Ned Flanders
fictional character from The Simpsons franchise
Nedward "Ned" Flanders Jr., commonly referred to by his surname, is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer and first appearing in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." He is the good-natured, cheery next-door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally perceived as annoying by Homer Simpson, though there are numerous instances where the two are portrayed as good friends. A scrupulous and devout Evangelical Christian, he is among the friendliest and most compassionate of Springfield's residents and is generally considered a pillar of the Springfield community.
He was one of the first characters outside the immediate Simpson family to appear on the show, and has since been central to several episodes, the first being season two's "Dead Putting Society". As the series progressed, Flanders's religious fanaticism increased immensely, prompting the coining of the term "Flanderization" to refer to the phenomenon of exaggerating certain traits of a fictional character to the point of redefining the character around them. His last name comes from Flanders Street in Portland, Oregon, the hometown of Simpsons creator Matt Groening.
Characterization
Creation
Ned Flanders, who was designed by Rich Moore, first appeared in the season one episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". The episode was the series premiere, but not the first episode produced. The first episode in which Flanders and his family were prominent is season two's "Dead Putting Society", which also contained the first appearance of Maude and Rod Flanders. The character was named after Flanders Street in Portland, Oregon, the hometown of Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Groening described the inspiration for Flanders as "just a guy who was truly nice, that Homer had no justifiable reason to loathe, but then did".
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This entry incorporates text from “Ned Flanders” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.