You win the thread!
<Homer> Heh, heh…Nurder. <Homer>
I believe that the Van Houten family was initially based on the Pfeiffer family from The Wonder Years.
Some great and enjoyable responses in this thread, only a few character/celebrity similarities I had picked up on - Gill, Mayor Quimby and I kinda suspected Hank Scorpio as Branson.
Edna Krabappel’s name is a reference to Miss Crabtree from the Our Gang comedies, but the two characters have little in common aside from being grammar school teachers.
Howell Huser = Huell Howser
He’s specifically based on actor Paul Sorvino,who played mobster Paul Cicero in Goodfellas.
The actor, Frank Sivero, sued The Simpsons for $250 million earlier this year.
Lurleen Lumpkin = Loretta Lynn
Lance Murdock obviously = Evel Knievel.
Was the self help guru Brad Goodman based on anyone in particular?
In a similar vein, Ernst and Gunther are obviously Siegfriend and Roy.
Kent Brockman (Kenny Brockelstein) - Los Angeles anchormen Hal Fishman and Jerry Dunphy.
Larry H. Lawyer, Jr. - Loosely based on Larry H. Parker, a personal injury lawyer who frequently advertises on television.
Blue-Haired Lawyer - McCarthy-era lawyer Roy Cohn, and character actor Charles Lane.
Robert Chaporo - Lawyer Robert Shapiro.
Albert Dershman - Lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
Sorry about the excess of lawyers.
Comic Book Guy was based on the owner of a comic book store five miles down the road from the Simpsons studio. (As well as a comic book store ten miles down the road, a comic book store twenty miles down the road, etc.)
I think only the name and general kiddie show/“clown-ness” (red nose, etc.) was based on Rusty Nails. Note the picture here. He doesn’t even look like the “Rusty the Clown” parade balloon.
Rusty was seriously religious and would hardly be the role model for the morally challenged Krusty.
Paul Sorvino’s Paulie character is clearly the model for Fat Tony. Goodfellas came out in 1990 and the first appearance of Fat Tony in Bart the Murderer was in 1991. The whole episode reeked of Goodfellas. According to Wikipedia, they had the general idea for the episode before the movie came out and added homages to the movie later. But Fat Tony is Paulie Cicero.
And his nickname comes from Diamond Jim Brady.
His nephew Freddy Quimby is named after an animation producer.
Join the club.
Shary Bobbins may be an original creation like Rickey Rouse and Monald Muck, but she’s clearly inspired by the 1964 performance of Julie Andrews.
The photographer in the episode “They Saved Lisa’s Brain” looks suspiciously like Annie Leibovitz.
Isn’t that exactly what fair use laws are for though? I mean, the character of “Louie” doesn’t cause any lost revenue for “Goodfellas” or Sivero, and Fat Tony and co. are clearly a parody of gangster movie gangsters, including Sivero’s portrayal of Frankie Carbone.
I’d think he’d be honored that his character was iconic enough to be parodied in such a way, not trying to sue the Simpsons some 23 years after the character was introduced.
I’ve been in a few comic stores run by comic book fans but I don’t ever recall running into anybody like CBG. I think he’s simply all the comic book nerd stereotypes all rolled up into one person.
Number 6, even voiced by Patrick McGoohan, from The Prisoner