Arnold "Arnie" Pye is a disgruntled, somewhat eccentric helicopter traffic reporter for Springfield’s KBBL-TV (Channel 6). His segments are titled Arnie Pye with Arnie in the Sky. In some of the early episodes, he was referred to as "Bill Pye". His accent implies that he may have originated from New York or New Jersey. His name is a play on "Ernie Pyle", a famous news reporter.
Biography
Dislike of Brockman
He has an apparent dislike of anchorman Kent Brockman, with whom he often gets into arguments on the air, because Kent is a much bigger and luckier star.
Accident
Pye’s helicopter once crashed; he managed "Tell my wife I love—” before the live feed was lost. The incident was dismissed with a chuckle by the oblivious Brockman. However, he survived and has been seen in several episodes afterward.
Creation
"Arnie Pye in the Sky" is a play on words with the expression "pie in the sky".
Replacing Brockman
When Kent was demoted to a Weatherman and eventually fired, Arnie briefly became the new head anchor. He briefly took some joy in usurping Kent Brockman as News Anchorman by drawing a "Kent Stinks" graffiti on the Weather Map while Kent was broadcasting the weather.
However, his joy was short-lived when he learned that in addition to Kent Brockman being demoted, the entire station had to suffer a $10,000,000 dollar fine for Kent Brockman's "shameful swear-aroney", especially when the fine also cost their mascot, Newshound, laser eye surgery to fix his lazy eye.
Pye hated Brockman even more as a result, and was also present when Kent Brockman was fired from the station for suspected cocaine use. During his stint as News Anchor, he spoke in a deeper, smoother voice, but returned to his normal register when he got excited near the end of the report. (A similar gag was used in a previous episode with Bumblebee Man, who took over Brockman's desk and spoke perfect English as he delivered the news, right up until the end.)[1]
Appearances
Note: Many of his appearances are brief, background roles. Episodes in which he has an actual role are in bold.
- Episode – "Some Enchanted Evening" (voice only)
- Episode – "Homer Alone"
- Episode – "Mr. Plow"
- Episode – "Marge in Chains"
- Episode – "Homer the Great"
- Episode – "Bart's Comet"
- Episode – "King-Size Homer"
- Episode – "Team Homer" (At the bowling alley, leaving with the rest of an opposing team against Homer's)
- Episode – "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson" (At the Springfield Isotopes baseball stadium)
- Episode – "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" (In the audience at the seminar)
- Episode – "Children of a Lesser Clod"
- Episode – "Jaws Wired Shut" (In the theater)
- Episode – "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge"
- Episode – "Pray Anything"
- Episode – "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" (Among the spectators at the Spellympics)
- Episode – "The Wandering Juvie " (Mentioned by Kent Brockman)
- Episode – "My Mother the Carjacker"
- Episode – "You Kent Always Say What You Want"
- Episode – "Midnight Towboy"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XX" (Among the zombies attempting to entering the front door of the Simpson's house)
- Episode – "A Midsummer's Nice Dream" (In the audience at Cheech and Chong's show)
- Episode – "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts"
- Episode – "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution" (In the form of a pic on Krusty's cellphone's screen)
- Episode – "Ned 'N Edna's Blend" (At the passion play)
- Episode – "Lisa Goes Gaga" (Among the crowd at Lady Gaga's show)
- Episode – "Opposites A-Frack"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XXIV"
- Episode – "The Musk Who Fell to Earth"