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Seymour Skinner |
| The Simpsons character | |
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| Seymour Skinner | |
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Job | Principal of Springfield Elementary School |
| Relatives | Quasi-adoptive mother: Agnes Quasi-adoptive father: Sheldon Skinner (deceased) |
| Voice actor | Harry Shearer |
| First appearance | |
| The Simpsons | Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire |
Principal W. Seymour Skinner (born in Capitol City as Armin Tamzarian)[1][2] is a fictional character on the animated sitcom The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer. He is the principal of Springfield Elementary School, and a stereotypical educational bureaucrat. He struggles to control the crumbling school and is constantly engaged in a battle against its inadequate resources, apathetic and bitter teachers, and often rowdy and unenthusiastic students, Bart Simpson being a standout example. A strict disciplinarian, Skinner has an uptight, militaristic attitude that stems from his years in the U.S.Army as a Green Beret, which included service in the Vietnam War and experiences as a prisoner of war after being captured at the Battle of Khe Sanh.
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Principal Skinner first appeared in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which was also the first Simpsons episode to air.[3] Matt Groening based him on "all the principals of [his] youth, rolled into one bland lump".[4] Writer Jon Vitti named him after behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner.[5] Skinner was originally supposed to wear a toupee, but it was dropped because the writers didn't like "that type of joke".[6]
In the first few seasons, Skinner resembles Norman Bates, the main character from Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho.citation needed In later episodes, Skinner's behavior was based on teachers that Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein had in high school.[7]
Superintendent Chalmers was introduced in the episode "Whacking Day" as a boss for Skinner. Harry Shearer and Dan Castellanetta, the voice of Chalmers, fell right into the characters and quite often ad-lib between them.[8]
Out of genuine concern for the quality of education of his students, most of Skinner's actions revolve around ensuring the school has adequate funding. His constant desperate, and usually ineffective attempts at maintaining discipline are an effort to receive good reviews from the frequent inspections of his very strict boss, Superintendent Chalmers - who makes no effort to hide his disapproval of Skinner. These inspections usually turn awry due to Bart Simpson's elaborate pranks - which play off Skinner's desperation for order. Over the years of pranks and inspections, though, Skinner has developed a love-hate relationship with each of them; when Skinner was fired and replaced by Ned Flanders, Bart found pranks less meaningful, due to Flanders' lax approach to discipline.[9] In an accident involving both Skinner and Chalmers, Chalmers showed grief over Skinner before he realized he was still alive.[10]Although he likes to maintain the image of a strict disciplinarian,He is often weak-willed and nervous and has a very unhealthy dependence on his mother who constantly makes demands from him. In an early episode, she addresses him by the nickname "Spanky".[11]
Aside from a short-lived relationship with Patty Bouvier,[12] Skinner's love-life has focused on Edna Krabappel. The two dated for several years and became engaged,[13] but later cancelled the wedding.[14] Edna has shown she does want to live a life with Skinner, but first wants him to commit to her - namely by not letting his mother, with whom he still lives, control him anymore. Skinner often seems weak-willed and easily suppressed — perhaps because he wants to avoid confrontation — but often will use his military command experience gained in the Vietnam War to get real respect and discipline; when he and the students were snowed-in at the school, he treated them like his squad to control the chaos temporarily - before they mutinied.[15] Having been a prisoner of war, Skinner's experiences have also left him with Posttraumatic stress disorder, of which he sometimes loses control.
Another profound part of his wartime-experiences was revealed in "The Principal and the Pauper" - Skinner is actually Armin Tamzarian. Armin was a troubled orphan until he joined the Army during the Vietnam War and was befriended by Sgt. Seymour Skinner, whom he came to idolize. When the real Skinner was reported missing presumed dead, Tamzarian returned to Springfield to tell Skinner's mother, but she (deliberately) mistook him for Seymour, and he assumed Skinner's identity, following his dream of becoming a school principal. At the end of the episode, Judge Snyder granted Tamzarian Skinner's "name, and his past, present, future, and mother," and decreed that no one will mention his true identity again under penalty of torture. The real Seymour Skinner (voiced by Martin Sheen), who had been alive after all, had briefly returned to Springfield to take his rightful place as Elementary School Principal, but had proved hopelessly unpopular due to his old-fashioned views, his social ineptitude and his lack of respect for his mother: the Springfielders ran him out of town on the railroad.
The Simpsons writers have occasionally mocked the inconsistencies; in the DVD commentary for "The Principal and the Pauper", the producers stated they intended for the episode's ending to reset the continuity to before Skinner was revealed to be Tamzarian. As such, they said, fans could dismiss the discontinuities created by the notion that Skinner is actually an impostor and consider the episode on its own terms, divorced from the rest of the series.[16]
Although the Simpsons creators declare that this story was based on the case of the Tichborne claimant, Arthur Orton, similarities to the story of Martin Guerre related in the French 1982 movie Le Retour de Martin Guerre (Screenplay: Jean-Claude Carrière and Natalie Zemon Davis) or its American 1993 remake Sommersby (Screenplay: Sarah Kernochan and Nicholas Meyers) are also readily apparent.citation needed
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