- 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.
- "Young man, I'm going to be on you like a numerator on a denominator."
- ―Skinner[src]
| Seymour Skinner
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| Character Information
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W. Seymour Skinner, formerly Armin Tamzarian, 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.
Principal Skinner with Groundskeeper Willie and Children
Biography
An unborn Seymour Skinner
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.[2] 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.[1] 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.[3] 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.[1] 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.[1]
Romantic Relationships
Aside from a short-lived relationship with Patty Bouvier,[4] Skinner's love life has focused on Edna Krabappel. The two dated for several years and became engaged, but later cancelled the wedding.[5] 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.[6] 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.
Appearance
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
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The contents of this article or section are considered to be non-canon and therefore may not have actually happened or existed.
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Treehouse of Horror
In "Treehouse of Horror XIV", Skinner's skeletal system is ripped out by the regenerated body of 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 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
Creation
Principal Skinner first appeared in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which was also the first Simpsons episode to air.[7] Matt Groening based him on "all the principals of [his] youth, rolled into one bland lump."[8] Writer Jon Vitti named him after behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner.[9] Skinner was originally supposed to wear a toupee, but it was dropped because the writers didn't like "that type of joke".[10] The Simpsons Guide to Springfield did, however, briefly imply that Skinner did wear a toupee.
Development
In the first few seasons, Skinner resembles Norman Bates, the main character from Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho[11] In later episodes, Skinner's behavior was based on teachers that Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein had in high school.[12]
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.[13]
The Principal and the Pauper
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 episode was negatively received by fans and critics over the sudden change of Skinner's backstory.Harry Shearer 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.
Trivia
- Skinner's prisoner of war ID number was 24601.
- Skinner is right-handed [14]
Appearances
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Please improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page.
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 Episode – "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" - Episode – "Bart the Genius"
- Episode – "Bart the General"
- Episode – "The Call of the Simpsons"
- Episode – "The Telltale Head"
- Episode – "Life on the Fast Lane"
- Episode – "The Crepes of Wrath"
- Episode – "Bart Gets an F"
- Episode – "Simpson and Delilah"
- Episode – "Dead Putting Society"
- Episode – "Bart the Daredevil"
- Episode – "Principal Charming"
- Episode – "Old Money"
- Episode – "The War of the Simpsons"
- Episode – "Lisa's Substitute"
- Episode – "Bart the Murderer"
- Episode – "Homer Defined"
 THOH – "Treehouse of Horror II" - Episode – "Lisa's Pony"
- Episode – "I Married Marge"
- Episode – "Radio Bart"
- Episode – "Lisa the Greek"
- Episode – "Homer Alone"
- Episode – "Homer at the Bat"
- Episode – "Separate Vocations"
- Episode – "Kamp Krusty"
- Episode – "A Streetcar Named Marge"
- Episode – "Homer the Heretic"
- Episode – "Lisa the Beauty Queen"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror III"
- Episode – "Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie"
- Episode – "Marge Gets a Job"
- Episode – "New Kid on the Block"
- Episode – "Mr. Plow"
- Episode – "Homer's Triple Bypass"
- Episode – "Marge vs. the Monorail"
- Episode – "Selma's Choice"
- Episode – "Brother from the Same Planet"
- Episode – "I Love Lisa"
- Episode – "Duffless"
- Episode – "Last Exit to Springfield"
- Episode – "So It's Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show"
- Episode – "the Front"
- Episode – "Whacking Day"
- Episode – "Marge in Chains"
- Episode – "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
- Episode – "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"
- Episode – "Cape Feare"
- Episode – "Rosebud"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror IV"
- Episode – "Marge on the Lam"
- Episode – "Bart's Inner Child"
- Episode – "Boy-Scoutz N the Hood"
- Episode – "The Last Temptation of Homer"
- Episode – "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)"
- Episode – "Homer the Vigilante"
- Episode – "Bart Gets Famous"
- Episode – "Homer and Apu"
- Episode – "Homer Loves Flanders"
- Episode – "Bart Gets an Elephant"
- Episode – "Burns' Heir"
- Episode – "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song"
- Episode – "The Boy Who Knew Too Much"
- Episode – "Lady Bouvier's Lover"
- Episode – "Secrets of a Successful Marriage"
- Episode – "Bart of Darkness"
- Episode – "Lisa's Rival"
- Episode – "Another Simpsons Clip Show"
- Episode – "Sideshow Bob Roberts"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror V"
- Episode – "Lisa on Ice"
- Episode – "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy"
- Episode – "Homer the Great"
- Episode – "Bart's Comet"
- Episode – "Homer vs. Patty and Selma"
- Episode – "A Star is Burns"
- Episode – "Lisa's Wedding"
- Episode – "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds"
- Episode – "The PTA Disbands"
- Episode – "'Round Springfield"
- Episode – "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)"
- Episode – "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)"
- Episode – "Radioactive Man"
- Episode – "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily"
- Episode – "Mother Simpson"
- Episode – "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming"
- Episode – "Marge Be Not Proud"
- Episode – "Team Homer"
- Episode – "Scenes From the Class Struggle in Springfield"
- Episode – "Bart the Fink"
- Episode – "Lisa the Iconoclast"
- Episode – "The Day the Violence Died"
- Episode – "A Fish Called Selma"
- Episode – "Bart on the Road"
- Episode – "22 Short Films About Springfield"
- Episode – "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in the Curse of the Flying Hellfish"
- Episode – "Much Apu About Nothing"
- Episode – "Summer of 4 Ft. 2"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror VII"
- Episode – "You Only Move Twice"
- Episode – "Bart After Dark"
- Episode – "A Milhouse Divided"
- Episode – "Lisa's Date With Destiny"
- Episode – "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson"
- Episode – "Homer's Phobia"
- Episode – "Brother from Another Series"
- Episode – "My Sister, My Sitter"
- Episode – "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment"
- Episode – "Grade School Confidential"
- Episode – "The Old Man and the Lisa"
- Episode – "In Marge We Trust"
- Episode – "Homer's Enemy"
- Episode – "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"
- Episode – "The Principal and the Pauper"
- Episode – "Lisa's Sax"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror VIII "
- Episode – "The Cartridge Family"
- Episode – "Lisa the Skeptic"
- Episode – "Realty Bites"
- Episode – "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace"
- Episode – "All Singing, All Dancing"
- Episode – "Bart Carny"
- Episode – "The Joy of Sect"
- Episode – "Das Bus"
- Episode – "The Last Temptation of Krust"
- Episode – "Lisa the Simpson"
- Episode – "This Little Wiggy"
- Episode – "Simpson Tide"
- Episode – "The Trouble With Trillions"
- Episode – "Girly Edition"
- Episode – "Natural Born Kissers"
- Episode – "Lard of the Dance"
- Episode – "Bart the Mother"
- Episode – "D'oh-in in the Wind"
- Episode – "Lisa Gets an A"
- Episode – "Mayored to the Mob"
- Episode – "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken"
- Episode – "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday"
- Episode – "I'm with Cupid"
- Episode – "Marge Simpson in Screaming Yellow Honkers"
- Episode – "Make Room for Lisa"
- Episode – "Simpsons Bible Stories"
- Episode – "Mom and Pop Art"
- Episode – "The Old Man and the "C" Student"
- Episode – "They Saved Lisa's Brain"
- Episode – "Brother's Little Helper"
- Episode – "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror X"
- Episode – "E-I-E-I-D'oh"
- Episode – "Take My Wife, Sleaze"
- Episode – "Grift of the Magi"
- Episode – "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly"
- Episode – "Last Tap Dance in Springfield"
- Episode – "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Marge"
- Episode – "Behind the Laughter"
- Episode – "A Tale of Two Springfields"
- Episode – "Homer vs. Dignity"
- Episode – "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes"
- Episode – "The Great Money Caper"
- Episode – "Skinner's Sense of Snow"
- Episode – "HOMЯ"
- Episode – "Pokey Mom"
- Episode – "Worst Episode Ever"
- Episode – "Day of the Jackanapes"
- Episode – "New Kids on the Blecch"
- Episode – "Hungry Hungry Homer"
- Episode – "Bye Bye Nerdie"
- Episode – "I'm Goin' to Praiseland"
- Episode – "Children of a Lesser Clod"
- Episode – "Simpsons Tall Tales"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XII"
- Episode – "The Parent Rap"
- Episode – "Brawl in the Family"
- Episode – "Sweets and Sour Marge"
- Episode – "The Bart Wants What It Wants"
- Episode – "The Lastest Gun in the West"
- Episode – "Tales From the Public Domain"
- Episode – "I Am Furious Yellow"
- Episode – "The Sweetest Apu"
- Episode – "Little Girl in the Big Ten"
- Episode – "The Frying Game"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XIII"
- Episode – "Lost Verizon"
- Episode – "Gone Maggie Gone"
- Episode – "The Good, the Sad and the Drugly"
- Episode – "Father Knows Worst"
- Episode – "Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh"
- Episode – "Chief of Hearts"
- Episode – "The Fool Monty"
- Episode – "Moms I'd Like to Forget"
- Episode – "Flaming Moe"
- Episode – "The Ned-Liest Catch"
 – The Simpsons Movie  Comic story – Spree For All  Book – Bart Simpson's Guide to Life - Book – Simpsons World The Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1-20
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External links
References
| Factfiles from Simpsons World the Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1-20
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| Season 14
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| Rock Stars • Audrey McConnell, Third Grade Teacher • Dr. Velimirovic, Plastic Surgeon • Mitch Hartwell, the Reality Channel Producer • Junior (AKA Frank Grimes, Jr.) • Teacher of the Year Award Nominating Committee • Dexter Colt, Private Eye • The Mugger • Larry H. Lawyer, Jr. • Baby Stink-Breath • Booberella • Sara Sloane, Hollywood Movie Star • Cookie Kwan, Red Coat Realtor • Stark Richdale • Declan Desmond • Julio and Grady • Luke Stetson, Junior Wrangler • Suds McDuff, Spokesdog/Mascot for Duff Beer • Marriage Counselor • Jim Proudfoot • Don Castellaneta
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