Are there any Simpsons characters you feel have a story to tell?

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I thought this could be interesting as I was watching Hellboy II recently and the character Prince Nuada (Portrayed by Luke Goss) is a fantastic character who although a bad guy/good guy dynamic he brings such sympathy with him as well as having such an untold story to tell such as the story of his people, the army, his father etc.. where it would really make a great movie on it's own the character could easily carry and it got me thinking about Simpsons characters who may also have something along these lines.

Now I'm not talking specifically an episode or movie dedicated to a character, it's not as deep as that but I thought there's maybe a few Simpsons characters with untold stories to tell which you guys might come up with.

It made me think of Frank Grimes a little with how the little story is told about him though can you guys think of any characters where their story is yet to be told, or could be told etc..

I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully you guys will bring up some interesting characters here with this :)
 
I've always wanted to learn more about Miss Hoover. Why is she so burned out about teaching? Why does she dislike Lisa? Why is she a bit of a hypochondriac (Lisa's substitute)? Her date with Apu went well, part of me wishes Apu had cheated with her instead of the squishee lady so she could have gotten development. She's a cromulent character after all.
 
Was thinking of the Retirement Castle characters so maybe Jasper and the Old Jewish Man? Maybe especially the latter since he's shown up from time to time but we don't know much about him.
 
Some good answers so far, the retirement castle is a good one, there's probably a few stories there too that could be told, agree with Miss Hoover too. I kind of wonder if Malloy has a possible story too now the retirement castle has been mentioned.
 
I thought this could be interesting as I was watching Hellboy II recently and the character Prince Nuada (Portrayed by Luke Goss) is a fantastic character who although a bad guy/good guy dynamic he brings such sympathy with him as well as having such an untold story to tell such as the story of his people, the army, his father etc.. where it would really make a great movie on it's own the character could easily carry and it got me thinking about Simpsons characters who may also have something along these lines.

Now I'm not talking specifically an episode or movie dedicated to a character, it's not as deep as that but I thought there's maybe a few Simpsons characters with untold stories to tell which you guys might come up with.

It made me think of Frank Grimes a little with how the little story is told about him though can you guys think of any characters where their story is yet to be told, or could be told etc..

I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully you guys will bring up some interesting characters here with this :)

I don't know I do have some kind of theory about Frank Grimes, I mean I know I'm probably wrong but what if he had undiagnosed autism or something you saw how he freaked out when the pencil can tipped over, and then later he is fixated on ruining homer's life (also I kind of felt that oh yeah they knew about homer's incidents but they've been cutting him slack because of pulling a homer way back in season 3)

I really want them to flesh out the blue haired lawyer because he said in a simpsons comic that he had a name and I was like "THEN WHAT IS IT?!" seriously we learned Comic Book Guys' name eventually, we learned the crazy cat lady's name eventually
 
Yeah the Blue Haired Lawyer, I suppose there's Ian too the really tall man lol
 
Welllll, short answer is "nearly everyone... except the ones that likely would get expanded on" I mean out of such a big and versatile cast, the Crazy Cat Lady is the one you choose to expand on? At least I can safely say "they have no excuse not to focus more on (x)" I guess.:P

For some specifics:

Ms Hoover: Already been mentioned. Bonus points if it actually divulges from Edna's. Like never actually wanting to be a teacher but pressured into it by parents because what she wanted to do wasn't "respectable" more points if it also happened to be a passion of Lisa's. That'd set in a connection for a plot.

Most of the retirement castle: For pretty simple reason, they've basically lived their entire lives. Apparently the old jewish guy used to be a director or something. But yeah, they've got like 70+ years to shove a backstory into. Jasper seems to be Abe's best friend but as far as well can tell, they never fought together in WW2 or anything so maybe it was something else that drew them to hang out. Or maybe Jasper was the brave hero that finally managed to reclaim the word "twenty" from the Kaiser I dunno.:P

Janey: One of a few good examples of the show coming out with something of interest almost assuredly by accident since she was only ever meant to be "that one person for Lisa to occasionally talk to". However there's been a few things between episodes and side materials like Tapped Out that seem to imply she has rather low confidence. Probably the most telling in-show was in Lisa's Substitute where she claimed to have no talents at all and in Tapped Out Marge goads Lisa into doing a recital by insisting her backing out would give Janey the boost she needs to find her own voice and possibly outperform Lisa. The outperforming bit is probably exaggerated (some of her lines particularly in the comics portray her more as a bit dim) but she is mentioned in one of the books to fit in by copying the more popular kids. So maybe her infamous flakiness is more that she doesn't feel confident enough to asset herself in the ways she wants to? It could also be that in that area, Lisa's influence on her life is actually poisonous, how can someone feel confident when one person gets every single award thrown their way including ones that feel made up just to give her another prize? For that matter, Lisa has consistently had a hostile attitude towards anyone that threatens to even perform on her level let alone better, like with Allison and Maggie and, again comic example, even fantasized about hanging Martin over a piranha tank just because he won a spelling bee against her.
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Sherri & Terri: Another accidental case, for sure but there's still stuff to consider there. Particularly how contradictory they're written. They tend to get shoved into the "alpha bitch" role but whenever they do... it's just them. And any stereotypical "popular bitch" has to have a following of more than just a borderline conjoined twin sister. Maybe sometimes they won't be alone but then they're never the ones that actually have lines then, they're just hangers-on. Is that how they may have been treated before? They do seem to want to be amongst the cool kids so are they just imitating the same behaviours to someone lower than them on the social ladder? They do seem to act pretty strange when they're on their own. Or is it a personal dislike of Lisa? Ain't like there's no reason for them to hate her and they're oddly accepting of other kids you think an actual Libby would avoid like Allison or even Ralph, with Sherri even implying she has a crush on the latter in the simpsons game. Really the way the writers present the issue ("The other girls don't like Lisa because she's too smaaaaart :<" They like Allison just fine, even if she was a bigger geekazoid than Lisa) and a good writer would pick up on that. But then it'd probably need to look at Lisa in even the most mild and constructively critical way and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a mandate against that considering some of the messed up crap she'll never be called out for, let alone hit by a bus or drowned for.

I'm not sure about Frank Grimes himself but Jr could probably do with a bit more exposure. I mean to have a character with a connection to one of the most significant one-timers essentially be a throwaway character only seen at the tail end of one episode. Yeah, who even remembered he had a son? I guess the bit on Grimes "liking hookers" could be brought up more, like if it was some sort of comfort considering his crap life. I guess you could look into both of them using Jr?

It'd also be kinda neat to see the Shelbyville crew again. I think the only other time any of them showed up was an unknowing team up between Shelby and Bart, as their superhero personas, in which he had a villainous sister who was obsessed with squirrels. Actually, just Shelbyville in general. If it still exists that is, I think the last we heard of it was in 24 Minutes where it got nuked... I mean it did get better after the toppled sun blocker but still.

But realistically, we're probably more likely to get the story of Yeeeeeesssss guy or Lenny's third toenail than taking advantage of any of the many, many opportunities that are out there and... wait has Lenny even had a story to him? I mean there was the saga of Carl but despite getting a lot of screentime I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that Lenny had going for him aside from a mystery novelist with eye problems...

Oh, should be worth mentioning that not everything, even if there's a story to it, needs an entire episode dedicated to it right off the bat. After all, a fair few plot-relevant details such as Moe's depression or Nelson's home life issues came before the eps they were related to. Least iirc. Start small and all that.
 
Lenny is probably a good one that would gain a lot of interest simply because he's a well liked character, safe to say he's one of the main characters in the show yet there's a lot about Lenny we don't even know and Carl could also be thrown into this category, the story of them together and why they're so close with each other. In fact Carl and Lenny's relationship could have quite a story and how they feel about it over the years, has Carl ever felt superior or inferior to Lenny and vica versa, any fall out moments, memories etc.. there's a lot there but in regards to characters, Lenny does have a lot behind him that I think would go down well and be well received with interest by the audience.

I mean why does Lenny's mother love Carl and Moe more than Lenny? Lenny's sisters funeral, the war his father was in, how this impacts his relationship with Carl considering the mother thing and also his sister dating Carl on Valentines Day, he has a masters degree in physics yet is seen as quite simple and naive at times so there's a story to be told there, Lenny has quite a lot of depth to him that we know but don't know if that makes sense.

Lenny is a good one.
 
Okay, bit of an out-there choice but how about the pawn shop owner from No Disgrace Like Homer? I love the design of Springfield in the earliest seasons, and for some reason I always liked this little seedy guy who ran the pawn shop. I get the feeling they could do a decent episode with him, especially considering how Springfield is full of deadbeats!
 
Lenny is probably a good one that would gain a lot of interest simply because he's a well liked character, safe to say he's one of the main characters in the show yet there's a lot about Lenny we don't even know and Carl could also be thrown into this category, the story of them together and why they're so close with each other. In fact Carl and Lenny's relationship could have quite a story and how they feel about it over the years, has Carl ever felt superior or inferior to Lenny and vica versa, any fall out moments, memories etc.. there's a lot there but in regards to characters, Lenny does have a lot behind him that I think would go down well and be well received with interest by the audience.

I mean why does Lenny's mother love Carl and Moe more than Lenny? Lenny's sisters funeral, the war his father was in, how this impacts his relationship with Carl considering the mother thing and also his sister dating Carl on Valentines Day, he has a masters degree in physics yet is seen as quite simple and naive at times so there's a story to be told there, Lenny has quite a lot of depth to him that we know but don't know if that makes sense.

Lenny is a good one.

I think the unknowns about the relationship between Lenny and Carl is part of what makes it good. There have been some jokes about whether they’re gay, and while I don’t think they are, it makes a for some good speculation by the fans. Also, there’s the joke where the Simpson family seems to admire and love Lenny and be super concerned when they thought he was in the hospital. Explanation of why they’re so concerned about him could ruin the joke, in my opinion. I think some background between Lenny and Carl’s past together could be interesting, though, so if they delve into their pasts a bit while keeping the “relationship” mystery intact, I’d be fine with that.
 
Yeah I agree with that sentiment to be honest, it's a little like how the Smithers thing is too, but yeah, just an example of many things with Lenny though in regards to this, I'd also like to know how come he has such an invincible eye :lol:
 
The Lenny slapstick gag was one of the worst traits of the Scully era. It felt more akin to the show attempting to glom onto South Park's success by creating a designated outlandishly-maimed butt monkey (similar to Kenny) whilst jarring with the show's tone simultaneously. The Lenny gags in "Monty Can't Buy Me Love" and "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" may be some of the worst of their respective episodes, actually.

In regards to a Lenny/Carl episode, the two's recent prominence (since approximately S10) is largely due to script convenience. The chief purpose of Lenny and Carl in most scenes lies in acting as characters for Homer to interact with or to react against the more outlandish actions of Homer or Moe; they tend to not be used as a result of their character traits on a frequent basis, and this shows in attempts to exert narrative focus onto them (The Saga of Carl is painfully dry even by HD-era standards, largely due to the lack of effective development on the part of Carl), therefore they're generally more effective when utilized merely as Homer's work cohorts and occasional drinking buddies, as their personality traits can extend to cover those bases the most securely.

I definitely agree that Mrs. Hoover deserves a focus episode (particularly in light of her lack of screentime during the classic era compared to Edna Krabappel despite her role in Lisa's overall characterization having comparable bearing to Edna on Bart's), although given their recent track record developing secondary characters on the show (the closest they came to success was Chalmers in "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts", which actually did have some good details regarding his character, albeit bogged down by poor writing and a lack of narrative focus), part of me fears the outcome of the current team attempting to gratify that possibility.

As stupid (and hypocritical, considering what I just wrote in regards to Lenny and Carl) as it sounds, part of me also yearns for a Just Stamp the Ticket Man episode. Why is he so viscerally temperamental? What compels him to express his feelings in such a brutally honest way? And, most importantly of all, why did he ask Flanders of all the people in a mall to stamp his parking ticket? Such vital questions and yet, we have yet to receive any answers...
 
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I disagree with that in regards to the Lenny thing, I really liked it, I do like South Park too so maybe that's why although I never really noticed the similarities there to be honest, I just felt the Lenny gag with his eye was really funny lol

I do wonder if like with The Saga of Carl how the episode would have turned out had this have been of Lenny, don't get me wrong, I like Carl equally as much as Lenny really but I do feel there is more to Lenny and that he does have that little bit more appeal than Carl does simply because Carl is such a laid back character, which is great and really suits his character to a T also as the dynamic works, just Lenny happens to be the one that has that little bit more to him it seems. I do agree they work well on the back of people such as Homer and Moe though too.

The Ticket Man I get, because here we have this character doing these things but why, this could really work also I feel.
 
Why not any of the background Springfield Elementary kids like Lewis or the Refuge of the Damned Kids?
I was going to say Wendell as well, so I second that.
 
Maybe his immune system is just really, really crap.

Actually, with a lot of the kids, they could have mini stories or something on them, perhaps framed with Skinner as a sort of narrator, going through notable parts of their permanent records, which of course have a story to them.
 
Yeah. I’ll champion that the kids like Wendell, Janey, the twins, should have little stories about them. We don’t necessarily need the life story of these characters, but it would could add some variety.
 
It could be interesting to know more about Helen Lovejoy (despite her being far from one of my favorite characters); giving her some sort of proper backstory could be something, like we got with her husband Reverend Lovejoy (like, was she ever actually a good person but changed into the nasty, mean gossip she is now? And how did the Reverend (and much of the town btw) learn to stand her and look past the fact that all she really does is upset people like Marge, who seems to be her favorite bullying target? It could help us to understand her better).

Also, maybe there could be more to tell about Luann Van Houten? To know more about her and her past would be the interesting and while we've gotten some more Kirk as of recently (such as him having been a lacrosse pro during college) I think there could be more about him too? Maybe we could see an "I Married Luann" episode that depicts how they met and had Milhouse? Would be a nice break from all the pretty miserable stuff about them having marriage issues and conflicts that ends up tough to watch.

Sarah Wiggum and Bernice Hibbert (if she's still on the table as Dr. Hibbert is almost a non-presence these days) also comes to mind. We know barely anything about them so it would certainly be nice to see them stop being props to actually get expanded upon. Another one is Cookie Kwan, who is not so much a mere prop but other than her obsession with being No.1 on the West Side there is not much more to her so I think giving her a story to tell could be neat.
 
I like that idea about Helen, she's not a favourite of mine either but that is one story that I think should be told.

The Kirk and Luanne one sounds good too.
 
Helen's got some room, yeah. I think the only time she's actually been seen in a flashback was "The Way We Weren't" at that Camp Land-A-Man where she was harshly punished for forgetting which fork is used for Olives while Marge only ever got praised there. Or how Homer (at his best) goes to some pretty big lengths for Midge while the Rev seems to mainly ignore her in favour of his trains (something noted by Marge herself).

So, she seems to have some kind of legitimate reasons to be hostile to Marge... albeit not quite as strong as the girls at school towards Lisa since obviously it's not really Marge being crappy but still seems to get better treatment than her. Basically it's somewhat understandable why Helen might resent Marge but also still pretty unfair to take everything out on her. It would be something nice to acknowlege more since from a storytelling perspective it is better done than the other girls with Lisa... in that it doesn't accidentally make Marge the bad guy, really.
 
Seems like it's pretty much just about petty jelaousy when it comes to Helen and not what I'd call a legitimate reason to harass and bully someone over (nothing really is because what she is doing towards Marge and some others with her behavior is wrong no matter how I look at it).

She's a rather sad case, having something of an inferiority complex and is fueled by misplaced bitterness and spite that she takes out full force on Marge and even her family when she could have been inspired by Marge to try make things better and improve herself and spice up her marriage & that's another reason to give her more focus and develop her; she comes off as being a a hate sink and that's all good but I think they can dare to make us pity her if just a little.
 
They have developed her a little...if you count the Parson remembering her as “Harold Schwarzbaum” as development. :rolleyes:
 
Legitimate was a bad word, but hey what do you expect, I'm barely literate.:P I guess I meant it in the sense that there actually is a reason presented at all. It's not like with Lisa where it's presented as "She just doesn't like her because she's so smart and perfect and they're evil and dumb" (which, as it's presented in show really makes no sense when you actually think about it :P)

It's more like there's things that suck on one end (I mean, in that aforementioned flashback Helen got stabbed through the hand of all things for a tiny mistake) and not so much on the other and it's really beyond either of their control. It's not exactly fair for the former to take it out on the latter but at least it's pretty easy to see where the resentment comes from. Though unlike the Lisa example, Helen still manages to be in the wrong however you look at it since she goes out of her way to approach Marge in order to belittle her and all that. Again, it's kinda funny how there's some pretty interesting and complex situations created probably be accident more than anything else.
 
What was the first episode Helen appeared in? The one that sticks in my min for me was in "Life on the Fast Lane" where she goes up to Marge and Jacques and introduces herself as the gossipy wife of the minister but as that actually her first appearance?
 
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