Eric Bauza Will Make a Posthumous Simpsons Debut in Two Roles, Producer Says

Eric Bauza, the voice actor who carried Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck into a new generation, will be heard on The Simpsons in November. Co-executive producer Cesar Mazariegos told Variety that Bauza recorded two characters for the Nov. 15 episode “Dream Scenari-Moe”: restaurateur Mr. Fong and newspaper editor Harry Metsali.

Mazariegos, who co-ran the episode, told Variety the team reached out to Bauza to play “two New-Yorky characters,” and that “he knocked it out of the park.” Bauza came in for two recording sessions. He died on Oct. 25 at age 46.

A Producer Remembers

“Everything people have said about Eric, before and after his untimely passing, is absolutely true,” Mazariegos said. “He was so funny, kind, creative and just immensely talented.”

He also spoke to the range that made Bauza so in demand. “He seamlessly dipped in and out of dozens of voices, both to give us options and just hilariously riffing while off-mic,” Mazariegos said. Bauza signed the show’s Wall of Fame and drew a Bugs Bunny on it, which is how the writers learned he had started out as an animator. “He was absolutely someone we were excited to have come in again and again, and then we heard the news. It was such a shock.”

“Dream Scenari-Moe” airs Sunday, Nov. 15, on Fox. Per Variety, the episode’s guest voices also include Meg Ryan and Saturday Night Live‘s James Austin Johnson, and the premise has Moe enrolling in a sleep study that hands him the romantic-comedy dreams of his life, at a price.

Bauza’s death was announced by his family in a statement on Instagram. Channing Dungey, chairman of Warner Bros. Television Group and U.S. Networks, said he “brought joy and laughter to millions around the world.” He voiced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety and Foghorn Leghorn, among other Looney Tunes characters, and won three Children’s & Family Emmy Awards, for Teen Titans Go!, Bugs Bunny Builders and Looney Tunes Cartoons. Variety notes he will also be heard in the upcoming short “Daffy Season,” which plays in theaters ahead of The Cat in the Hat. You can read our full remembrance of his career, and revisit his work in our Coyote vs. Acme review.

Born in Toronto, Bauza became one of the most recognizable voices in children’s animation, and for many fans the Looney Tunes were their first introduction to his work. On Nov. 15, they will get a chance to hear him somewhere new, in the streets of a very different cartoon town.