Character: Abraham Simpson, voiced by Dan Castellaneta
First Episode: in the full series, Grampa first appeared in Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (S01, E01-001), but he's been around since the Tracy Ullman shorts. His first appearance in those was "Grampa and the Kids".
Occupation: a retired veteran, its never truly specified what Grampa did once he was out of the army, though its likely that he was - at least for some time - a farmer.
General Demeanor
There are basically two different kinds of Grampa Simpsons the show uses: quick-gag Grampa and episode-focus Grampa.
Quick-gag Grampa is a senile old man who rambles about events in the past which may or (more likely) may not have happened and is often ignored and/or avoided by the main Simpson family. Sometimes it'll be him and the other old folks at the retirement home he lives at who will be the brunt of jokes, which generally consists of them being slow, feeble and out of touch.
Episode-focus Grampa, as you would expect, is a more fleshed out character. He's rarely senile or incompetent here unless its to set up the episode or its major conflict. More often than not, if an episode focuses on Grampa it'll be on one of three things: his time with the army, his relationship with his son Homer or his estranged wife Mona, or how miserable his life currently is living mostly alone at the retirement home.
Generally, Grampa and Homer do not get along very well, partly due to Mona's absence for most of Homer's childhood and adolescence. Grampa's general dismissal of Homer's accomplishments and Homer's subsequent act of putting Grampa in the retirement home have left the two at odds with one other. Grampa gets along better with the rest of the immediate Simpson family, though how much he gets along with them varies from episode to episode.
Key Character Moments
Unlike other characters I've covered thus far, Grampa is as much a member of the main Simpson family as a character that's not the main five can be. Subsequently, there are many episodes where Grampa is featured, many more than most characters would get. So, I'm mainly going to focus on episodes that develop Grampa as a character, or exceptional episodes that feature Grampa.
The Rise of the Simpsons
Some bits of Grampa's history is shown here, including his time in the military and his rocky relationship with Homer. Another part of his past revealed is that Abe has another son, whom he conceived with a carnival woman who soon died. That boy grew up to be the head of a car company who made the fatal mistake of letting Homer design a company-destroying automobile. Grampa is also shown to be sneaky, in The War of the Simpsons, he guilt trips Lisa and (somewhat) Bart into cleaning up the house after Bart hosts a messy party there. When Homer and Marge return from their marriage-episode shenanigans, Grampa reveals his ruse, and quite happily so.
Old Money is the first real episode to focus on Grampa, who fell in love with another resident of his retirement home, Bea. She dies when Grampa is forcibly away, but leaves him with her savings, over $100,000 worth. Ultimately Grampa decides to use the money to fix up the retirement home, naming a dining room in her honor (which I don't think was ever referenced again - the dining room I mean).
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| An 'accurate' portrayal of Grampa from the Tracy Ullman shorts. |
Grampa is given focus on The Front, where his name and elderly status is used by Bart and Lisa to submit written Itchy & Scratchy cartoons without being dismissed. Grampa is given recognition for his "efforts" but after actually watching one of his "written" cartoons, he is disgusted and tells off everyone that likes it.
In a side-plot of Lisa vs Malibu Stacy, Grampa wants to feel young again, and does a thing most young people do: work at a fast food restaurant. However, struggling to keep up with the fast pace of the work, Grampa soon realizes that his age allows him to complain about food with his elderly peers, not just deal with it like his younger co-workers and promptly quits.
In the underrated Lady Bouvier's Lover, Homer and Marge get the bright idea to hook up lonely Grampa with Marge's mother, the lonely Jacqueline Bouvier. It actually works until Mr. Burns swoops in to steal Jacqueline away. Grampa's last ditch attempt to prevent the two from marrying works enough for Jacqueline to reject both of them, which is good enough for Grampa.
Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy actually reveals much of Grampa's past, such as the fact that he used to live on a farm with Mona and a young Homer. As the two go around the area selling some kind of aphrodisiac, the two eventually get into an argument, where Grampa angrily reveals that its only because he took that medicine that Homer was conceived in the first place. Though he immediately regrets saying that, Homer's anger with Grampa reaches new highs. Still, as the two independently return to the farm, Homer realizes that Grampa does care for him, and Grampa knows that he had good fun with Homer while it lasted and the two reconcile after each one independently (and accidentally) set the farm on fire.
Speaking of Mona, she formally gets introduced in the Season 7 episode Mother Simpson. Although Grampa isn't much of a focus in this episodes, its revealed that Mona leaves him after her run in with activism forces her to go on the run - and Abe didn't do much to convince her to stay. The two are at odds, but Mona shows only pity for the decaying Grampa.
In another Season 7 episode (the one with the really long title), Grampa reveals he was part of a unit during World War II consisting of Springfield residents, which included Monty Burns. After the war, the unit found a batch of valuable paintings, so Monty suggests a tontine, where the last surviving member of the unit is given the paintings. Abe and Monty are the last two left, so Monty tries to speed up the process by having Abe killed. Eventually, Grampa realizes he was Monty's commanding officer, and kicks him out of the unit, officially giving him the paintings until the descendant of the painting's owner arrives to claim what's rightfully his. Also Grampa and Bart bond over the experience, whatever.
The Fall of the Simpsons
Season 9's Lisa the Simpson has Grampa revealing to Lisa that there exists a "Simpson gene" where members of the Simpson family are doomed to become stupid and incompetent, though he himself is unaware that the gene only affect male Simpsons.
King of the Hill, the Season 9 episode, provides a little extra backstory for Grampa. Here, at some point, he tries to climb the Springfield Murderhorn with an associate - McAllister, and though he claims McAllister kicked him off the mountain in an act of betrayal, but Homer finds out that Grampa betrayed McAllister, including biting off a chunk of his arm.
Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble", was a Season 10 episode where Grampa's kidneys fail thanks in large part of Homer, and so Homer is tasked with giving Grampa one of his, but when Homer learns of the drawbacks of having only one kidney, he chickens out (twice even), leaving Grampa to die. Luckily, Homer gets hit by a car on the second escape, and the opportunity allows Grampa to get a kidney while Homer is under surgery from the car accident.
Showing his wits once more, in The Great Money Caper, as Homer and Bart begin lives as professional ruse-men, Grampa (eventually) reveals he is the greatest of the Simpson ruse-men.
Zombie Simpsons
The Old Man and the Key, a Season 13 episode, has Grampa earning a driver's license again so he can woo a foxy, shallow older lady named Zelda. However, Grampa crashes Homer's car, and Homer subsequently prevents Grampa from driving again. Zelda leaves Grampa for another man as a result and as the two head to Branson, Missouri, Grampa (and Bart) steal Marge's car to catch up, so Grampa can find Zelda and ultimately tell her off.
Season 15's The Regina Monologues reveals Abe has a second illegitimate child whom he conceived with an English woman, a 58 year old woman named Abby who looks and acts mostly like Homer.
Grampa is a major character in Midnight Rx, which is all I'm going to say about that episode.
Season 17's Homer's Paternity Coot reveals that Mona was in a relationship with another man supposedly around the time she got pregnant with Homer. Homer finds the man and takes a paternity test with both that man and Grampa. Initially its revealed that the man, a wealthy, successful man, is the father, but after some time Grampa reveals that he actually is the father and that he swapped the tests around because he felt Homer would have more fun with the other guy.
A few episodes later in Million Dollar Abie, Grampa single-handedly botches Springfield's bid for an NFL team, and the town subsequently hates him so much Grampa wants to kill himself. He thinks he does, and is truly happy but becomes depressed again when he learns he's still alive. No longer fearing death, he then becomes a bullfighter. Neat story, right? But then Lisa gets made because Grampa is hurting animals so he lets them go so they can hurt innocent people.
Rome-old and Juli-eh, in Season 18, has Grampa getting into a relationship with Selma, initially to anger Homer but the two start up a real relationship anyway but it doesn't work out due to Selma's full time work and Grampa's general incompetence.
Zombie Simpsons HD
I just realized that there were seven seasons - and parts of an eighth - of regular Zombie Simpsons, and now we're in the seventh season (with parts of the same eighth) of Zombie Simpsons HD. All the same writers, all the same low quality. Its okay though, for I no longer feel pain.
Anyway, in Season 20's In the Name of the Grandfather, another moment of the Simpsons forgetting about Grampa leads to them fulfilling one of his wishes: to return to Ireland where he was briefly at and drink at a pub he once was at. Shenanigans occur, of course.
In Thursdays with Abie, in Season 21, Grampa is being taken advantage of by a "human interest" writer who plans on writing a memorable story about Grampa which ends with Grampa's memorable "death". Homer stops it in time.
Season 21's The Color Yellow has Grampa reveal that his great grandfather, also named Abraham Simpson, is the offspring of a former slave and a woman who helped him escape, meaning he, Homer, and his kids are a slim fraction black.
I'm posting a link to Season 22's The Scorpions Tale. The picture on the page is basically all you need to know.
Season 24's Gone Abie Gone reveals Grampa found a new girlfriend after Mona left, which Homer was fully aware of but had completely forgotten about, but circumstances mostly beyond their control forced the two apart.
Later that season, in To Cur with Love, Grampa forces Homer to remember that he had a dog when he was boy, Bongo, but was forced to leave Bongo on a ranch outside the city after it bit Mr. Burns' hand. Homer had believed Bongo forgotten about him, resulting in his disdain for dogs, but Grampa revealed that Bongo still had Homer's old sweater, which forces Homer to reconsider his stance on dogs - as well as Grampa.
Still in Season 24, Gorgeous Grampa makes the viewer believe that Grampa was gay based solely on old props and clothes he had, but he was actually a fancy bad guy wrestler way back when.
Season 25's The Yellow Badge of Cowardge shows Grampa being a coward while he was in the army which was the main reason why he and most senior veterans even survived anything. Thinking about it, I suppose this episode didn't sit well with veterans.
EVEN MORE past is revealed in Season 26's Let's Go Fly a Coot, which reveals how Abe and Mona met.
Must Watch Episodes that Focus on Grampa Simpson
Old Money
The Front
Lady Bouvier's Lover
Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy
Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"
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