Springfield is a little darker now that Marcia Wallace has died. As the voice of bored, lonely, perpetually disappointed primary-school teacher Edna Krabappel on The Simpsons, Wallace was responsible for perhaps the most realistic depiction of a middle-aged educator that television has ever produced. A world where the innocent dreams of idealistic children aren't immediately shattered by a jaded, barked "Hah!" is a world that's a little less fun to live in. To mark Wallace's death, here are some of my favourite Edna Krabappel episodes.

Bart Gets An F (1990)

"Look everybody, John Hancock wrote his name in the snow!"

Despite her dalliances with Skinner and Flanders – more on that later – you could argue that the love of Edna's life was always Bart Simpson. Signs of their love/hate relationship are scattered throughout the series, but they began here. Bart unsuccessfully attempts to revise for a test that, if failed, will put him back a year. The climax – where Bart fails and cries, and Krabappel bumps his grade up to a D – was the first sign that the pair of them were capable of caring for each other. There's even a kiss at the end.

Bart the Lover (1992)

"Any time I hear the wind blow, it will whisper the name Edna"

Back before The Simpsons became a delivery system for lazy film parodies, it had enormous heart. Bart the Lover was one of the most touching episodes of all. During a month-long detention, Bart discovers a lonely-heart letter that Edna had despondently placed in the local paper. Bart gets his revenge by cruelly initiating a fake correspondence with her under the guise of a mysterious stranger named Woodrow. While funny at first, Bart slowly learns to sympathise with Edna's predicament, before eventually seeing her crying alone in the restaurant where she'd arranged to meet Woodrow. Tortured by contrition, he finally fixes things by writing a poetic final farewell to her. As heartbreaking endings go, it's right up there with Do It For Her.

Grade School Confidential (1997)

"Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies and I saw one of the babies and the baby looked at me!"

Although Edna might have ended her days married to Ned Flanders – which I'm still coming to, unfortunately – her most enduring adult relationship was with Principal Skinner. Over the years it ossified into an ugly mess of co-dependence and mutual resentment, but their first flush was beautiful. After tentatively revealing their feelings for each other, Krabappel and Skinner are caught kissing by Bart. He ends up acting as their go-between, passing secret messages between to stopped them getting sacked. Bart blows their cover and they are fired, but he feels bad about it and helps to reinstate their jobs. Then they have sex in a cupboard. As I said, it is beautiful.

My Big Fat Geek Wedding (2004)

"Marge, guess what! Skinner wants to bail on his wedding!"

Although Krabappel and Skinner were together for seven years,their relationship was doomed from the outset. How could they not be, where Superintendent Chalmers occupied so much of Skinner's heart? The affair came to a head in 2004, when Edna realised that Skinner had doubts about their impending marriage and ditched him at the alter. Forever a "love the one you're with" kind of girl, Edna immediately embarked on a fling with Comic Book Guy. Eventually she dumped him too, and drifted around alone for the best part of a decade, until ...

The Ned-liest Catch (2011)

"Edna, we can tolerate mild alcoholism, leaving melted cheese in the microwave, even selling As for cigarettes. But, laying a hand on a student, you have crossed the line."

By 2011, The Simpsons had become an upsetting shadow of itself. No matter how you looked at it, it wasn't really The Simpsons that everyone fell in love with. And thus Nedna: the unholy union between Ned Flanders and Edna Krabappel. Not only was this episode where Ned and Edna began dating, but it's also where Edna acted completely out of character and slapped Bart. Nevertheless, a year later Nedna would be married – thanks in part to a vote by the viewers – and now she's become the second Flanders wife to die this century. I always knew Flanders wasn't to be trusted.

Which are your favourite Edna episodes? Let us know below.