What a character: Why McGarnagle from The Simpsons is a TV great

"Heyyyy, I’m trying to eat lunch here."

Before you say it to yourselves, I know what you’re thinking. How in God’s name can a character who made incredibly minor cameos in two episodes of a show that has nearly 600 episodes and counting, be considered a TV great? Rest assured, it was something I took into consideration before writing this piece, but I felt the need to do so for a number of reasons. First of all, as far as I’m concerned, there can never be enough discussion about The Simpsons. Or at least there can never be enough discussion about the show’s glorious era, which is untouched in terms of quality by any other comedy programme, animated or otherwise, before or since. Secondly, contributions I made to two other Simpsons-related articles on the site from a long way back had been bothering me. The first was the inclusion of McGarnagle at number nine in a list compiled by the entire JOE team of the top 25 secondary characters ever to appear in The Simpsons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDtdCxGosUQ Clip via DrPepperAndSteak I’ve since decided that McGarnagle should be way higher on that list. Lionel Hutz can stay at number one, but I’d have no problem doing a straight swap with Captain McAllister and putting McGarnagle in at number three. Yarr. In another article discussing the JOE team’s favourite ever Simpsons episodes, meanwhile, I picked an episode from Season 8 (most of us did) and opined that it was probably the show’s best season. After watching a lot of old Simpsons lately, however, I’m inclined to revisit that opinion and I’ll elaborate on exactly why a little bit later. Finally, although McGarnagle might have only appeared in two episodes of The Simpsons, such was his lasting impact that the most fair-weather of fans will instantly recognise him and remember his most famous quotes. There weren’t that many, after all. In three words, he's: Stubborn, uncompromising, maverick. Why he’s a TV great: To get the obvious out of the way, the parallels with Clint Eastwood’s Harry Callahan from Dirty Harry are plain to see and brilliantly parodied by Dan Castellaneta, who provided his voice. But the real reason I’ve selected McGarnagle as a TV great is that he is representative of the show’s wonder years, when pretty much everything it touched turn to gold. Both of McGarnagle’s cameos came in episodes during Season 5, Bart’s Inner Child and The Boy Who Knew Too Much respectively. Having previously thought, as I mentioned earlier, that Season 8 represented the peak of The Simpsons’ glory years, I’ve recently come around to the idea that, consistently brilliant as The Simpsons was until Season 9, they may have reached that peak three seasons earlier. Looking at the list of episodes in Season 5 only reinforces that opinion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF0Havte3Os Clip via Simpsonphile Homer’s Barbershop quartet, Cape Feare (the best Sideshow Bob episode), Deep Space Homer, Rosebud (Mr. Burns’ search for Bobo the bear, see clip above) and so many more; it’s probably no surprise that a lot of them were written by John Swartzwelder, arguably the most revered member of The Simpsons’ writing staff. A lot of the episodes in Season 5 were more ambitious and sometimes, more absurd, than what went before but the show was so comfortable in its own skin and on such a good run of form at that stage that they were well able to pull it off. Despite appearing in just two episodes in a season that first aired in 1993, for example, everyone remembers the contribution of McGarnagle more than 20 years on. The same is true for two one-off characters that appeared in the episodes in which McGarnagle was featured; Freddy Quimby (who may have come up if you’ve ever ordered Chowder in a restaurant) and Brad Goodman. https://twitter.com/simpsonsqotd/status/477408747544145921 Furthermore, McGarnagle’s contributions were the perfect example of little snippets during episodes that bore little or no relevance to the episode they appeared in, but worked a treat regardless. For another example from around about the same era - Season 6, to be exact - see Knightboat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoV1-fsFCmw Clip via kentuckyfriedpanda1 The most bittersweet thing about watching McGarnagle and the selection of clips above is the realisation that they're all from so long ago. Currently in its 27th season and with a 28th season on the way, The Simpsons has been a bad show for far longer than it has been a good one and that is a painful acknowledgement for people like me who regard it as the best TV programme ever made. That said, you don't have to look too hard on the tellybox for a re-run of an episode from the show's glory years and a reminder that, when characters like McGarnagle were around, it really was that good. "Ah McGarnagle, eases the pain." His best quote: “You’re off YOUR case, chief.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RJei9xpRrI Clip via Samuel Thomas Pemberton If we could put him in another show: We wouldn’t. It just wouldn’t be right.