The Simpsons is set to bring back a notorious early character – 33 years after his last appearance.
Season one of the long-running cartoon introduced a character called Jacques, in the 1990 episode “Life On the Fast Lane”.
Voiced by the comedian and filmmaker Albert Brooks, Jacques was a French bowling instructor who captures the attention of Marge Simpson.
Ultimately, however, Marge decides against accepting Jacques’ romantic advances, and remains with Homer.
On Sunday (19 March), the character is set to return in a season 34 episode titled “Pin Girl”.
The official synopsis for the episode reads: “A mysterious figure from Marge’s past returns to coach her for a bowling tournament.”
Showrunner Al Jean confirmed on social media that the “mysterious figure” will, in fact, be Jacques, voiced again by Brooks.
While this will represent the first time Brooks has returned to the role, the Modern Romance filmmaker has voiced a number of other characters on The Simpsons over the course of its run.
His other one-off roles include the supervillainous Hank Scorpio in the classic season eight episode “You Only Move Twice”, motivational speaker Brad Goodman in “Bart’s Inner Child”, and Russ Cargill in The Simpsons Movie.
Jacques has appeared in a non-speaking cameo a couple of times since his original appearance, but “Pin Girl” represents the first time the character has been brought back in a proper capacity.
Earlier this year, one of the writers and former showrunners of The Simpsons explained a bizarre mistake in one of its early episodes.
Last month, it was reported that an episode of the series had been removed from Disney Plus in Hong Kong due to a joke about “forced labour camps” in China.
In the episode, Marge is shown images of China’s Great Wall during an exercise class, when her instructor says: “Behold the wonders of China. Bitcoin mines, forced labour camps where children make smartphones.”
