Difference between revisions of "Seymour Skinner"

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

Principal W. Seymour Skinner (born July 8th, 1953 in Capital City as Armin Tamzarian^[1][2]) is a fictional character on the animated sitcom The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer. He is of Armenian descent. 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 army, service in the Vietnam War, and experiences as a POW in Vietnam.

Principal Skinner with Groundskeeper Willie and Children

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Role in The Simpsons

Skinner lives in fear of the wrath of his boss, Superintendent Chalmers, a martinet who makes no effort to hide his disapproval of him or give him a fair chance to prove himself.

At one point, Skinner was fired and replaced by Ned Flanders, despite Flanders' thorough lack of administrative skill and experience. During this period Bart actually befriends the unemployed Skinner, telling him about Flanders' lax approach (using the honor system and no formal punishments) and the chaos that ensues. Skinner eventually decides to rejoin the military as a drill sergeant, feeling that he would never be happy doing anything unrelated to administration, and Bart finds that he misses Skinner on two levels: as a friend, but even more as an enemy. While Bart initially enjoys pulling pranks during Flanders' period as principal, he ultimately finds it unfulfilling because the laid-back Flanders lacks Skinner's uptight personality for Bart to play off and ultimately, Bart conspires to return Skinner to his post by having Superintendent Chalmers find out Flanders prays over the loudspeaker to the school, at which point Flanders gets tossed out for violating the separation of church and state.

In the season 2 episode "Principal Charming," Skinner dates Patty Bouvier, who refuses to marry him at the end of the episode, claiming she was too devoted to leave her sister Selma alone, ending the relationship.

In later seasons, Skinner and Edna Krabappel start dating, and they later get engaged. They subsequently break up, although it has been hinted that he still wants her and that they may reunite in the future. He remained a virgin until he started dating Edna Krabappel. He still lives at home with his mother though apparently not by choice, and frequently has flashbacks to the Vietnam War where he spent a grueling eighteen months in a POW camp. On one occasion, while announcing Bart's vulgar Valentine candies, he lapsed into a flashback in which his best friend was killed while writing a Valentine and then cried his friend's name over the school's still-active PA system.

Outside school, Skinner often seems weak-willed and easily suppressed—perhaps because he wants to avoid confrontation—but on one occasion he uses his Vietnam training to beat up (with disturbing efficiency) a lawyer and his two enormous bodyguards who were accusing him of copyright infringement because the school's fair unintentionally ripped off a tagline similar to the Disneyland theme park. He also reveals here that he was apparently a green beret. There are other moments where Skinner uses his military training, which shows that while he may tend to be a pushover, he is quite deadly when angered or cornered, although many never see him this way. He also stands up to Montgomery Burns when Burns tries to get him to cede control of the school's newly discovered oil deposit, but Skinner refused to buckle, only to have Burns steal the oil from under him. Although Skinner was more than happy to let the Army have pre-recruitment activities at SES, he told them "bite me" when they asked if he wanted to re-enlist.

Skinner is sometimes depicted as intelligent as an element of a geek stereotype. He is one of the members of Springfield's branch of Mensa. Skinner was also the only person to ever successfully beat the Blue-Haired Lawyer. He is also a member of Springfield's Cultural Advisory Board. However, when Lisa steals the teacher's editions, he is just as helpless as the teachers, which means that he heavily relied on the books. He is also clueless when it comes to bullies. In "New Kid on the Block", Bart remembers a time when Jimbo was giving him a swirly while Skinner was waiting outside the stall and questioned Jimbo if there was a problem (thinking that Jimbo was just going to the bathroom), since Jimbo had been flushing for twenty minutes. When Jimbo replies "No, Principal Skinner (stupid laugh)", Skinner says, "Alright, I'll continue to wait" and cluelessly begins whistling while the toilet continues to flush. In Bart the General, he also didn't seem to understand that Nelson's line of "I'll meet you on the playground after school" was actually meant to be a threat/fight initiation than an actual meeting.

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 been a prisoner of war (prisoner #24601, the number given by Victor Hugo to the principal character Jean Valjean in Les Miserables and Sideshow Bob as a prisoner), he often goes into flashbacks of how the guards mistreated him. He lives alone with his domineering elderly mother (his father—who bears a resemblance to fake Seymour Skinner, rather than his actual son—died in a parade float accident in 1979, along with Arnie Gumble, Iggy Wiggum, Etch Westgrin and Griff McDonald, all of the Flying Hellfish).

However, 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 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 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.

It is revealed in the episode Pranks and Greens that some 10 years prior, Skinner had actually been an easy going and cool administrator (capable of doing back flips and at the same time playing frisbee with his feet). However, all that changed following a prank performed by a student by the name of Andy Hamilton. At the time, the school had a swimming pool, in which Skinner would swim in every morning before school (and in which Groundskeeper Willie was the swim coach). One morning however, Andy replace the water with worms. Skinner, without looking, dived into the pool, and Andy, using the automatic pool cover, locked Skinner in the worm ridden pool for a long weekend. When Skinner emerged from the pool at last, his once relax personality was replaced with his non-nonsense rule mongering one. He then ordered the swimming pool destroyed and demoted Willie to Groundskeeper.

The nerdy Seymour Skinner has a hobby that is only seen rarely on the TV show: amateur radio. His ham radio callsign was given as WA3QIZ once, while communicating on the radio with Homer, who was at sea.

Character

Creation

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]

Development

In the first few seasons, Skinner resembles Norman Bates, the main character from Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho^[7]In later episodes, Skinner's behavior was based on teachers that Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein had in high school.^[8]

Superintendent Chalmers was introduced in the episode "Whacking Day" as a boss for Skinner and Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria, the voice of Chalmers, fell right into the characters and quite often ad-lib between them.^[9]

Tree House of Horror Death

In Treehouse of Horror XIV Skinners skeletal system is ripped out by the regenerated body of Professor Frink's father.

Episode Appearances

External links

• Principal Seymour Skinner at TheSimpsons.com