Difference between revisions of "Seymour Skinner"

:''For the real Seymour Skinner that appeared in "[[The Principal and the Pauper]]", see: [[Seymour Skinner (real)]]. For other characters named Skinner, see [[:Category:Skinner family|Skinner family]].''

|job = Principal of [[Springfield Elementary]]<br>'''Former:''' Singer<br>Prisoner of War<ref name="The Principal and the Pauper">[[The Principal and the Pauper]]</ref>4th grade science teacher<ref>"[[Bart the Murderer]]"</ref>

|relatives = '''Legal mother:''' [[Agnes Skinner]]<br/>'''Biological father:''' [[Sheldon Skinner]]

'''Walter Seymour Skinner''' (born '''Armin Tamzarian'''), better known as '''Seymour Skinner''' and '''Principal Skinner''', is the interim 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 United States Army as a Green Beret, which included service in the Vietnam War, where he achieved the rank of a sergeant, according to his rank insignia.

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.<ref>[[Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song]]</ref> In an accident involving both Skinner and Chalmers, Chalmers showed grief over Skinner before he realized he was still alive. 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. She addresses him by the nickname "Spanky." Also, it was heavily implied that Seymour Skinner suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder from his days in Vietnam, where he spent 18 months as a prisoner of war.<ref name="The Principal and the Pauper"/> Seeing his entire platoon devoured by an Elephant was one of the many things that led to the development of his posttraumatic stress disorder. Skinner's unhealthy relationship with his mother began early: it is revealed that Agnes's pregnancy resulted in her failing to win a medal at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952.<ref>[[Boy Meets Curl]]</ref> He originally was quite laid back as a principal, even going as far as to do a jumpflip to catch a frisbee while telling a student to keep up with his studies, but it all changed when one of his students, [[Andy Hamilton]], managed to fill the pool with worms and locked Skinner in the pool for the whole weekend, causing him to become serious and almost merciless in his approach on rules, even going as far as to shut down the pool and demoting Willie, the swim teacher, to groundskeeper. When Bart attempted to stop Krusty from diving into a worm filled pool out of fear of Krusty becoming like Skinner, he accidentally blurted what happened to Skinner on the air, causing Skinner to angrily mutter sarcastically that his mother told him that Krusty the Clown was supposed to be a good influence, indicating that he was attempting to repress the traumatic memory. Besides his job as Principal for Springfield Elementary, he also worked as a member of MENSA, and was also the acting referee/a major organizer of the annual Civil War re-enactment of the Battle of Springfield.

At one point, when the Vice President's Assessment Test was coming up, Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers came up with a plan to lure all of the underachievers away from the test day by faking a perfect score on the pretest and then tricking them into going for a Chopper ride to a Pizza Party in Capital City (going as far as to disguise the School Bus as a chopper). However, when the plan reached frutition, Skinner ended up betrayed by Superintendent Chalmers with the latter tricking Skinner into boarding the bus to "get his sunglasses." He then has to get the kids back to the school, and also saved Ralph Wiggum when he somehow managed to board a garbage barge, to which Skinner impresses Bart and the other underachievers by saving Wiggum using the Conservation of Angular Momentum. Luckily for them, the Garbage Barge was also heading to Springfield Elementary, so Skinner reads the newly motivated underachievers the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the rest of the way, and after returning, cancels the Vice President's Test, and also reinstitutes dancing in school.

=== Back-story ===

Skinner's back-story is re-visited, revealing that Skinner is an impostor. Born Armin Tamzarian, it emerges that he was a troubled orphan until he was forced into the United States Army during the Vietnam War. There, he was befriended by Sgt. Seymour Skinner, whom he came to idolize. When Sgt. Seymour Skinner was reported missing presumed dead, Tamzarian returned to Springfield to tell Skinner's mother, but she deliberately mistook him for Seymour, so he assumed his identity and followed Skinner's dream of becoming a school principal.<ref name="The Principal and the Pauper"/> It is revealed that Skinner (AKA Armin Tamzarian) was born in New Orleans. The real Seymour Skinner, had been alive after all, and briefly returned to Springfield to take his rightful place as Springfield Elementary School Principal, but had proved hopelessly unpopular and the Springfielders ran him out of town on the railroad. 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", thus everything returned to normal.<ref name="The Principal and the Pauper"/>

Aside from a short-lived relationship with [[Patty Bouvier]],<ref>[[Principal Charming]]</ref> Skinner's love life has focused on [[Edna Krabappel]]. The two dated for several years and became engaged, but later cancelled the wedding.<ref>[[My Big Fat Geek Wedding]]</ref> 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.<ref>[[Special Edna]]</ref> It was established that Skinner had served as a sergeant in the US Army during the Vietnam War and been captured at the Battle of Khe Sanh. 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.

Skinner wears a blue suit, only one tie (orange), and a lavender shirt. He also wears blue slacks matching his suit. It is sometimes stated that he wears a toupee.

== Non Canon ==

In "[[Treehouse of Horror XIV]]", Skinner's skeletal system is ripped out by the regenerated body of [[Jonathan Frink Sr.|Professor Frink's father]]. In [[Treehouse of Horror V]], Skinner, and the rest of the faculty start eating students, with [[Jimbo Jones]] being the first victim. the last survivors were [[Lisa]], [[Bart]], and [[Milhouse]].

=== Video Games ===

==== The Simpsons: Hit and Run ====

In "[[The Simpsons Hit and Run]]", Homer delivers Lisa her school project, because she has forgotten it. He drives quicker than Skinner to the school. The next day Skinner chases [[Bart]] on his car after he skips school. His [[Agnes Skinner|mother]] can be seen sitting in the back seat. Later, he confiscates a laser gun from [[Bart]] and [[Bart]] has to destroy his car to get it back.

==== The Simpsons Game ====

In "[[The Simpsons Game]]", he hires [[Dolph]], [[Jimbo]] and [[Kearney]] to steal artifacts from the Springfield Museum for the school (as he couldn't get any science stuff the legal way due to lack of funds), till they are stopped by [[Homer]] and [[Bart]]. He also takes part of an angry mob led by [[Marge Simpson]] and [[Lisa Simpson]], recruited near the museum, implying that he was planning another heist when Marge's mob came around the corner.

== Character ==

Principal Skinner first appeared in "[[Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire]]", which was also the first ''Simpsons'' episode to air.<ref name="Roasting">[http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/simpsons/episodeguide/season1/page1.shtml Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire] ''BBC.co.uk''. Retrieved on March 2, 2007</ref> [[Matt Groening]] based him on "all the principals of [his] youth, rolled into one bland lump."<ref name=tvguide>{{cite news|title=Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves|accessdate=2007-08-15|date=2000-10-21|publisher=TV Guide|author=Joe Rhodes}}</ref> Writer [[Jon Vitti]] named him after behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner.<ref name="Reiss1">{{cite video | people=Reiss, Mike|year=2002|title=The Simpsons season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "Principal Charming"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> Skinner was originally supposed to wear a toupee, but it was dropped because the writers didn't like "that type of joke".<ref name="Groening1">{{cite video | people=Groening, Matt|year=2002|title=The Simpsons season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "Principal Charming"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> The Simpsons Guide to Springfield did, however, briefly imply that Skinner did wear a toupee.

In the first few seasons, Skinner resembles Norman Bates, the main character from Alfred Hitchcock's film ''Psycho''<ref>[http://www.simpsonsfolder.com/library/continuity.html Simpsonsfolder.com: Continuity]</ref> In later episodes, Skinner's behavior was based on teachers that [[Bill Oakley]] and [[Josh Weinstein]] had in high school.<ref name="Weinstein1">{{cite video | people=Weinstein, Josh|year=2005|title=The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Badaaasssss Song"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref>  

In the episode "[[The Principal and the Pauper]]", it was revealed that Skinner is actually Armin Tamzarian. Armin was a troubled orphan until he joined the Army and was befriended by [[Seymour Skinner (real)|Sgt. Skinner]], whom he came to idolize. Believing himself responsible for the real Skinner being killed, he returned to Springfield to tell Skinner's mother, but she (deliberately) mistook him for Seymour, and he followed the true Skinner's 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 (this, after the Springfielders ran the real Seymour, voiced by [[Martin Sheen]]—who had been alive after all—out of town by way of railroad).

The episode was negatively received by fans and critics over the sudden change of Skinner's backstory. During an interview, [[Harry Shearer]], the voice of Seymour Skinner publicly criticized the episode. He noted that he told the writers after reading the script: "That's so wrong. You're taking something that an audience has built eight years or nine years of investment in and just tossed it in the trash can for no good reason, for a story we've done before with other characters. It's so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it's disrespectful to the audience." In the introduction to the Season 9 DVD Boxset, [[Matt Groening]] described the episode as his "least favorite" and in a ''Rolling Stones'' interview, he called it a "mistake".

''The Simpsons'' writers have occasionally mocked the inconsistencies in subsequent episodes, it was referenced in "[[Behind the Laughter]]" as a 'far-out plot line' to distract from the family's behind-the-cameras turmoil. When Lisa acquires [[Snowball V]] and declares, "To save money on a new dish, I'll call you [[Snowball II]]." Skinner says, "Isn't that a cheat?" to which Lisa replies, "I guess it is, Principal ''Tamzarian''." Skinner then replies, "I'll just be moving along", nods at Lisa and the new Snowball, and walks off. In the DVD commentary for "The Principal and the Pauper", the producers stated that 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.

*Skinner is right-handed <ref name="Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em">"[[Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em]]"</ref>

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*{{Ep|Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire}}

*{{Ep|Bart the Genius}}

*{{Ep|Bart the General}}

*{{Ep|The Call of the Simpsons}}

*{{Ep|The Telltale Head}}

*{{Ep|Life on the Fast Lane}}

*{{Ep|The Crepes of Wrath}}

*{{Ep|Bart Gets an F}}

*{{Ep|Simpson and Delilah}}

*{{Ep|Dead Putting Society}}

*{{Ep|Bart the Daredevil}}

*{{Ep|Principal Charming}}

*{{Ep|Old Money}}

*{{Ep|The War of the Simpsons}}

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*{{Ep|Bart the Murderer}}

*{{Ep|Homer Defined}}

*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror II}}

*{{Ep|Lisa's Pony}}

*{{Ep|I Married Marge}}

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*{{Ep|Separate Vocations}}

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*{{Ep|Homer the Heretic}}

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*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror III}}

*{{Ep|Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie}}

*{{Ep|Marge Gets a Job}}

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*{{Ep|Marge vs. the Monorail}}

*{{Ep|Selma's Choice}}

*{{Ep|Brother from the Same Planet}}

*{{Ep|I Love Lisa}}

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*{{Ep|Last Exit to Springfield}}

*{{Ep|So It's Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show}}

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*{{Ep|Whacking Day}}

*{{Ep|Marge in Chains}}

*{{Ep|Krusty Gets Kancelled}}

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*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror IV}}

*{{Ep|Marge on the Lam}}

*{{Ep|Bart's Inner Child}}

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*{{Ep|The Last Temptation of Homer}}

*{{Ep|$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)}}

*{{Ep|Homer the Vigilante}}

*{{Ep|Bart Gets Famous}}

*{{Ep|Homer and Apu}}

*{{Ep|Homer Loves Flanders}}

*{{Ep|Bart Gets an Elephant}}

*{{Ep|Burns' Heir}}

*{{Ep|Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song}}

*{{Ep|The Boy Who Knew Too Much}}

*{{Ep|Lady Bouvier's Lover}}

*{{Ep|Secrets of a Successful Marriage}}

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*{{Ep|Lisa's Rival}}

*{{Ep|Another Simpsons Clip Show}}

*{{Ep|Sideshow Bob Roberts}}

*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror V}}

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*{{Ep|A Star is Burns}}

*{{Ep|Lisa's Wedding}}

*{{Ep|Two Dozen and One Greyhounds}}

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*{{Ep|Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)}}

*{{Ep|Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)}}

*{{Ep|Radioactive Man}}

*{{Ep|Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily}}

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*{{Ep|Team Homer}}

*{{Ep|Scenes From the Class Struggle in Springfield}}

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*{{Ep|Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in the Curse of the Flying Hellfish}}

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*{{Ep|The Old Man and the Lisa}}

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*{{Ep|The Principal and the Pauper}}

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*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror VIII }}

*{{Ep|The Cartridge Family}}

*{{Ep|Lisa the Skeptic}}

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*{{Ep|Miracle on Evergreen Terrace}}

*{{Ep|All Singing, All Dancing}}

*{{Ep|Bart Carny}}

*{{Ep|The Joy of Sect}}

*{{Ep|Das Bus}}

*{{Ep|The Last Temptation of Krust}}

*{{Ep|Lisa the Simpson}}

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*{{Ep|The Trouble With Trillions}}

*{{Ep|Girly Edition}}

*{{Ep|Natural Born Kissers}}

*{{Ep|Lard of the Dance}}

*{{Ep|Bart the Mother}}

*{{Ep|D'oh-in in the Wind}}

*{{Ep|Lisa Gets an A}}

*{{Ep|Mayored to the Mob}}

*{{Ep|Wild Barts Can't Be Broken}}

*{{Ep|Sunday, Cruddy Sunday}}

*{{Ep|I'm with Cupid}}

*{{Ep|Marge Simpson in Screaming Yellow Honkers}}

*{{Ep|Make Room for Lisa}}

*{{Ep|Simpsons Bible Stories}}

*{{Ep|Mom and Pop Art}}

*{{Ep|The Old Man and the "C" Student}}

*{{Ep|They Saved Lisa's Brain}}

*{{Ep|Brother's Little Helper}}

*{{Ep|Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner}}

*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror X}}

*{{Ep|E-I-E-I-D'oh}}

*{{Ep|Take My Wife, Sleaze}}

*{{Ep|Grift of the Magi}}

*{{Ep|Alone Again, Natura-Diddly}}

*{{Ep|Last Tap Dance in Springfield}}

*{{Ep|It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Marge}}

*{{Ep|Behind the Laughter}}

*{{Ep|A Tale of Two Springfields}}

*{{Ep|Homer vs. Dignity}}

*{{Ep|The Computer Wore Menace Shoes}}

*{{Ep|The Great Money Caper}}

*{{Ep|Skinner's Sense of Snow}}

*{{Ep|HOMЯ}}

*{{Ep|Pokey Mom}}

*{{Ep|Worst Episode Ever}}

*{{Ep|Day of the Jackanapes}}

*{{Ep|New Kids on the Blecch}}

*{{Ep|Hungry Hungry Homer}}

*{{Ep|Bye Bye Nerdie}}

*{{Ep|I'm Goin' to Praiseland}}

*{{Ep|Children of a Lesser Clod}}

*{{Ep|Simpsons Tall Tales}}

*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror XII}}

*{{Ep|The Parent Rap}}

*{{Ep|Brawl in the Family}}

*{{Ep|Sweets and Sour Marge}}

*{{Ep|The Bart Wants What It Wants}}

*{{Ep|The Lastest Gun in the West}}

*{{Ep|Tales From the Public Domain}}

*{{Ep|I Am Furious Yellow}}

*{{Ep|The Sweetest Apu}}

*{{Ep|Little Girl in the Big Ten}}

*{{Ep|The Frying Game}}

*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror XIII}}

*{{Ep|Lost Verizon}}

*{{Ep|Gone Maggie Gone}}

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*{{Ep|Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh}}

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*{{Ep|Moms I'd Like to Forget}}

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*{{Ep|The Ned-Liest Catch}}

*{{Ep|Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts}}

*{{Ep|Replaceable You}}

*{{bon|Spree For All}}

*{{bk|Bart Simpson's Guide to Life}}

*{{bk|Simpsons World The Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1-20}}

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