Santa's Little Helper and is the center of the plots of several episodes. During the course of the show, he has fathered litters of puppies, passed obedience school, had surgery for bloat, replaced Duffman as the mascot for Duff Beer, and been trained as a police dog at Springfield's Animal Police Academy. Some of the episodes that focus on Santa's Little Helper have been inspired by popular culture or real experiences that staff members of the show have gone through. Although cartoon animals are often anthropomorphized, Santa's Little Helper generally exhibits canine behavior. Cast member Dan Castellaneta currently provides the dog's sounds on
Media in The Simpsons no "Top Cat"!. Huckleberry Hound, Chief Wiggum, Yogi Bear? Andy Griffith, Edward G. Robinson, Art Carney!" The character Kent Brockman functions as "The Simpsons"s main character for news parodies. He was based on Los Angeles anchormen Hal Fishman and Jerry Dunphy, and modeled after anchorman Ted Koppel. Another influence on the character was "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Ted Baxter, played by Ted Knight. His role on "The Simpsons" is to host the news as the fictional television channel, Channel 6's anchorman. In addition to the news, he also hosts the programs "Eye on Springfield" and "Smartline". In most of