| The Simpsons character | |
|---|---|
| Seymour Skinner | |
| Gender | Male |
| Job | Principal of Springfield Elementary School and former singer |
| Relatives | Adoptive father: Sheldon Skinner (deceased) Adoptive mother: Agnes Skinner |
| Voice actor | Harry Shearer |
| First appearance | |
| The Simpsons | "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" |
Principal W. Seymour Skinner (born Armin Tamzarian)[1][2] is a fictional character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer. Born in Capitol City, he is the principal of Springfield Elementary School. 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 a combination of being trapped for three or four days in a swimming pool full of earthworms and his years in the United States Army as a Green Beret, which included service in the Vietnam War, in which he was captured by the Viet Cong and was held as a war prisoner for eighteen months. Skinner is also quite bitter about the treatment he and other Vietnam veterans received upon returning from the war.
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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 each of them; when Skinner was fired and replaced by Ned Flanders, Bart found pranks less meaningful, due to Flanders' lax approach to discipline.[3] In an accident involving both Skinner and Chalmers, Chalmers showed grief over Skinner before he realized he was still alive.[4] 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. In an early episode, she addresses him by the nickname "Spanky".[5] Also, earlier on in the show, 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.[6][7] Seeing his entire platoon devoured by an elephant was one of the many things that led to the development of his posttraumatic stress disorder.
Aside from a short-lived relationship with Patty Bouvier,[8] Skinner's love life has focused on Edna Krabappel. The two dated for several 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. In the early years of the show, it was implied that Seymour and his mother had a relationship similar to that of Norman Bates and his mother from the film Psycho. During the early years of the show, 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.[11]
The controversial season nine episode "The Principal and the Pauper" revolutionises Skinner's back-story, revealing that Skinner is an imposter. Born Armin Tamzarian, it emerges that he was a troubled orphan with a taste for "Swank" magazine, cheap booze and motorcycles 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 Skinner was reported missing and 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. 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".
Principal Skinner first appeared in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which was also the first Simpsons episode to air.[12] The first drawing of Skinner was done by Matt Groening,[13] who based him on "all the principals of [his] youth, rolled into one bland lump."[14] Writer Jon Vitti named him after behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner.[15] 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.[16] Skinner was originally supposed to wear a toupée, but it was dropped because the writers didn't like "that type of joke."[17] In later episodes, Skinner's behavior was based on teachers that Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein had in high school.[18]
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.[19]
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.[20] 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.[21] The revelation that Principal Skinner was an impostor and the self-referential deus ex machina ending were negatively received by many fans and critics.[22][23] Oakley considers "The Principal and the Pauper" the most controversial episode from his tenure as executive producer.[21] In a 2001 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."[24][25] 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. Snowball II" and walks away.
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