Principal Skinner

Principal Skinner
The Simpsons character
Information
Voiced by	Harry Shearer
Gender	Male
Occupation	Principal of Springfield Elementary School
Relatives	Parents: Sheldon and Agnes Aunts: Hope
First appearance
The Simpsons	"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"

Principal Seymour Skinner (alternatively Armin Tamzarian)^[1] is a fictional character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, who is voiced by Harry Shearer. He is the principal of Springfield Elementary School, which he struggles to control, 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 was captured and held as a prisoner of war.

Role in The Simpsons

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 in 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 Bart; when Skinner was fired and replaced by Ned Flanders, Bart found pranks less meaningful, due to Flanders' lax approach to discipline, while Skinner missed his constant battles with Bart.^[2]

One of Skinner's defining traits is that he had served as a sergeant in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, where he was captured by the Viet Cong at the Battle of Khe Sanh and spent 18 months as a prisoner of war.^[3][4] Seeing his entire platoon devoured by an elephant was one of the many things that led to the development of his posttraumatic stress disorder. He is also quite bitter about the treatment he and other Vietnam veterans received upon returning from the war. Skinner is a highly skilled combatant, particularly hand-to-hand, and demonstrates his abilities in several episodes.^[5] Skinner often seems weak-willed and easily suppressed, 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.^[6]

Although Skinner 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 torments him and nicknames him "Spanky".^[7] Aside from a short-lived relationship with Patty Bouvier,^[8] most of Skinner's love life has focused on Edna Krabappel. He and Edna have a romance in Martin's playhouse after they are invited to a birthday party, and they are witnessed by Bart. He loses his job along with Edna when Superintendent Chalmers is advised of their romance by Chief Wiggum, after which Skinner and Edna lock themselves in the school with Bart demanding their jobs back. After getting reinstated, the two dated for several more years and became engaged,^[9] but later cancelled the wedding.^[10] 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.

The controversial season nine episode "The Principal and the Pauper" heavily altered Skinner's backstory, revealing him as an impostor. Born as Armin Tamzarian in 1953, he was a troubled orphan from Capital City, who was forced into the US Army during the Vietnam War. There, he served as a Green Beret under Sgt. Seymour Skinner, whom he came to idolize and befriend. When Skinner was reported missing and presumed dead, Tamzarian returned to Springfield to inform 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. The real Seymour Skinner (voiced by Martin Sheen), 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" (although Lisa uses the real name in the episode "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot"). The episode provoked a very negative reaction both from fans and the show's staff. A clip from the episode was used in season eleven's "Behind the Laughter" as an example of the show's increasingly "gimmicky and nonsensical plots". The continuity of the series appears to revert to the original story of Seymour Skinner in the 2010 episode "Boy Meets Curl", as he is clearly shown to kick Agnes Skinner in utero, establishing him as Agnes' biological son after all.

Character

Creation

Principal Skinner first appeared in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which was also the first Simpsons episode to air.^[11] The first drawing of Skinner was done by Matt Groening,^[12] who based him on "all the principals of [his] youth, rolled into one bland lump."^[13] Writer Jon Vitti named him after behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner.^[14] An original idea for Skinner was that he would continually mispronounce words. He does this in the series premiere "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", but the idea was later dropped.^[15] Skinner was originally supposed to wear a toupée, but it was dropped because the writers didn't like "that type of joke".^[16] In later episodes, Skinner's behavior was based on teachers that Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein had in high school.^[17]

Development

Superintendent Chalmers was introduced in the episode "Whacking Day" as a boss for Skinner. Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria, the voice of Chalmers, fell right into the characters and quite often ad-lib between them.^[18]

"The Principal and the Pauper"

In "The Principal and the Pauper", it is revealed that Skinner was not who he claimed to be and was really named Armin Tamzarian. The episode was pitched and written by Ken Keeler and he was inspired by the Tichborne Case of nineteenth century England.^[19] Producers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were excited about the episode because Principal Skinner was one of their favorite characters. They "spent a month immersed in the mind of Seymour Skinner" to prepare that episode, and from that point forward, took every opportunity to "tinker with [Skinner's] personality and his backstory and his homelife."

They intended for the episode to be "an experiment" and that the ending was meant to allow viewers to reset to the point before Skinner was revealed to be an impostor.^[20] The revelation that Principal Skinner was an impostor and the self-referential deus ex machina ending were negatively received by many fans and critics.^[21][22] Oakley considers "The Principal and the Pauper" the most controversial episode from his tenure as executive producer.^[20]

In April 2001, in an interview, Harry Shearer, the voice of Principal Skinner, recalled that after reading the script, he told the writers, "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."^[23][24]

The writers themselves have since mocked the inconsistencies created by the episode; in the season 15 episode "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", Lisa is seen writing Snowball II on a cat food dish to save money after what would be the fourth Snowball's purchase. Skinner walks by and asks "that's really a cheat, isn't it?" to which Lisa pointedly replies, "I guess you're right, Principal Tamzarian." Skinner then quickly excuses himself to Lisa and walks away.

References

1. "The Principal and the Pauper". The Simpsons Episode Guide. Archived from the original on 2007-07-08. Retrieved 2007-08-04.)
2. Oakley, Bill; Weinstein, Josh; Anderson, Bob (1994-04-28). "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song". The Simpsons. Season 5. Episode 19. Fox.
3. The Simpsons episode "I Love Lisa"
4. The Simpsons episode "The Boy who knew too much" deleted scene
5. Martin, Jeff; Kirkland, Mark (1992-10-15). "Lisa the Beauty Queen". The Simpsons. Season 4. Episode 4. Fox.
6. Long, Tim; Kramer, Lance (2000-12-17). "Skinner's Sense of Snow". The Simpsons. Season 12. Episode 8. Fox.
7. The Simpsons episode "The Crepes of Wrath"
8. Stern, David M.; Kirkland, Mark (1991-02-14). "Principal Charming". The Simpsons. Season 2. Episode 14. Fox.
9. Snee, Dennis; Anderson, Bob (2003-01-05). "Special Edna". The Simpsons. Season 14. Episode 7. Fox.
10. Curran, Kevin; Kirkland, Mark (2004-04-18). "My Big Fat Geek Wedding". The Simpsons. Season 15. Episode 17. Fox.
11. Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". BBC. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
12. Silverman, David. (2001). Commentary for "Bart the Genius", in The Simpsons: The Complete First Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
13. Rhodes, Joe (2000-10-21). "Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves". TV Guide.
14. Reiss, Mike. (2002). Commentary for "Principal Charming", in The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
15. Groening, Matt. (2001). Commentary for "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in The Simpsons: The Complete First Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
16. Groening, Matt. (2002). Commentary for "Principal Charming", in The Simpsons: The Complete SecondSeason [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
17. Weinstein, Josh. (2004). Commentary for "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
18. Jean, Al. (2004). Commentary for "Whacking Day", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
19. Keeler, Ken. (2006). Commentary for "The Principal and the Pauper", in The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
20. Oakley, Bill. (2006). Commentary for "The Principal and the Pauper", in The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
21. Sloane, Robert (2004). "Who Wants Candy? Disenchantment in The Simpsons". In John Alberti. Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture. Wayne State University Press. p. 165. ISBN 0-8143-2849-0.
22. Turner 2004, pp. 41-42.
23. Wilonsky, Robert (2001-04-27). "Shearer Delight". East Bay Express. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
24. Goldstein, Meredith (2006-12-07). "Tapping into the many roles of Harry Shearer". The Boston Globe. p. 8E.

Bibliography

• Turner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Foreword by Douglas Coupland. (1st ed.). Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 978-0-679-31318-2. OCLC 55682258.

External links

• Principal Skinner at the Internet Movie Database