Simpsons Futurama crossover episode hints at dead of fan favourite Ralph Wiggum Back from the future ... Bender and the Futurama gang travels back in time to kill Bart, while the Simpsons head to the 31st century in the crossover Simpsorama episode. MORE than a month after Krusty the Clown's father was killed off, Simpsons fans have been left wondering whether producers are plotting another character death. Showrunners dropped a cryptic teaser at the end of the Futurama crossover epsidoe, which aired in the US on Sunday - and it looked as if fan favourite Ralph Wiggum had met his end. During the episode, called Simpsorama, the cast of Futurama went to present-day Springfield and the famous yellow family took a trip to the 31st century. The episode was a ratings winner in the US, with more than 6 million people tuning in to see the return of Fry & Co. Whipping boy ... Bender and Homer share a common interest. Picture: Supplieds Source: Supplied In the closing credits a headstone indicated that Ralph, the lovable oddball son of Police Chief Wiggum, had died in 2017. Is it true? "No, (it was) just a random joke," the show's executive producer Al Jean told The Hollywood Reporter. In a previous future show, we saw Ralph as a police chief with multiple clones each being killed. Some have interpreted 2017 as the last year of the show, which is possible but I doubt it. Jean has previously said he was surprised by the attention his show got after he mentioned that a "beloved" character voiced by an Emmy winner would be killed off. After a year of hints and speculation, a yellow-coloured Grim Reaper finally descended on Springfield in September during the premiere episode of season 26. Moonrocks ... Beloved character Ralph Wiggum, whose cat's breath smells like cat food. There were fears Homer may have seen his last days, as well as other favourites such as Police Chief Wiggum, Apu, Moe and Krusty the Clown. But fans were underwhelmed to discover it was the not-all-that-familiar character of Krusty's father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofski, who met his maker. "I was doing an interview where they asked what episodes we had coming up and I said, "Well, a character dies and the actor who played the character won an Emmy for that portrait," and that turned into this huge puzzle," Jean said of the anticlimax. Simpsorama also revealed something new about aliens Kang and Kodos - that they are a lesbian couple whose surname is Johnson. Originally published as "Simpsorama" hints at shock death