Talk:List of The Simpsons characters

The Hibbert Family

In the episode where Homer finds out that he has a long lost twin named Herb he meets Dr. Hibbert's long lost brother who is ironically the councilor at the orphanage. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.173.87.139 (talk) 22:52, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Ya? But like Abbie, Homer's "possible" sister, unless it is 100% confirmed, we don't list it Ctjf83Talk 23:02, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

How do you 100% corfirm something? You could watch that episode. The title eludes me now, but I'm 100% certain that my preceeding comment is true. As for Homer's sister, I've never heard that. Also, Bleedding Gums Murphy is another of Doctor Hibbert's brothers. Watch the episode where Bleeding Gums dies. It's in the sixth season. I think it's called "Round Spingfield!" 67.173.87.139 (talk) 01:39, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

You 100% confirm something by the character actually finding out that they are their sibling, not that he has a long lost brother, and then showing a person who is most likely his brother. They probably are brothers, but saying so, with out 100% evidence is Original Research and we don't add that. Ctjf83Talk 05:14, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Why where the one-time characters deleted?

If you ask me, the List of one-time characters in The Simpsons article is unnecessary. As persons have pointed out before, there is nothing there about the characters that you can't learn by simply reading the episode articles. (And the last time that article was submitted for deletion, it ended in no consensus.) I think we should just list all the one-time characters in this article, by season, with just their voice actor, the episode in which they appeared, and a brief description of the character—that is enough. I feel this should be the central character article, where we list the main, supporting, and recurring characters, and those one-time characters that were central to an episode's plot.Tj terrorible1 (talk) 16:25, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

I totally agree Tj! 67.173.87.139 (talk) 01:40, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

At least there's a place where one-timers are mentioned. Most character pages just include recurring characters (such as Characters of Lost). Besides, there are so many one-timers that this page would become too long very quick. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 02:14, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't like the way this article is organized

It's more like a fan site, if you ask me. Characters listed by "Springfield Nuclear Power Plant," "Springfield Elementary School," "Criminals," etc. We need a more encyclopedic organization for this list. Something like "Main characters," "Supporting characters," "Recurring characters," and "One-time characters" (that were central to a plot, mind you). If a character doesn't fall into one of those categories, then they don't belong on this list.Tj terrorible1 (talk) 16:45, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't oppose a resorting of the list, but I do strongly oppose your idea. It would lead to a lot of editors switching characters around between categories and possible edit warring. At least the present system is simple and NPOV. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 02:15, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Merge?

I think that this article and List of recurring characters in The Simpsons could be merged. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 00:59, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

New format suggestion

This is just an example—this exact table and these exact colors don't have to be used, but notice that characters are listed alphabetically; the Gremlin, a Halloween character, is color-coded; and Arnie Gumble, a deceased character, has his own color-code.

A

Character	Voice actor(s)	Description	First appearance
Akira	George Takei, Hank Azaria	Waiter at The Happy Sumo.	"One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish"
Amadopolis, Aristotle	Jon Lovitz, Dan Castellaneta	Owner of the Shelbyville Nuclear Power Plant.	"Homer Defined"

G

Character	Voice actor(s)	Description	First appearance
Goodman, Brad	Albert Brooks	Self-help guru.	"Bart's Inner Child"
Gremlin	Dan Castellaneta	Gremlin.	"Treehouse of Horror IV"
Gumble, Arnie	Dan Castellaneta	Father of Barney Gumble; Soldier, U.S. Army.	"Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish'"

References

• Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers.

Notes

Tj terrorible1 (talk) 17:10, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Comments

I wouldn't be against alphabetical sorting, but I am against including every single character that has ever been in the show (it should be more than one-timers) and I am also against colour coding. Maybe we could have colours for deceased characters, but we shouldn't have a different colour for every row, it would make adding rows to the table immensely difficult. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 18:15, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

First, your opinion that one-time characters should not be listed is not a neutral point of view. Second, no one expects us to list every single character in the history of the series, but one-time characters that are central to an episode's plot should be listed here. I think the List of one-time characters in The Simpsons should be demolished, and this list expanded into three separate list ("A-I," "H-R," "S-Z," whatever) and characters listed alphabetically. And I think Halloween characters should be color-coded so as not to mislead readers, for example, to distinguish Hugo from the rest of the Simpsons.Tj terrorible1 (talk) 18:52, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

If we did that, this list would be enormous, so per WP:LENGTH, it's split up. And I'm also against having three different main character lists, that minimalizes the usefulness of it. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 18:56, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

No, it doesn't minimal-ize the usefulness of it. If you have so many characters the list has to be split into three, that says just the opposite, that the list is useful. As a reader, i'd rather have a comprehensive 3-part list than a compressed solo-list. This is The Simpsons. We are not fooling anyone with this so-called "List of characters in The Simpsons."Tj terrorible1 (talk) 19:09, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

It's not compressed though. It contains a lot of characters that appeared in more than one episode (and despite what you say, it does still have some one-timers), while the one-timers list has minor characters. Wikipedia is not meant to be a fansite, anyone who wants every single character that has ever appeared should go to SNPP or the Simpsons wiki, not here. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 19:33, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

I am not saying that every character be listed, just to include more one-time characters. Only listing "some" one-timers is POV—why should you get to decide which one-timers belong and which do not, or which characters belong all together?Tj terrorible1 (talk) 14:38, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Okay, good idea. Let's limit it to recurring characters and leave the one-timers to their page. Thanks for the suggestion. And to turn your argument around, who determines what makes a one-timer notable for inclusion? Why should the page include Frank Grimes over someone like Handsome Pete, Sideshow Raheem or Pops Freshenmeyer when they've all been in an equal number of episodes? Limiting it to two+ episodes at least gives us a NPOV guideline to go from. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 15:33, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Better format

This format isn't any good, hardly seen charachters are on the same list as major charachters. This page should be a guide for who is new to the serie and want's to learn about the charachters.