1 ‘Simpsons’ Voice Actor Said He Told Writers This Hated Episode Was ‘So Wrong’
The animated TV series The Simpsons is one of the most acclaimed and iconic shows of all time. Widely regarded as a cultural phenomenon, the series has been on the air since 1989. With so many episodes and storylines, it stands to reason that a few episodes of The Simpsons would receive criticism. Notably, one episode of the show is not only considered to be a terrible episode of The Simpsons, but one of the worst pieces of episodic television to ever see the light of day. Critics, fans, and even the show’s creator have slammed this episode, which aired in 1997.
What is ‘The Simpsons’ episode ‘The Principal and the Pauper’ about?
“The Principal and the Pauper” originally aired in September 1997, when The Simpsons was already in its ninth season. The episode features a big reveal, showcasing the fact that series regular Principal Skinner is an impostor portrayed by an orphan named Armin Tamzarian. After a great deal of outrage from concerned Springfield residents, the town forcibly ejects the real Skinner and embraces the fake one.
While the citizens of Springfield make a deal to never mention the Skinner incident again, fans weren’t so quick to let this episode slide into oblivion. Many saw it as a slap in the face for the fan base since Principal Skinner had been an important character since the show’s inception. In fact, “The Principal and the Pauper” quickly went down in television history as one of the most-hated episodes of The Simpsons.
Why do critics hate ‘The Principal and the Pauper’?
Fans weren’t the only ones who slammed the episode. Critics, the show’s creator, and even Harry Shearer, who voiced Principal Skinner, all expressed their extreme displeasure with “The Principal and the Pauper.” According to CBR, Shearer slammed the episode, saying that the story is “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.”
Show creator Matt Groening has also gone on the record to say that “The Principal and the Pauper” is one of his least-favorite episodes of the show ever. Interestingly enough, the show would later backtrack on the events featured in the episode 18 years later. According to Fatherly, the episode Walking Big & Tall reveals that Principal Skinner was actually the “real” one all along, with a scene that depicts the character growing up with his mother Agnes.
Other notable episodes of ‘The Simpsons’
There are a number of The Simpsons episodes that have made waves over the many years that the series has been in syndication. The 1993 episode “Marge in Chains” is an episode that centers around a fictitious disease called the “Osaka flu,” and is hyped by many fans as an episode that (partially) predicted the COVID-19 pandemic. One episode, titled “Treehouse of Horror XIX” features a storyline that centers around rigged voting machines, something that would end up making headlines in 2012, during the hotly-contested presidential election.
All things considered, The Simpsons will go down in history for the things that it did well, rather than those outlier episodes that caused controversy and upset the fan base. Cleverly scripted and brilliantly written, the show has been a staple in American pop culture for years and is showing no signs of going away in the near future.
