The Simpsons: Springfield Elementary

By Wikipedia

In the television series The Simpsons, the Springfield Elementary School is the school which Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson and their fellow students attend.

Its principal is Seymour Skinner, and its superintendent is Superintendent Chalmers (with his assistant Leopold). The school's teachers include Miss Elizabeth Hoover, Dewey Largo, Edna Krabappel, and Mrs. Stone. The other staff include Otto Mann, Groundskeeper Willie (sometimes spelled Willy), and Lunchlady Doris. Children at the school include Nelson Muntz, Jimbo Jones, Kearney, Wendell and Üter.

W. Seymour Skinner

Voiced by Harry Shearer, Skinner is the prototypical educational bureaucrat, constantly concerned with a low-grade battle against the school's inadequate resources, apathetic, bitter teachers, and largely rowdy and unenthusiastic students--Bart being the standout example. Skinner often tries to exploit Lisa's genius to make the school look good. His father fought on Abe Simpson's World War Two squad.

Seymour Skinner's personal history, like that of many Simpsons characters, is somewhat convoluted. It was long known that he was a Vietnam War veteran, having served as a POW for many years (he often goes into lapses on how he was mistreated). He leads the life of a bachelor, living alone with his domineering elderly mother (his father having passed away). However, in an episode devoted to filling in the character's backstory, it was revealed that Skinner actually is an impostor, having stolen the identity of his platoon sergeant at the end of the war. Seymour's real name is Armin Tamzarian and he was a troublesome orphan until he joined the military. Believing the real Skinner to have been killed, Tamzarian returned to Springfield and assumed his identity to comfort his mother. However, at the end of the episode, Judge Snyder granted Tamzarian Skinner's name, past, present, future, and mother, and decreed that no one should mention his real identity again under penalty of torture. This storyline bears some resemblance to the tale of Martin Guerre. Many fans consider this to be one of the worse episodes ever. The Simpsons writers have mocked the subsequent inconsistencies themselves in later episodes, most notably when Lisa buys Snowball IV but says that "To save money on a new dish, I'll call you Snowball II." Skinner walks and claims "Isn't that a cheat?", to which Lisa replies "I don't know, Principal Tamzarian."

In the first few seasons, Skinner resembled Norman Bates, the main character from the Hitchcock film Psycho. Though this has been dropped, there are still hints, such as the house he lives in and his overbearing mother.

In later seasons Skinner and Edna Krabappel started dating, and later got engaged. Later again they broke up, although it has been hinted that he still wants her and they may get back together in the future. He still lives at home with his mother, Agnes Skinner.

Also, Principal Skinner bears a striking resemblance to principal Richard Vernon from the movie The Breakfast Club.

His age has been referred to twice. Bart Simpson stated his age as 40, whereas Kent Brockman says he is 44.

Superintendent Chalmers

Chalmers, voiced by Hank Azaria, is the superintendent of Springfield's school district. Whenever he visits the school, some sort of disaster strikes. He produces extreme cases of anxiety in Principal Skinner, who offers increasingly improbable stories to explain what is happening. Chalmers is known for yelling "SKINN-ER!!". In several episodes, he was seen dating Agnes Skinner (much to Seymour's dismay), although he is married.

Leopold

Voiced by Dan Castellaneta, Leopold was Superintendent Chalmers' assistant. He was a surly, snarling one-trick pony; when Principal Skinner had to be temporarily replaced, Leopold stomped in, issued vague threats and terrified the children, making them think he was the replacement, and then suddenly and politely introduced the actual substitute. The children then collectively sighed with relief.

Teachers:

Edna Krabappel

Voiced by Marcia Wallace, Edna Krabappel is a sterotypical "downtrodden schoolteacher" who has had any idealism that she ever had beaten out of her by the sad realities of resource hungry schools and misbehaving children. Despite holding a Master's degree from Bryn Mawr College, she seems poorly educated, a caricature of American public school teachers, as evidenced by the episode when Lisa steals all the teacher's manuals and the teachers are unable to do any work.

Edna teaches Bart Simpson, Milhouse van Houten, and Martin Prince, among others.

Edna is separated from her husband, who ran off with their marriage counselor. As a result, she severely misses male company, and it is occasionally implied that she feels her biological clock ticking. In early episodes she is portrayed as very sexually aggressive: in the episode Flaming Moe, she tried to pick up both the drummer from Aerosmith and Homer Simpson, even after learning that he was married. In later episodes, though, she develops a secret, but seemingly stable, romantic relationship with Seymour Skinner, the school's principal, which almost makes it to the altar. This is one of the exceedingly few cases where Simpsons characters have apparently undergone personal evolution within the show's history. However, she's also been seen gadding about with Apu, Sideshow Bob, and Comic Book Guy. She also fell victim to one of Bart Simpson's pranks when he pretended to be Woodrow in the episode "Bart the Lover".

Her last name is pronounced /kra'bɑpəl/," a play on the fruit "crabapple." Matt Groening admitted in a commentary on the DVD of the first season, it was meant to be a joke that no one called her "crabapple," and indeed no one did-until the real Seymour Skinner came along (see above) and then Milhouse did it once in the fifteenth season (2003-04). Chief Wiggum also once said, upon hearing her name spoken: "Really? I always thought it was crabapple..."

Elizabeth Hoover

Voiced by Maggie Roswell, Miss Hoover has been worn down by her years in the public school system, and is not against drinking significant quantities of alcohol. She is very apathetic and bored with her job. She is often seen smoking even while teaching.

She is in particular weary of dealing with Lisa's unbridled enthusiasm and Ralph's mishaps and inanities. She was replaced by a substitute teacher, Mr. Bergstrom, played by Dustin Hoffman when she thought she had Lyme disease. It turned out that she was psychosomatic, which, the children correctly guessed, meant that she was both "faking it," and "crazy."

Dewey Largo

Dewey Largo is the music teacher, whom Lisa credited with proving that any piece of music could have the soul sucked out of it.

Staff:

Otto Mann

Voiced by Harry Shearer, Otto is the school bus driver. He is notable for his occasional maniacal driving style, his love of heavy metal, and his propensity for sounding and acting like a perpetual '70s teenager, and is a bit of a stoner. He has also been seen at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings: "My name is Otto, and I love to get blotto!" He is often homeless, having been evicted from his apartment and forced to live with the Simpsons in one episode, and found squatting in the Simpsons' recently-vacated home in another.

His father is an admiral, and the two do not get along. There have been suggestions that this is a reference to Jim Morrison of The Doors, whose father was also an admiral.

In at least one episode, Otto's last name is 'Mechanic'. In one episode, Otto was engaged to be married, but when forced to choose between his fiancée and his music; he preferred the latter, dumping her. Once, Otto claimed to have been trained as a “certified blood-letting-tech-dude”.

Otto is also the only adult working at Springfield Elementary who gets along well with the students. Bart, in particular, thinks Otto is "the coolest adult [he's] ever met". When he tells Otto this, Otto responds, "Wow! I've never been called an adult before! I've been tried as one, though..."

Otto used to take medicinal marijuana. When he was under the influence, he stated that "Shemp" was "hemp" spelled backwards. Then Homer pointed out that "Otto" was "Otto" spelled backwards, which scared him.

According to Otto's drivers' license, he was born on January 18, 1963, he is 5'10", and weighs 150 lbs.

Groundskeeper Willie

Voiced by Dan Castellaneta, Willie is the school's groundskeeper, with flaming red hair and an outrageously exaggerated Scottish accent. His years of heavy work have given him an amazingly muscled physique, occasionally revealed, notably when he had to crawl through ventilation shafts to retrieve Santa's Little Helper. Needing some assistance to get through the narrow tunnels, he turns to Lunchlady Doris to coat him with oil, with the memorable lines, "Lunchlady Doris, have you got any grease?" She replies by saying, "Yes. Yes we do." Willie bellows "Then grease me up, woman!" as he dramatically tears his shirt open, to which she replies, "Okey-dokey."

Sometimes, Willie wears a kilt. He does not however wear anything under the kilt - the mark of a true Scotsman. At Scotchtoberfest, Bart attaches a number of balloons to Willie's kilt. This led to the kilt flying up. The gathered crowd gasped, and one woman fainted. In response, Willie cried, "Ach! 'Tis no more than what God gave me, you puritan pukes!"

In the second part of "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", Willie has his kilt on while being interviewed by the police. During the interview Willie uncrosses and then recrosses his legs. In response, the officers point a gun at Willie with a warning to stop doing that. The scene was a spoof of Sharon Stone's interrogation scene from the film Basic Instinct.

In the episode "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", Willie is re-united with his mother and father on the banks of Loch Ness, Scotland, where Mr. Burns leads a successful expedition to catch the Loch Ness Monster - Nessie - and bring it to Springfield.

According to Superintendent Chalmers, Willie is an escaped patient from a mental hospital that Skinner hired. According to Willie, he has worked at the school for 20 years, just as long as Principal Skinner, so he was likely hired soon after Skinner got his job.

At one time, Willie was engaged to Shary Bobbins (a parody of Mary Poppins), until she recovered her eyesight at which point, in Willie's words, "suddenly the ugliest man in Glasgow wasn't good enough for [her] anymore."

Willie's hobbies include videotaping couples in cars, something which proves to the benefit of Homer Simpson when he is later wrongfully accused of sexual harassment. He says America thinks it's wrong but every Scotsman does it.

Willie's nationality is also hinted to be the cause of his hostility. Example:

Willie: "Brothers and sisters are natural born enemies! Like Englishmen and Scots! And Welshmen and Scots! And Japanese and Scots! And Scots and other Scots! Lousy Scots! They ruin Scotland..."

Skinner: "You Scots sure are a contentious people."

Willie: "You just made an enemy for life!"

It was recently revealed that Willie's personal enemy is another Groundskeeper that speaks with a heavy Irish accent: Seamus.

When Homer pretended to be a Scot and said to Willie that he was from "North Kilt-Town," Willie responded: "Noo fooling, I'm from North Kilt town too! You know Angus Macleod?" This goes on until Homer accuses Willie of not being Scottish, and Willie surprisingly agrees.

Lunchlady Doris

Voiced by Doris Grau, Lunchlady Doris is the overweight, middle-aged, and laconic worker at the cafeteria. It was occasionally intimated that she and Groundskeeper Willie are romantically involved. She has served many weird things to the students, including whole beef hearts, horse testicles ("more testicles means more iron"), Grade-F meat ("Mostly circus animals, some filler"), rat's milk, ground newspapers, and ground-up gym mats ("There's very little meat in these gym mats.") After Doris Grau died, the character of Lunchlady Doris was retired out of respect. However, Doris has since been seen in crowds and groups of other faculty members. It was implied in one episode that she is the mother of the Squeaky Voiced Teen.

Students:

Bullies

There are a number of bullies at the Springfield school.

• Nelson Muntz (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) takes delight in the pain of others, but is arguably the least cruel of the bullies. He is notorious for his unabashed displays of schadenfreude, invariably accompanied by his trademark "Ha ha!" laugh. He is also a fan of Andy Williams. He lives with his mom, who got fired from Hooters, and is very poor. Nelson's dad appeared to have left after saying that he was going to the store. In some episodes, however, Nelson's father is still around to raise him: in one episode, he is Nelson's soccer coach. However, Nelson's dad returned in the 16th season. As it turned out, his dad took a bite out of a chocolate bar, not knowing it had peanuts and had an allergic reaction. He ran out of the store and ran into a circus, who mistook him for a freak, taking him along for years. It is assumed that Nelson, unlike his peers Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney, is actually a sensitive boy who was raised in the wrong circumstances. So far the only two people to notice this are Marge, who played surrogate mother to him in one episode, and Lisa, who dated him briefly.
• Weasel #1 and Weasel #2 are Nelson's cronies from the episode "Bart the General". They have made a number of background appearances since then.
• Jimbo Jones (voiced by Pamela Hayden) wears a toque and a black T-shirt with a skull on it. He enjoys torturing his schoolmates and shoplifting. In one episode it is hinted that he comes from a well-off family. In another episode Jimbo becomes the boyfriend of Bart's babysitter Laura Powers (voiced by Sara Gilbert), whom Bart had a crush on. In one of the Halloween editions, he was turned into hamburger patties by Principal Skinner.
• Kearney (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) is a pudgy kid with a disarming habit of punching his fist into his other hand. Although he appears to be of similar age to Bart, he can drive, has dated Jimbo's mother (though he insists she initiated the affair), and has been seen shaving and has a young son (who sleeps in a drawer). He is said to have witnessed the Bicentennial of the United States and remembering the mood of the country following Watergate, making him at least in his late twenties to early thirties. His father used to work at KFC. In an episode where Professor Frink's astrology machine is used, he is the principal.
• Dolph (voiced by Tress MacNeille) is another bully who is rarely seen without Jimbo and/or Kearney. One of his eyes is usually covered by his long hair.
• Francine (voiced by guest star Kathy Griffin) is a girl who bullied Lisa in the episode "Bye Bye Nerdie".
• Sarah (voiced by Russi Taylor) is a girl who pushes Lisa over in the episode "Lisa's Rival".
• Several unnamed girls play keepaway with Lisa's prescription shoes in the episode "Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily".

Other students

• Üter is the German foreign exchange student, with odd habits such as offering his already-licked lollipops to others as a sign of friendship, and eating marzipan candies fortified with iodine. He disappeared for a period of time after the Civil War field trip, when the people running the reenactment they visited noticed that the students had snuck in and gave chase. Üter was left behind to be clubbed with the butts of the faux rifles that the men reenacting the Civil War were wielding. Although a joke was made of this event in a later episode, with Üter's parents asking Skinner where their missing son was, he has since reappeared, alive and plump. In the German version of the show Üter is an exchange student from Switzerland; Üter's lederhosen, his frequent references to chocolate, and his name suggest a Swiss rather than a German origin.

• Ralph Wiggum, son of Chief Clancy Wiggum. He is considered by many to be psychologically abnormal.

• Sherri and Terri, twin sisters. They are an annoyance to Bart and bother him constantly.

• Milhouse Van Houten, Bart's best friend. There is a running joke that he is gay, despite the fact that he has a crush on Lisa.

• Martin Prince, an exceptionally outstanding fourth grader. Martin Prince would have been assessed to be a genius, had Bart not switched their I.Q. tests. He was a reporter for The Fourth Gradian. He was also the student body president until one of his fundraisers ended in a disaster.

• Wendell, a pale kid who vomits easily. He voted for Martin Prince in the class presidential election that featured Martin and Bart Simpson as the front-runners.

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