0355 - Dr Nick Riviera (Patreon)

TWO huge characters in the same episode? And we're not even done? Truly "Bart Gets Hit By A Car" is the gift that keeps on giving.

Despite his later status as a bigger character, Dr Nick only appears in this scene - the climax of the court case centres around his status as a phony doctor, but he does not personally appear. Additionally, he doesn't say "Hi, everybody!" when he first appears, which is somewhat unsettling. This catchphrase is established in his next appearance, three episodes later in "Homer vs Lisa and the Eighth Commandment", when he appears on an infomercial:

Apart from this, Dr Nick comes out fairly fully formed! He's a charismatic con-artist, he's very charming, and he does not really change over the next few years.

UNTIL:

I watched Dr Nick die in a cinema in 2007 towards the end of "The Simpsons Movie". It didn't feel "shocking" necessarily - it's played for a cheap laugh - but I did kind of commend them for using this big cinematic event to so boldly kill off someone's favourite character. Dr Nick is just on the cusp of being big enough to actually have an impact on the show going forward, while still not really mattering much at all. By this point in the show's history (18 seasons in), there were more than enough recognisable side-characters that could have been used for the big shocking movie death, but for some reason Dr Nick made sense.

I wasn't watching the show regularly by this point, so I had assumed for years that this death had stuck - but it didn't, and Dr Nick appears again in season 20's "Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe" without drawing attention to his resurrection:

Originally created as a "quack" doctor for the sake of silly medical jokes, the slow decline of Dr Hibbert as a serious character means that Dr Nick is kind of redundant in the world of The Simpsons - but his likability ensures he endures, and even cheats death.

Nick is partially a caricature of Gábor Csupó, of Klasky Csupo fame, and I can see the resemblance:

Some sources state that Dr Nick's name is taken from George Nichopoulos, Elvis's personal physician who may have been responsible for the drugs contributing to his death, but Mike Reiss claims this isn't so.

This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.