0078 - Sylvia Winfield (Patreon)

This is almost a good Simpsons trivia night question - who were the Simpson's neighbours on the non-Flanders side? Sylvia Winfield shows up a couple of times as a somewhat stereotypical angry neighbour, unable to put up with Homer's buffoonery. You may remember her calling Homer to complain about Santa's Little Helper, for example.

(Fun fact: in this episode alone, Sylvia is voiced by Tracey Ullman herself! We'll probably do a deeper dive on her relationship with the Simpsons when we get to this episode, 58 years from now.)

Her usefulness as a foil to the family runs out pretty quickly though, and in season 4's "New Kid On The Block" she moves to Florida "to run out the clock."

Our old friends at the Simpsons wiki claim that the Winfields are the neighbours on the other side of the Flanders, not the Simpsons, but I am here to pick a fight with them once again. The episode in which they move out ("New Kid On The Block") clearly shows the house they are selling on the Simpsons side:

That mailbox even has their name on it in at least one shot. Once again, I am hoping someone at the Simpsons wiki got fired for that blunder.

(I will admit that the show fudges with this slightly, in that Sylvia's appearance in "Homer's Odyssey" shows them further down the street, in the wrong direction.)

I know that you, an intelligent and well-read person subscribed to a Simpsons specific Patreon project, would not get Sylvia Winfield confused with Agnes Skinner or Eleanor Abernathy, but if I have any lasting wisdom to part with you today, it is to ensure you never mix her up with Alice Glick either as I have done in the past.

This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.