“Voice acting god” and Simpsons recurring voice actor Frank Welker revealed in an e-mail to Simpsons fan Kenneth White why he hasn’t appeared in The Simpsons since Season 13:
A few years back Dan “C” did Santa’s Little Helper in a rehearsal and unfortunately for me … did it a little too good. The producers thought … “Hmmm, Dan barks pretty good, and we are already paying him and he seems to like doing the dog thing … why do we need to pay Welker who comes in here, spends less than an hour, eats all the doughnuts, refuses to come to rehearsals … let’s just give the damn dog to Dan!” Bingo … I’m out. I did do lots of shows that needed sound effects and weird sounds, but Santa is without this little helper.
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I wanted a raise … most of what they asked me to do was wild and wacky, but it also almost always hurt my throat. So, I asked for a raise … that is why you haven’t seen me. They are really great people over there, but they have a rule about “top of the show” for guest performers and I fell under that consideration.
Welker has played Santa’s Little Helper, Snowball II, She’s The Fastest, Fred from Scooby Doo, Megatron, Milhouse’s monkey, Burns’ canine executive vice president, Africa’s wildlife, Lisa’s pony, and a dozen zoos’ worth of other animals. Life is ruff! [No Homers Club]