History TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot / TheSimpsons

** Finally her death; rather than giving the character a proper send-off, she was written out in the worst possible way: a one-off dream sequence with Ned simply saying "he was going to miss her" while Nelson does a half-hearted "ha-ha!" before agreeing with Ned about missing his teacher. Since then, the show barely makes any references to her, in terms of her becoming practically an unperson and writers shoving all sorts of substitute teachers into the mix whenever they have to do a school centric Bart episode before finally settling with new character Rayshelle Peyton--almost a decade after her death.

*** Season 34's "The Many Saints of Springfield" finally clarifies that—as in his brief stint as school principal in "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song"—he was fired by Superintendent Chalmers for exposing his students to his Christian faith while on the job. [[AbortedArc Aborting the arc]] killed a unique opportunity to explore the existing dynamic between Ned and Bart that was emphasized in TheMovie (although it led to one episode, "Better Off Ned," dealing with their relationship, [[RecycledScript it largely covered ground already covered by said movie]] and didn't address their teacher/student relationship at all).

** Early in the series run we find out that she's a divorced woman, whose husband left her for a younger woman that also happened to be their marriage counselor (for added "fuck you" level of bitterness). Yet we NEVER meet Edna's ex or his new wife. NEVER. The writers contemplated introducing Mr Krabappel in the season two episode "War of the Simpsons", with the idea of having him be a Dean Martin lookalike. But they decided instead to include a rip-off of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" instead.

[[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot This]] is inevitable in a show where the first five to ten minutes set up things that [[HalfwayPlotSwitch later turn out to be unrelated to the main plot]]:

** Finally her death; rather than giving the character a proper send-off, she was written out in the worst possible way: a one-off dream sequence with Ned simply saying "he was going to miss her" while Nelson does a half-hearted "ha-ha!" before agreeing with Ned about missing his teacher. Since then, outside of a Halloween special appearance as a ghost, no mention whatsoever has been made of Edna, in terms of her becoming an unperson and writers shoving all sorts of substitute teachers into the mix whenever they have to do a school centric Bart episode before finally settling with new character Rayshelle Peyton--almost a decade after her death.

** Finally her death; rather than giving the character a proper send-off, she was written out in the worst possible way: a one-off dream sequence with Ned simply saying "he was going to miss her" while Nelson does a half-hearted "ha-ha!" before agreeing with Ned about missing his teacher. Since then, outside of a Halloween special appearance as a ghost, no mention whatsoever has been made of Edna, in terms of her becoming an unperson and writers shoving all sorts of substitute teachers into the mix whenever they have to do a school centric Bart episode before finally having [[spoiler: Ned taking over the position after his store closed down]].

* "Mathlete's Feat": The idea of Springfield Elementary using advanced, modern technology following the sponsorship is interesting and has never been done on the show before. However, after the {{EMP}}, it goes back to more jokes about the school being low-budget, which has been done numerous times before on the show ("Dog of Death", "Lisa Gets an A", "It's a Mad Marge", "The PTA Disbands", among others).

* The show's response to "The Problem With Apu" ''could'' have been a tactful way for the show as any LongRunner would to reconcile the [[ValuesDissonance social changes over the years that make classic elements/characters age badly]] especially as Hari Kondabolu made an articulate, ''respectful'' case as a long-term fan that along with other South Asians that had to deal with being compared to Apu growing up. Instead, not only does the show shrug it off as "political incorrectness" like the argument was just brushing off another MediaWatchdog, it chose to do so [[DoylistVersusWatsonian through]] ''[[SoapboxSadie Lisa]]'', the one character who'd be ''siding'' with the documentary regardless of her friendship with Apu.
* "Bart vs Itchy and Scratchy" had an interesting premise going on, with Bart unexpectedly enjoying a girl's show (one that was also an all-female reboot of his favorite cartoon)in a moment that Lisa witnessed. This could have lead to a story about them bonding over the reboot but instead Lisa skips straight to humiliating him over the internet. Or the plot could have involved him mingling with some of the girls who are [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter a severely underused group of characters in their own right]], again focusing on bonding over the new ''I&S''. Instead none of the female cast even have lines outside of the main family and Luanne, the plot is taken over by three guest voiced characters who lack distinctive personalities, [[AllThereInTheScript aren't named in the episode]], lack any redeeming or likable qualities whatsoever and will likely never appear again so there's no significance to them.

** Her relationship with Principal Skinner was another wasted plotline. It gave both characters added depth and pathos, fleshing them out into fully developed characters and even led to an evolution of their relationship with Bart, who supported their coupling. Sadly, one of the very first things Al Jean did when he came back to the show, was kill the relationship dead. Principal Skinner never recovered as a character, while any chances of Edna and Seymour reuniting, was crushed by the writers pushing Edna/Ned onto fans out of the blue.

* In "To Courier with Love", There is no mention of Bart's time living with Ceasar and Ugolin in France, despite them all being in the same room. [[NegativeContinuity They act like they've never met despite the fact they treated Bart like dirt and he got them arrested]].