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Nick Riviera

Wikisimpsons - The Simpsons Wiki
(Redirected from Dr. Nick Riviera)
"Hi, everybody!"
―Dr. Nick Riviera's catchphrase
Nicholas Riviera
Nick Riviera.png
Character Information
Gender:
Male ♂
Status:
Alive
Hair: Black
Occupation: Quack doctor
First appearance: "Bart Gets Hit by a Car"
Voiced by: Hank Azaria


Dr. Nicholas "Nick" Riviera is a quack medical physician (although he advertises himself as "just as good as Dr. Hibbert"), who studied at highly dubious medical schools.

Biography[edit]

Dr. Nick Every Simpsons Ever.png

Riviera 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, a large angry man once grabbed 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 [1]).

Dr. Nick is a stereotypical shady, immoral doctor who perform medical procedures for money with little or no regard for medical ethics, or their patients' well-being. He was once is seen digging up corpses in the graveyard for body parts, presumably to use in operations on patients.[2] He is seen taking a citizenship test, implying he is not a citizen of the United States.[3] Some of his exclamations hint that he may be Argentinian, though there is no direct evidence of this. He watches a video on how to perform open-heart surgery and is disgusted by all the blood, implying that he may be hemophobic.

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".[4] 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! He has practice at the Springfield Mall[5] and a walk-in clinic" located at 44 Bow Street.[6] 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 anesthesiologist during Bart's appendectomy but was of little help as he first failed to anesthetize Bart and subsequently passed out from the leaking gas.[7]

He was seen dancing with Princess Kashmir at the Springfield Chili Cook-Off, they were later seen leaving together.[8]

He once was about to operate on Captain McCallister when his clinic caught fire, after Bart experimented with placing fireworks onto a bicycle wheel, which then span around so fast it detached from the bicycle, flew through the clinic's window, and landed on a canister of ether labelled "inflammable". Dr. Nick assured his patient it was safe, as "inflammable" meant it couldn't catch fire, but then did, leaving him quipping "Inflammable means flammable? What a country?!"[9]

During Trappuccino, Nick was impaled by a large shard of glass and says, in his normal voice, "Bye everybody!" and then passes out, making him one of the few casualties of the Trappuccino incident,[10] however, he has been seen alive even after the incident [11] playing golf with Dr. Hibbert. This could mean he actually survived the impaling somehow.

He later appeared on an operation game show, which Moe Szyslak was a judge on.[12]

Non-canon[edit]

Donut Homer.png The contents of this article or section are considered to be non-canon and therefore may not have actually happened or existed.

The Simpsons: Road Rage[edit]

Dr. Nick quotes "Send me to the hospital, I pretend I work there".

The Simpsons: Hit & Run[edit]

The penultimate mission of Level 2, "Monkey See, Monkey D'oh!" involves Bart having to find Dr. Nick's monkeys after Dr. Nick tortures them horribly and they run away.

He also appears in the bonus mission for level three, "Princi-Pal", where Lisa comes to get Principal Skinner's 'personal items', Dr. Nick says, "Hello, little girl. Here is the principal's anti-fungal cream"!

In addition to this, his quotes if he is run over by the player are:

  • "Hey! You drive as well as I practice medicine!"
  • "Don't come crying to me if you need a sex change!"

The Simpsons: Tapped Out[edit]

Dr. Nick[edit]

This section is transcluded from The Simpsons: Tapped Out characters/More Oddballs. To edit it, please edit the transcluded page.
Dr. Nick
Image Cost Unlock method Unlock message Yearbook
Tapped Out Unlock DrNick.png Donut Tapped Out.png90 Formerly:
Level 24
Premium
Hi everybody! Character is available via the Yearbook Mystery Box
Donut Tapped Out.png30
Donut Tapped Out.png80 Thanksgiving 2018, All American Auction, Blargsgiving, Northward Bound, The Atom Smasher and Cold Turkey
Premium (Men Mystery Box)
Technical Information ID Groups Internal Name
36 Premium Characters, Premium Male, Celebrity, Dimwit, Adult, Golfers DrNick

Golfer Dr. Nick[edit]

This section is transcluded from The Simpsons: Tapped Out characters/Fore!. To edit it, please edit the transcluded page.
Golfer Dr. Nick
Image Cost Unlock method Unlock message Costume of
Golfing Dr. Nick.png FREE Fore!
Tray of 132 Donuts (with Golfer Dr. Hibbert)
Hi, everyone! The gold course is a great place to lay low! I'm really looking forward to this! Tapped Out Unlock DrNick.png
Dr. Nick
Technical Information ID Groups Internal Name
269003 N/A GolferDrNick

Behind the Laughter[edit]

Dr. Nick's name came from Dr. George C. Nichopoulos AKA Dr. Nick, a Greek-American doctor in Memphis, Tennessee best known for being singer Elvis Presley's fulltime personal physician at Graceland for his last 7 years. Many Elvis fan blame his death on August 16, 1977 on overprescribing of drugs by Dr. Nick. After many years of legal battles the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners would permanently revoked Dr. Nick's medical license.

The character design of Dr. Nick 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.[13][14]

He has appeared in at least three billboard gags.[15]

Catchphrase[edit]

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.

Many episodes have featured variants of this. An Austrian Dr. Nick exclaimed "Guten Tag, everybody!",[16] "Shalom, everybody" [citation needed], "Hi, frozen body!" to Jasper Beardsley when he self-froze himself and became a Kwik-E-Mart promotion, "Frostillicus".[17] Mel Gibson has also said "Hi, everybody!", to which Dr. Nick responded with "Hi, Mr. Gibson", effectively switching roles [citation needed].

Cultural influence[edit]

In a tongue-in-cheek analysis, the Canadian Medical Association Journal compared the services of Dr. Hibbert and Dr. Nick.[18] 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.

Appearances[edit]

Episodes:Specials:Adverts:Simpsons Comics:Treehouse of Horror:Bart Simpson:Futurama Crossover:Comic Strips:Holiday Humdinger:Super Spectacular:Winter Wingding:Summer Shindig:One-Shot Wonders:Video Games:Books:

References[edit]

The Saga of Carl - title screen.png Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to Nick Riviera.