David Cooper
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0314 - Janitor
🕑 Added 2024-03-14 09:00:01 +0000 UTCWe're circling the runway on this episode, but the nature of having two major scenes in two different stadiums means we're meeting a lot of random staff members with no purpose beyond this episode.
In a live action sitcom, a character with one line like this would be a lot more work - you'd have to cast a whole different new actor, and pay them accordingly, which would just seem unnecessary for one moment. Either a character from earlier would be used, or more likely Homer would be directed to the manager's office another way. But this is animation, so it's much more reasonable to just throw in a random janitor and have him voiced by one of the main cast (in this case, Dan).
Maybe this is one reason The Simpsons resonated so well in the early 1990s. The world of Springfield (or Capital City) could feel larger and more lived in because of a variety of characters, sets and staging, that could be added to without dramatically inflating the budget. Yes, new elements have to be designed by artists, but drawing a new set or character costs significantly less than building a set or hiring an actor. A live action sitcom could not compete with this at the time.
This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.
