The Simpsons are a family who live at
742 Evergreen Terrace in the town of
Springfield in the United States. The
state in which this town is located is never specified, the mystery a
reoccurring joke; however, they do have snow and sometimes wear sweaters in the fall. Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the
Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, a position at odds with his careless,
buffoonish personality. He is married to Marge Simpson, a
stereotypical American
housewife and mother. They have three children: Bart, a ten-year-old troublemaker; Lisa, an eight-year-old
child prodigy; and
Maggie, a toddler who rarely speaks, but communicates by sucking on a
pacifier. The family owns a dog,
Santa's Little Helper, and a cat, Snowball ll. Both pets have had starring roles in several seasons. Despite the passing of yearly milestones such as holidays or birthdays, the Simpsons
do not physically age and still appear as they did at the end of the 1980s. Although the family is dysfunctional, many episodes examine their relationships and bonds with each other and they are often shown to care about one another.
Homer Simpson Homer Jay Simpson (voiced by
Dan Castellaneta) is the protagonist of the show and the father of the Simpson family. He embodies several American working class stereotypes: he is crude, overweight, incompetent, clumsy, thoughtless and a borderline alcoholic. He has occasionally displayed flashes of great intellect and fitness whenever the situation calls for it, and an integrity reflecting his own values, including a fierce devotion to and protectiveness of his family. His voice started out as an impression of
Walter Matthau but eventually evolved into a more robust voice during the second and third season of the half-hour show, allowing Homer to cover a fuller range of emotions. Homer has since become one of the most influential fictional characters and has been described by the British newspaper
The Sunday Times as the greatest comedic creation of modern time. He has inspired an entire line of merchandise, and his catchphrase, the annoyed grunt "
D'oh!", has been included in the
Oxford English Dictionary. During the production of the episode "
Insane Clown Poppy" the writers toyed with the idea of giving Homer a long lost illegitimate biological daughter, but when the show's
showrunner and writer
Mike Scully, as well as Groening rejected the idea, the writers changed the story to
Krusty the Clown having one instead.
Marge Simpson Marjorie Bouvier "Marge" Simpson (née
Bouvier, voiced by
Julie Kavner) is the well-meaning and extremely patient wife of Homer and mother of Bart, Lisa and Maggie. She often acts as the voice of reason, but displays exaggerated behavior traits of
stereotypical middle-class mothers and takes the blatant dysfunctionality of her family for granted, unlike the other family members, who are aware that they are eccentric. Her most notable physical feature is her
blue hair, styled into an improbably high
beehive. Julie Kavner received a
Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 for voicing Marge in the episode "
I Married Marge". For her performance in
The Simpsons Movie, Kavner received a nomination for "Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature" at the 2007
Annie Awards, but lost to
Ian Holm in
Ratatouille. Kavner's emotional performance in the movie got positive reviews and one critic said she "gave what must be the most heartfelt performance ever". Part of Kavner's contract says that she will never have to promote
The Simpsons on video because she does not want to "destroy the illusion for children". In 2008,
CityNews published an article entitled "Top 10 Greatest TV Moms of All Time", and placed Marge in eighth spot.
Bart Simpson Bartholomew Jo-Jo "Bart" Simpson (voiced by
Nancy Cartwright) is the eldest child and only son in the family, at age 10. Bart's most prominent character traits are his mischievousness, rebelliousness, disrespect for authority, and sharp wit. During the first four seasons of
The Simpsons, Bart was the show's main character. The name "Bart" is an anagram of the word "brat". Groening conceived Bart as an extreme version of the typical misbehaving child character, merging all of the extreme traits of characters such as
Tom Sawyer and
Huckleberry Finn into one person. Bart's catchphrase "Eat My Shorts" was an ad-lib by Cartwright in one of the original table readings, harking back to an incident when she was at college. In 1998,
Time magazine selected Bart as 46th of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, and the only fictional character to make the list. He had previously appeared on the cover of the December 31, 1990 edition. Bart is rebellious and frequently escapes without punishment, which led some parents' groups and conservative spokespeople to believe he provided a poor
role model for children. This prompted
George H. W. Bush to rally, "We're going to keep trying to strengthen the American family. To make them more like
the Waltons and less like the Simpsons." Bart, and other Simpsons characters, have appeared in numerous
television commercials for
Nestlé's
Butterfinger candy bars from 1990 to 2001, with the slogan
"Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!" Lisa Simpson Lisa Marie Simpson (voiced by
Yeardley Smith) is the eldest daughter and middle child of the family, at 8 years old. Lisa's political convictions are generally
socially liberal. She is a vegetarian, and a supporter of the
Free Tibet movement, Maggie rarely speaks, but has been voiced by several different actors including
Jodie Foster,
Elizabeth Taylor,
Yeardley Smith, and
Nancy Cartwright.
Mona Simpson Mona Penelope Simpson (née
Olsen, voiced by
Glenn Close) is Homer's long-lost mother, Marge's mother-in-law, and Abe's estranged first wife. Her first major appearance was in "
Mother Simpson" where she reveals that she was forced to abandon her family after being caught up in the
hippie movement and participated in various acts of activism. The writers used this episode as an opportunity to solve several little puzzles, such as where Lisa's intelligence came from. Prior to
the seventh season, Mona Simpson had only made two brief flashback appearances, the first being
season two's "
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and the second being
season six's "
Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" and in both episodes she was voiced by
Maggie Roswell. Mona dies in the episode "
Mona Leaves-a", as Homer struggles to come to terms with her death. The character is named after writer
Richard Appel's wife, whose name is Mona Simpson. There were several design changes because the directors were trying to make her an attractive older and younger woman, but still be Simpson-esque.
Extended Simpson family •
Herb Powell (voiced by
Danny DeVito) – As his paternal half-brother, Herb resembles Homer, though he is much thinner, boasts a full head of hair and is more astute. He first appeared in the
season two episode "
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" when Homer is informed by his father Abe, after the latter suffered a mild heart attack, that he had a half-brother, the product of a short-lived affair between Abe and Gaby. A year after putting the baby up for adoption, Abe married Mona, who insisted he promise never to tell Homer about Herb or how he was conceived. Herb was raised by his adoptive parents Edward and Mililani Powell, put himself through college by working odd jobs, then founded Powell Motors, a car company based in Detroit. Herb is an exception to 'the Simpson gene', which causes all male members of the Simpson family to gradually lose their intelligence as they mature, as Herb is intelligent, successful and an astute businessman. Overjoyed to learn that he had a blood family, Herb bonded with the children and hired Homer, as a representative of average Americans, to design a car. The car was a flop, bankrupting the company, and Herb angrily rejected Homer as a brother and became a street vagrant. The episode was written by
Jeff Martin but the idea of having Herb voiced by
Danny DeVito had been pitched by
Sam Simon. Due to some upsetting with the tragic ending of the episode, the producers decided to make a sequel. Herb re-appeared
the next season in "
Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?". Now broke and homeless, he briefly settled in the Simpson household, despite his intense continuing antipathy toward Homer. Homer loaned Herb $2000, which he used to build an invention that translated
infantile speech into comprehensible English, based on observations he made of Maggie. He proceeded to mass-produce his new
product and regained his fortune. In gratitude, he bought gifts for each member of the family and paid Homer back with his forgiveness. Homer's "seldom seen half-brother" has had only one brief speaking part since this episode: DeVito reprised his role for the Season 24 episode "
The Changing of the Guardian", in which Powell's answering machine message is heard: 'Hi, you've reached Herb Powell. I'm poor again.' •
Abbey (voiced by
Dan Castellaneta) – Abbey is Abe's illegitimate daughter and Homer's half-sister from a relationship he had with a British woman named Edwina during
World War II. •
Chester John "Chet" Simpson (voiced by
Dan Castellaneta) – Chet is Bart, Lisa, Maggie's great-uncle who owns an unsuccessful shrimp company. She is the one who reassures Lisa that she won't suffer the defective Simpson Gene because of her sex and also reveals that only male members are affected by it. Dr. Simpson resembles Lisa, minus the spikes. •
Stanley Edgar Simpson (voiced by
Dan Castellaneta •
Great-Aunt Hortense Simpson – Great-Aunt Hortense is the one who died before "
Bart the Fink" and left Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa $100 each; the rest of her estate was passed to
Ann Landers. In a continuity error, Great-Aunt Hortense appeared on Bart's journey to
Heaven in "
Bart Gets Hit by a Car". • A group of unnamed relatives show up in the episode "
Lisa the Simpson", when Homer tries to prove to Lisa that not all Simpsons are failures. In the Season 25 episode "
The Winter of His Content", Homer reveals that Abe's father is alive, but Abe ignores him. •
"Old Tut" Simpson - Grampa's paternal grandfather who appears briefly in ''
A Father's Watch'', where he is shown strangling his son for being a disappointment to him in his occupation of child discipline. •
Cyrus Simpson (voiced by
Hank Azaria) - Cyrus is Grampa's older brother who is seen in "
Simpsons Christmas Stories". Cyrus crashed his
Corsair at
Tahiti in
World War II's
Pacific Theater of Operations during a
kamikaze raid. He never left and has
15 wives. •
Rita LaFleur (voiced by
Anika Noni Rose) – Rita is the second wife of Abraham Simpson and a jazz recording artist. She was a singer at Spiro's Restaurant and met Abe when he was a waiter. They married and LaFleur left the restaurant, wishing to become a successful singer. She was invited to tour in Europe, but Homer suffered a head injury and Abraham realized that Homer was defenseless and wouldn't survive in Europe, so he stayed behind with him while Rita went to Europe, and the two never saw each other again. It was revealed that she later became a heroin addict which ended up ruining her singing career. In "
Gone Abie Gone", Rita reunited with Abraham and they played piano. It was unknown why they were not together. •
Amber Simpson (voiced by Pamela Hayden) – Amber was the Vegas ex-wife of both Homer and Abe Simpson from the
season ten episode "
Viva Ned Flanders". Homer and
Ned Flanders visit
Las Vegas for the weekend, get drunk and unknowingly marry two women. Amber reappears in "
Brawl in the Family", where the Simpson family trick her into marrying Grampa, and in the process forsake all other spouses. Amber is horrified at the deception and runs away back to Vegas, much to Grampa's disappointment at losing another wife. In "
Jazzy and the Pussycats", the Simpsons attend Homer's ex-wife and former stepmother's funeral after Amber's death from a drug overdose. •
Bill Simpson is one of Abe's brothers and one of those who are deceased. Bill is apparently a
communist. He is mentioned in "
Million Dollar Abie" as a member of the
Communist Party along with
Joseph Stalin and many others. •
Great Uncle Boris – Boris is Homer's great-uncle who left his
great-nephew his country home in the episode "
Homer Loves Flanders". •
Mother Shabubu/Cousin Frank/Francine – Cousin Francine is Homer's cousin and Abraham's niece who was mentioned in the episode "
Lisa's First Word". ==The Bouvier family==