Paging Dr. Nick
By Nate • Oct 6th, 2008 • Category: TV
For fans of The Simpsons, Dr. Nick Riviera is usually a favorite. He is just one of many one-note characters that, over the years, we have grown used to seeing pop up in the most odd and hilarious of situations. Be it a TV Infomercial hawking a Juice Loosener or showing up to help anesthetize Bart (but failing miserably) during his appendectomy. His catch phrase, “Hi, everybody!” followed invariably by a hearty, “Hii, Dr. Nick!” is a part of The Simpsons’ lexicon. It’s fair to say that Dr. Nick Riviera is to The Simpsons generation what Norm was to The Cheers generation, at least as far as entrances go.
Which is why his apparent death in The Simpsons Movie last summer was both funny (he uttered a modified, “Goodbye, everybody” before dying) and sad, because we had become used to his quirky incompetence and Hollywood Upstairs Medical College smarts. But we got used to the absence of Dr. Marvin Monroe and Bleeding Gums Murphy, and we were kids when they passed on, so we should be able to handle this loss just fine. Besides, with every season through #10 already on DVD and the show itself in re-runs once, twice and in some places even three times a day, it’s not like we’d never hear Dr. Nick again.
But you can imagine my surprise when I was watching the new episode “Lost Verizon” last night and saw this:
Yeah, that’s Dr. Nick Riviera alright. No ifs ands or buts about it. He’s not even on the job and never even utters a word, much less a well-worn, “Hi, everybody!”
My wife and I, new recipients of a DVR, paused the TV and stared at each other in disbelief.
“Isn’t he dead?” she asked.
“Yeah, in the movie, he died. What the hell?” I grabbed my laptop and did a quick wikipedia search and pulled up Dr. Nick’s entry, only to find this tidbit:
Death
In The Simpsons Movie, Dr. Nick is impaled by a large shard of glass that falls from the dome covering Springfield and says, in his normal voice, “Bye everybody!” before passing out. James L. Brooks and Al Jean have confirmed that Dr. Nick is dead, but will be brought back to life “à la [in a way similar to] Dr. Marvin Monroe“.[6]. He has recently returned alive and well without any explaination working as Dr. Hibbert’s caddy in Lost Verizon.
You can’t do that! You can’t tease us like that, taking away a beloved character and then just deciding to insert him wherever seems convenient for you. There was no comeback for Bleeding Gums Murphy, there was no shout out to Lionel Hutz after Phil Hartman died. Even Dr. Marvin Monroe, long dead, had his reintroduction happen several season after his “death.” And even his reappearance was brief and didn’t lead to any further appearances.
We need time to grieve for Dr. Nick before you can just bring him back. We need time to slowly forget the hilarity of “Hi, everybody!” before it comes back into our lives. Have a heart, Mr. Groening.
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Nate is pretty sure Mark Twain said it best, "Humor is the great thing, the saving thing after all. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations, and resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place."
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You realize you’re talking about the show that last season purported that Homer Simpson as a young man invented grunge music in the early 90s, even though in previous seasons, they had shown Homer Simpson having been in high school in the 70s. There is no logic to be made of The Simpsons anymore. The writers no longer care. Why should you?
I realize this. I don’t care. That episode was an abberation. Dr. Nick is an institution.
I haven’t seen every episode of the show this last two seasons but I find myself caring. With 20 seasons, the show can get monotonous but this occurences at least provide a bit of change like Maude’s death or Millhouse’s parents’ divorce.
Did the guy talk at all in the show? Maybe when he starts talking it’s someone else.
I think Froix is onto something there, and that it would be best to assume that the character pictured was Dr. Rick Riviera, the long-lost brother of the deceased Dr. Nick Riviera.
Maybe the creators of The Simpsons are taking a page out of the tv show Dallas where Dr. Nick’s death was actually part of a dream sequence. Or maybe it’s like the ending show in St. Elsewhere where everything was the imagination of an autistic child. Oh, how these people torment those of us who are devoted followers of The Simpons. Why????
There is no denying it. That is Dr. Nick. You can’t just up and say that he has a brother. Let alone a twin brother.
Did Bart recognize him? I mean, he recognized Krusty after he faked his death after winding up in debt.
Hey whatever will get people to watch the show. I cannot believe that someone would even mention about that episode. It is one of the most well known and watched shows out there. Keep us entertained and Dr. Nick keep it coming.
I really need to SERIOUSLY watch my copy of “The Simpsons Movie” a bit more carefully; I’ve watched it twice since I bought the DVD and I really don’t remember the “Bye, everybody” scene.
Maybe this Dr. Nick-is-dead thing took a page from Dallas’ “Bobby died, but it was only a dream” playbook. Or maybe it was another incidence of writers simply wanting to mess with our heads simply because they can.
Isn’t it the movie sometimes don’t actually go well with the series? Correct me if I’m wrong but some episodes really changed a lot on the show, sometimes even the whole town but afterwards, the episode that followed would be all exactly the same? My point here is that, not all episodes go together with the succeding episodes, most especially the movie.
I don’t think there is any problem with The Simpsons Movie not matching with the continuity of the TV show. And if there are any loopy discrepancies, it’s just a cartoon.
By the by, I watched the DVD again and saw the Dr. Nick death scene….
“Bye, everybody!”