Difference between revisions of "Nick Riviera"

Revision as of 13:53, August 11, 2008

Nick Riviera, M.D. (voiced by Hank Azaria) is a character in theThe Simpsons. Nick is a quack physician (although he claims to be "just as good as Dr. Hibbert"), and a satirical character representing doctors who studied at dubious medical schools.

Profile

Riviera is of Latino descent (in the European Spanish dub he's given an Argentinian accent) and has a medical degree from Hollywood Upstairs Medical College (where he apparently spent much of his time using his ability to acquire prescription drugs to impress a succession of attractive women back in the 1970s), and a great deal of luck. Thus far, none of the patients he has swindled, maimed, or given useless or dangerous medical advice seems to have sued him (although a few have come after him in person. For example in "Homer's Triple Bypass" a large angry man grabs him, and Nick says "Well if it isn't my old friend Mr. McGregg — with a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg"; the man literally has an arm where a leg should be and a leg where an arm should be). Dr. Nick is a stereotype of shady, immoral doctors who perform medical procedures for money with little or no regard for medical ethics, or their patients' well-being. In "The Girl Who Slept Too Little" he is seen digging up corpses in the graveyard for body parts, presumably to use in operations on patients. In the episode "Much Apu About Nothing", he is seen taking a citizenship test, implying he is not a citizen of the United States. Some of his exclamations hint that he may be Argentinian, though the show has offered no direct evidence of this.

In the episode "Bart Gets Hit by a Car", his degrees read "Mayo Clinic Correspondence School", "Club Med School", "Female Body Inspector" and "I went to medical school for four years and all I got was this lousy diploma". He frequently appears on infomercials, pitching all sorts of bizarre medical offers, and has often turned his operations into TV spectacles. He is also shown as an inventor/huckster (in the style of Ron Popeil) on the television show I Can't Believe They Invented It! His "Walk-In Clinic" is based at 44 Bow Street. Its phone number is 555-NICK. He can also be called at 1-600-DOCTORB ("The B is for 'Bargain'")

He has operated on the Simpson family a couple of times (when they cannot afford Doctor Hibbert) notably when Homer needed a heart bypass. Lisa Simpson attended the live audience for the operation and saved the day by guiding the obviously clueless Dr. Riviera through the operation. He also worked with Doctor Hibbert as annesthesiologist during Bart's appendectomy but was of little help as he first failed to anesthetize Bart and subsequently passed out from the leaking gas.

Death

In The Simpsons Movie, Dr. Riviera is impaled by a large shard of glass and says, in his normal voice, "Hello everybody!" and then passes out. James L. Brooks and Al Jean have confirmed that Dr. Riviera is dead^[1], but will be brought back to life "à la Dr. Marvin Monroe".

Creation

The character design is based somewhat on Gábor Csupó, of Klasky Csupo studios, who was originally from Hungary – the animators mistakenly believed Hank Azaria was impersonating Gabor, when in fact the voice was actually a bad imitation of Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy.^[2]

Catchphrase

Dr. Nick is notable for his exclamation upon entering a room of “Hi, everybody!”, which is immediately followed by a response of “Hi, Dr. Nick!” from the other characters present with varying degrees of enthusiasm. There was an Austrian version of Dr. Riviera in the episode "Margical History Tour", where he portrays the doctor of the ailing Mozart, played by Bart, and his exclamation is "Guten Tag, everybody!" Another variation is an episode where Mel Gibson says, "Hi, everybody!" and Dr. Nick responds with "Hi, Mr. Gibson." Another episode featured a Jewish version of Dr. Nick during Homer's flashback to the first Christmas. Dr. Nick says: "Shalom, everybody!" In Lisa the Simpson Dr. Nick greets a refrigerated Jasper Beardly with "Hi frozen body!" when entering the Kwik-E-Mart.

Cultural influence

In a tongue-in-cheek analysis the Canadian Medical Association Journal compared the services of Dr. Hibbert and Dr. Nick.^[3] It concludes that Dr. Nick is a better role model for physicians; Dr. Hibbert is a paternalistic and wasteful physician, unlike Dr. Nick, who strives to cut costs and does his best to avoid the coroner, proving Marge's claim wrong that he isn't a doctor at all.