Marge Simpson

"hrrm!" -Marge's catch phrase

Marjorie "Marge" Simpson (née Bouvier) voiced by Julie Kavner, is the well-meaning and patient wife of Homer Simpson. Her most notable physical feature is her blue hair, styled into an improbably high beehive (kept in place by Johnson's Water Seal); she is proud to have never met anyone with taller hair outside Graceland. Homer once mentioned in Secrets of a Successful Marriage that she actually dyes her hair blue, being "gray as a mule since she was seventeen".

Personality
Marge spends most of her time doing housework, minding Maggie, being supportive of Lisa, and either disciplining Bart or protecting him from Homer's wrath. She was named after, and loosely based on, Margaret "Marge" Groening, mother of series creator Matt Groening. In many ways, Marge Simpson is modeled on the stereotypical 1950s suburban housewife, by using stereotypes such as her faux pearl necklace.

Marge’s image is typically that of a stereotypical sitcom mother, who is sometimes portrayed as naive and gullible. Despite having higher morals than most other characters, Marge has had her fair share of wild escapades throughout the show’s history. She was once a police officer in Springfield, took therapy for flight fear, was jailed for shoplifting, became a gambling addict, showed alcoholic tendencies, was an unwilling participant in a cross-country police chase, overdosed on steroids, cheated on a cooking competition and developed amnesia. She has also sold drugs at a garage sale which she was jailed for. In "The Joy of Sect", she escapes brainwashing by the Movementarian Church, showing a surprisingly strong will. Marge is the only member of the family who encourages church attendance. She also appears to have significant athletic ability in times of danger. She is bilingual, being fully fluent in French.

Politically, Marge generally aligns with the Democratic Party. She once mentions that she voted for Jimmy Carter ("twice" according to Lisa) and supported the candidacy of their state's progressive governor Mary Bailey, and also claimed to have been extremely depressed when Lyndon B. Johnson died.

Talents
Marge is a talented painter. When she was a teenager she had an intense crush on Ringo Starr and painted a large number of portraits of him. She also wrote to him, but only received a reply 25 years later. After Homer discovered her old paintings, Lisa encouraged Marge to enroll in an art contest in which her portrait of a drunk Homer asleep on the couch won a local art competition. She was then hired by Mr. Burns to do a portrait of him. After many attempts, she almost gave up until a belated response from Ringo Starr (stating that she had talent) inspired her to continue. The resulting portrait won even Mr. Burns’ praise, a massive feat in itself.

Marge is a very talented cook. She once started a pretzel business, which flourished with the aid of the mafia. She has entered various cooking challenges, although circumstances such as vengeful competitors and overheated ovens cause her to lose and once, sabotage other competitors. Marge revealed in the episode All's Fair in Oven War that she feeds the family on twelve dollars a week, using sawdust to pad Homer's food. In general she is regarded as a very good cook, despite the unusual fact that she knows of fewer than eight spices and apparently constructs very bad ice cream sundaes. She is especially renowned for her pork chops, Homer's favorite dish.

Trademarks
Marge's main clothes throughout the whole of the Simpsons series is a green dress, red shoes, tall blue hair and a red pearl necklace. The pearl necklace is a family heirloom and in in one episode she is seen to have a big drawer full of them. Lisa also wears a pearl necklace, but with white pearls. Doctor Hibbert revealed in one episode that she has webbed feet. In an episode titled "Husbands and Knives" she remarked that she used to have a "perfect 26-26-26" figure.

Hair
As a teen, Marge had waist length hair that she always wore down, but got the idea to wear it in her trademark beehive for senior prom in the episode The Way We Was; this is sometimes contradicted by more recent episodes that show Marge as a child, where she is portrayed with her hair worn tall. In the episode Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious, her hair is shown close to her knees, consistent with the logic that a lot of hair would be needed to create her tall beehive. It was revealed by Homer in Secrets of a Successful Marriage that Marge dyes her hair with blue dye #56, stating "She’s been gray as a mule since she was seventeen." Because of her unusually large hairstyle, her height is reported to be 8'6", as noted by Apu in the episode Marge in Chains. In The Way We Weren't, her hair was blue before she met Homer and was brunette at one time due to Marge ironing a piece of her hair for a long time. In The Simpsons Season Four DVD commentary, Matt Groening states that the original idea behind Marge's hair was to conceal large rabbit ears. The gag was intended to be revealed in the final episode of the series, but was scrapped early on due to inconsistencies.

Age
As with many Simpson characters, Marge's age changes to serve the story. In first-season episodes Life on the Fast Lane and Some Enchanted Evening, Marge is said to be 34, but her age was later changed to 38, possibly because she and Homer attended their twentieth anniversary high-school reunion in one episode(this could be written away to Homers stupidity, being held back a grade 1 or more times). In the episode Regarding Margie, Homer mentions that Marge is his age, meaning she could be anywhere between 36 and 40. In Bart After Dark she claims to have lived in Springfield for 37 years. Marge's birthday is not precise as there have been at least three different ones given. Marge claims to have the same birthday as real life actor Dennis Quaid, April 9,in Marge Gamer.

Creation
Matt Groening first conceived the Simpson family in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. He had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts, and had intended to present his Life in Hell series. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening decided to go in another direction. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, and named the characters after various members of his own family, with Marge being the name of his mother. Marge then made her debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on 19 April, 1987 in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night".

Reception
Julie Kavner received a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 for voicing Marge in the episode "I Married Marge". In 2004, Kavner and Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer) won a Young Artist Award for "Most Popular Mom & Dad in a TV Series". For her performance in The Simpsons Movie, Kavner received a nomination for "Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature" at the 2007 Annie Awards, but lost to Ian Holm in Ratatouille. Kavner's emotional performance in the movie got positive reviews and one critic said she "gave what must be the most heartfelt performance ever".