Santa's Little Helper the dog was a "sympathetic" character. Welker has been praised by staff members for his performances on the show. David Mirkin has noted that "he can do anything, and it fits perfectly. You forget you're listening to a guy, and he's a pleasure to work with." Groening has commented that he was "unbelievably good" at doing animal noises. After 1995, Castellaneta voiced Santa's Little Helper on his own while Welker performed other animal noises until his full departure in 2002, when he was denied a pay raise. In the "questions and answers" section on his website, Welker revealed that the
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