page_title: Principal Charming
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Principal Charming / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Dan Castellaneta in 2002
context_page_description: "Principal Charming" is the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons' second season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 14, 1991. In the episode, Marge asks Homer to find a husband for her sister Selma. Homer invites Principal Skinner to dinner after Bart gets caught vandalizing the school's lawn. Skinner's dinner with the Simpsons fails to go as planned when he instead falls for Selma's twin sister Patty.
  The episode was written by David M. Stern and directed by Mark Kirkland. The characters Hans Moleman, Groundskeeper Willie and Squeaky Voiced Teen make their first appearances on The Simpsons in this episode. "Principal Charming" features cultural references to films such as Vertigo, Gone with the Wind, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
  Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 14.1, and was the highest-rated show on Fox the week it aired.
context_section_description: The episode was written by David M. Stern and directed by Mark Kirkland. Stern particularly liked writing episodes about Marge and her sisters Patty and Selma. Executive producer Mike Reiss said none of the staff members could relate on a personal level to the twins, but Stern "seemed to really hook in to them, so he did some great episodes featuring members of the Bouvier family." Due to the episode's romantic theme, the airdate was pushed back to Valentine's Day on February 14, 1991. It was, however, ready to be aired several months earlier.
  The characters Hans Moleman, Groundskeeper Willie and Squeaky Voiced Teen made their first appearances on the show in "Principal Charming". Willie's role in the episode was to punish Bart by making him re-sod the grass. Originally, Willie was just written as an angry janitor, and the fact that he was Scottish was added during a recording session. Dan Castellaneta was assigned to do the voice, but he did not know what voice to use. Sam Simon, who was directing at the time, told Castellaneta to use an accent. He first tried using a Spanish voice, which Simon felt was too clichéd. He then tried a "big dumb Swede", which was also rejected. For his third try, he used the voice of an angry Scotsman, which was deemed appropriate enough and was used in the episode. Originally thought by the directors to be a one-shot appearance, Willie has since become a common recurring character. The show's creator Matt Groening later revealed that the character was based partially on Angus Crock, a kilt-wearing chef from the sketch comedy show Second City Television, who was portrayed by Dave Thomas, and Jimmy Finlayson, the mustachioed Scottish actor who appeared in thirty-three Laurel and Hardy films. In addition to Willie, Castellaneta also provided the voice of Squeaky Voiced Teen, whose voice is lifted from actor Richard Crenna's character Walter Denton in the sitcom Our Miss Brooks. Moleman's voice was also provided by Castellaneta. He was given the name Moleman by Groening, who thought the character looked like a mole.
caption: Dan Castellaneta provided the voice of several new characters.
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