Character
Apu first appeared in the season one episode "The Telltale Head". While creating the character, the writers decided they would not make him ethnic. They felt it would be too offensive and stereotypical and did not want to offend viewers. However, at a table read for an episode, Hank Azaria's reading of the line "Hello, Mr. Homer" received a huge laugh from the writers, so the concept stayed. Azaria took Apu's voice from the many Indian convenience store workers in Los Angeles whom he had interacted with when he first moved to the area. He also loosely based it on Peter Sellers' character Hrundi V. Bakshi from the film The Party, whom Azaria thinks has a similar personality to Apu. Apu's first name is an homage to the main character in The Apu Trilogy directed by Satyajit Ray. His surname is Nahasapeemapetilon, and it was first used in the episode "A Streetcar Named Marge". It is a morphophonological blend of the name Pahasadee Napetilon, the full name of a schoolmate of Simpsons writer Jeff Martin. In the season seven episode "Lisa the Vegetarian" it is revealed that Apu is vegan.
Apu married Manjula in the episode "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons". Rich Appel first constructed the idea for Apu's marriage. Andrea Martin provided the voice of Apu's mother in the episode, recording her part in New York. She wanted to get the voice perfect, so in between takes she listened to tapes of Hank Azaria reading lines for Apu, to make sure her voice could realistically be Apu's mother's.
Read more about this topic: Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
Famous quotes containing the word character:
“She [Evelina] is a little angel!... Her face and person answer my most refined ideas of complete beauty.... She has the same gentleness in her manners, the same natural graces in her motions, that I formerly so much admired in her mother. Her character seems truly ingenuous and simple; and at the same time that nature has blessed her with an excellent understanding and great quickness of parts, she has a certain air of inexperience and innocency that is extremely interesting.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.”
—Katharine Hepburn (b. 1909)
“Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families; and in families not regulated by that pervading influence which sanctifies while it enhances ... in short, by the influence of Woman, in the lofty character of Wife, they may be expected with confidence, and must be borne with philosophy.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)