The Simpsons jumped the shark after Phil Hartman's death but his death was certainly a real body blow to the show. A body blow they may not yet have recovered from.

I don't know about jumping the shark because I was only 13 years old at the time Phil Hartman was tragically killed but I know it ended up being a huge blow to the people who worked on the Simpsons because they have said on numerous occasions on the commentarties of what a pleasure it was to work with him and how funny he was. It truly is sad and tragic, he was so perfect to play Troy Mcclure and Lionel Hutz and I am so glad they never tried to replace him with someone else. It would be a insult in his memory to get someone else to play those characters he became so familiar with over the years. They will always forever be apart of him.

RIP Phil Hartman :(

I dont think so. Phil Hartman, as good as he was as Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz, wasnt a main character and when he died, the show didnt fall apart. If the guy who played Homer died or the person who played Bart died, yes, the show wouldnt be the same because those are main characters.

Nope, not at all.

Phil Hartman was talented, to be sure, but as others have said, he didn't voice any main characters. Had Dan Castelleneta or Yeardley Smith or Hank Azaria or even Harry Shearer died I can see some justification for a JTS theory, but not Hartman.