{"id":1386,"date":"2012-02-02T13:55:43","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T13:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/?p=1386"},"modified":"2012-02-05T11:35:03","modified_gmt":"2012-02-05T11:35:03","slug":"willie-from-the-simpsons-is-from-orkney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/2012\/02\/willie-from-the-simpsons-is-from-orkney\/","title":{"rendered":"Willie from The Simpsons is from Orkney?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hard-drinking, hard-fighting Springfield resident with the bright red beard, Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons is from Orkney – if this article<\/a> from the BBC is to be believed.<\/p>\n

He will reveal more about his Scottish roots and his personality conflicts in an episode of the show to be broadcast later this month in America.<\/p>\n

Rob LaZebnik is The Simpsons<\/a> writer who came up with this storyline.<\/p>\n

Willie reveals all in the episode when he explains that he is from Kirkwall.<\/p>\n

Rob LaZebnik said: “We felt it was time and we are very pleased to identify him as an Orcadian.”<\/p>\n

The writers appear to have settled on Orkney due to the ba’ game.<\/p>\n

Update – Sunday, 5 February 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

It would appear that the debate between Glasgow, the assumed home of groundskeeper Willie and Kirkwall is set to heat up after a motion was filed in the Scottish Parliament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MSP for Orkney \u00a0Liam McArthur<\/a>\u00a0, Liberal Democrat, called upon Glasgow City Council to give up Willie as a “Son of that fair City.”<\/p>\n

*S4M-01921 Liam McArthur: Hands off Groundskeeper Willie<\/strong>\u2014That the Parliament notes that it has been confirmed that Groundskeeper Willie of\u00a0The Simpsons<\/em>\u00a0fame hails from Kirkwall, Orkney; understands that the revelation is made in an episode entitled\u00a0The Daughter Also Rises<\/em>, to be broadcast in America on 12 February 2012, where Willie confides in Bart that his father was a \u2018doonie\u2019 and his mother was an \u2018uppie\u2019, in reference to the two teams in the world-famous \u2018Ba game\u2019; understands how the tension created by this modern day version of Capulets and Montagues tore his family apart but welcomes the fact that the long-running debate over Willie\u2019s heritage is now at an end, and calls on Glasgow City Council to renounce its claim to Orkney\u2019s Groundskeeper Willie as a son of that fair city.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Famous Glaswegians listed on the City of Glasgow website<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0include\u00a0Groundskeeper Willie – from the Simpsons.<\/p>\n

Under the heading, fictional characters, the entry now reads:<\/p>\n

Groundskeeper Willie –<\/strong>\u00a0from the Simpsons.\u00a0 Once claimed he was “the ugliest man in Glasgow”, but now says he is from Orkney.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Will this now mean Orkney will see an influx of characters from The Simpsons in next years ba’ game ?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The hard-drinking, hard-fighting Springfield resident with the bright red beard – Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons is from Orkney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[180,1810],"tags":[2869,320,2857,2849,2862,2852,2871,2490,2844,2845,2858,2851,2847,2868,2864,2867,2866,315,23,2840,2843,2861,2854,2842,2839,2841,2870,2863],"class_list":["post-1386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-fun","category-news","tag-ba-game","tag-bbc","tag-capulets-and-montagues","tag-city-of-glasgow","tag-doonie","tag-fictional-characters","tag-fox-tv","tag-game","tag-game-update","tag-glasgow","tag-glasgow-city-council","tag-glaswegians","tag-groundskeeper-willie","tag-groundsman-willie","tag-liam","tag-liberal-democrat","tag-mcarthur","tag-orcadian","tag-orkney","tag-personality-conflicts","tag-red-beard","tag-running-debate","tag-scottish-parliament","tag-scottish-roots","tag-simpsons","tag-springfield-resident","tag-thesimpsons","tag-uppie","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/author\/admin\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1386"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1392,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386\/revisions\/1392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}