Kent Brockman is another long-standing Simpsons player who has never really deserved his reputation as an "iconic secondary character." As the town's premiere news anchor, Brockman is supposed to epitomise the arrogant types you get in such a profession, but he's never really had a chance to shine - nor does he ever really provide the laughs. And yet everybody who watches The Simpsons still knows Kent Brockman's name, and he usually makes an appearance every three or four episodes (clearly the writers relish him as a tool for delivering exposition and plot information via the TV set - who wouldn't?). To be fair, he's not really the sort of character who needs fleshing out, per se, but the show has never done anything remotely interesting with this guy. He's very much a background character masquerading as a secondary one - kind of a yawn when you think about it.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
