The Simpsons star Harry Shearer, the versatile voice actor behind Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, and C. Montgomery Burns, is leaving the show after 26 seasons, he announced on Twitter Wednesday night. Eventually, it’ll just be A Simpson.

The Simpsons has survived for nearly three decades and, despite declining ratings, it seems like absolutely nothing can kill it. The show, recently renewed through 2017, was nearly ended after a tense contract negotiation in 2011, but its main voice actors agreed to take a pay cut to keep it alive.

It seems that arrangement is no longer working for Shearer, who tweeted this message, ostensibly from the attorney for producer James L. Brooks:

Variety reports that, “the rest of the Simpsons voice cast recently signed two-year extensions, logging on for seasons 27 and 28, with Shearer being the only one holding out.” Season 27 has already begun production without him.

Shearer said on Twitter that he left because he “wanted what we’ve always had: the freedom to do other work.”

His other work has included playing Richard Nixon in “Nixon’s the One,” and various reunion appearances as Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap—most recently for the 25th anniversary of the film in 2009.

The last major voice actors the show lost were Phil Hartman, whose characters were retired after he was killed by his wife in 1998, and Marcia Wallace, who played Edna Krabappel and passed away in 2013. Hartman’s final season, season 10, is considered by some to be the end of the Simpsons’ golden age and the beginning of a long decline that’s still being dragged out nearly 20 years later.

Update: Executive producer Al Jean says Shearer’s characters will be recast: “Burns and Flanders will not die. They are great characters and will continue.”

[Photo: Getty Images]