From Johnny Cash to Jose Canseco to Leonard Nimoy, The Simpsons has hosted many high-profile guest stars over the years. Some guest appearances, like Dustin Hoffman as Mr. Bergstrom, have worked out better than others, like Lady Gaga as herself. But none of the show’s guest stars have returned to play more characters in the Simpsons-verse than Albert Brooks. Brooks’ voice is as identifiable to Simpsons fans as Harry Shearer’s or Hank Azaria’s.
From the diabolical villain of “You Only Move Twice” to the diabolical villain in The Simpsons Movie, Brooks has played a bunch of memorable characters in the Springfield universe – always credited as “A. Brooks.” But he’s also played a couple of more forgettable roles, like the unnamed music manager in “Yokel Hero.”
Music Manager
Brooks made his most recent Simpsons guest appearance in the season 32 episode “Yokel Hero.” The episode follows a familiar arc: an ancillary character (in this case, Cletus) becomes a music sensation and Homer becomes his manager.
Brooks cameos as a slicker, sleazier music manager. This is the comedy legend’s least substantial Simpsons role – the manager doesn’t even have a name – and it massively underutilizes his talents.
Dr. Raufbold
From Nelson to Jimbo to Kearney to Dolph, a bunch of Simpsons characters are bullies. The writers tackled the issue head-on in the episode “Bull-E,” in which Brooks guest-stars as Dr. Raufbold, a therapist and former convicted bully.
He runs a group for bullies and hopes to reform them and turn them into kinder, less violent of society. The concept behind the character is pretty novel, but Dr. Raufbold is relatively forgettable compared to some of Brooks’ other Simpsons roles.
Tab Spangler
Bart is sent to a camp to lose weight in “The Heartbroke Kid.” Brooks plays the toughest, meanest counselor at the Serenity Ranch weight-loss camp, Tab Spangler. This character is hilariously hotheaded and has no patience for any of the campers – particularly Bart.
Spangler’s short temper allowed Brooks to play against type. He has a hysterical back-and-forth with Homer in the final moments of the episode, ending “The Heartbroke Kid” on a high note.
Cowboy Bob
In “The Call of the Simpsons,” Brooks played Cowboy Bob, the kind of RV salesman who sees a customer like Homer coming from a mile away and pulls all the tricks out of his sleeve to make an easy sale.
It’s a great comedic persona that Brooks had a lot of fun with. The character proved to be so comedically fertile that he was brought back a few seasons later in “Mobile Homer” (although he was voiced by Dan Castellaneta that time).
Russ Cargill
On top of guest-starring in a handful of episodes across three decades, Brooks voiced the main villain of The Simpsons Movie. Russ Cargill is the hysterically unscrupulous head of the EPA. He’s responsible for the giant dome that was planted over Springfield, trapping its citizens “like carrots.”
Cargill has some really great lines – “I want to give something back – not the money, but something,” “I want 10,000 tough guys, and I want 10,000 soft guys to make the tough guys look tougher” – although he ultimately feels like a re-tread of Hank Scorpio, the high-energy megalomaniac that Brooks played in a previous Simpsons appearance.
Jacques
The writers of The Simpsons have penned several episodes about Homer being tempted to have an affair, but one of the show’s earliest episodes – season 1’s “Life on the Fast Lane” – revolved around Marge encountering her own charming suitor. Homer gives Marge a bowling ball as a last-minute gift, which highlights his thoughtlessness and leads Marge into the company of a French bowling instructor named Jacques, voiced by Brooks.
According to the DVD commentary, Brooks improvised almost all of his dialogue for this episode. The animation team had three hours of ad-libbed recordings to work from. As a result of this extended comic riffing, Jacques is much more rounded and fleshed-out (and, consequently, much more memorable) than the average single-episode character.
Brad Goodman
“Bart’s Inner Child” guest-stars Brooks as a self-help guru named Brad Goodman. When he comes to town for a seminar, Marge drags the family to take in his wisdom and gets more than she bargained for when Goodman takes a liking to Bart’s mischievous anything-goes attitude. He inspires everybody in Springfield to follow their own com and cause mayhem like Bart.
Suddenly, everyone in town is acting like Bart, which takes the air out of the real Bart’s tires. Goodman’s role in this episode is a great spoof of quick-fix self-help mantras and celebrity phoniness (he says of one of the famous guests in his infomercial, “I loved her in the thing I saw her in”).
Hank Scorpio
Season 8’s “You Only Move Twice” is often ranked alongside “Last Exit to Springfield” and “Marge vs. the Monorail” as one of the greatest episodes from The Simpsons’ run. Brooks guest-stars as Hank Scorpio, a supervillain who hires Homer and relocates the Simpsons to his private gated city.
Scorpio is easily Brooks’ most famous Simpsons role, and possibly the most iconic guest character from the show’s history. He’s a classic Bond villain crossed with a Michael Scott-style “world’s best boss.”