For the past three-plus decades on “The Simpsons,” Anthony “Fat Tony” D’Amico (voiced by Joe Mantegna) has been embodying just about every movie and TV mobster stereotype while running the Springfield mafia. But did you know that the Fat Tony you may have been watching in recent seasons isn’t the same Fat Tony who momentarily introduced Bart (Nancy Cartwright) to a life of (organized) crime way back in season 3? That’s right — the original Fat Tony dies in the season 22 episode “Donnie Fatso,” and while it may have seemed like a case of a recurring character on “The Simpsons” getting killed off for good, the status quo was ultimately restored when his replacement, the almost identically-nicknamed (but much slimmer) Fit Tony, gained so much weight that he looked exactly the same as his late cousin … and subsequently took on his moniker.
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In a 2024 interview with Cracked, Mantegna opened up about how he felt when he learned Fat Tony was going to die of a heart attack upon discovering that Homer (Dan Castellaneta), under the guise of mob crony Nicky Bluepants Altosaxophony (just go with it), is actually an FBI informant. “When I first read that script, I was devastated. I thought, ‘Oh f***, I’m done. Fat Tony’s over.” That was, however, before the actor got to the end of the “Donnie Fatso” script, which explains how Fit Tony takes over from his cousin. “Then he gained some weight and they called him Fit-Fat Tony, but now he’s just Fat Tony,” he continued. “So, I wound up doing the same guy all over again.”
Fat Tony was killed off a second time … well, sort of
Granted, Fat Tony is nowhere near Kenny McCormick from “South Park” as a character who repeatedly dies in an episode and comes back to life in their next appearance as if nothing happened. He doesn’t hold a candle either to Springfield’s very own Hans Moleman (Dan Castellaneta), who’s been “resurrected” multiple times on “The Simpsons.” But his death in “Donnie Fatso” wasn’t the last time the character in his various iterations got, how shall we say it, “whacked.” In season 33’s two-parter “A Serious Flanders,” Fat Tony and his henchmen are among several recurring characters killed by murderous debt collector Kostas Becker (Brian Cox). (Rich Texan, Disco Stu, and even the ancient and seemingly immortal Mr. Burns also bite the dust in the first part!) These deaths, however, are thankfully non-canonical, as “A Serious Flanders” is a parody of the FX crime drama “Fargo.”
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As a lifelong “Simpsons” fan who’s been more patient than most others with the post-classic era stuff, I didn’t see much sense in killing off the OG Fat Tony in “Donnie Fatso” when the plan all along was to replace him with his “fit” cousin, and for said cousin to stress-eat his way to becoming a doppelganger of the original. There were better ways to parody mob movies, and some of them played out in the episode, including the spot-on nod to the ending of “Goodfellas.” But hey, at least Joe Mantegna remained gracious despite the confusing path his “Simpsons” character took. And Fit Tony becoming Fit-Fat Tony and eventually good old Fat Tony will always be better than that whole Armin Tamzarian/Seymour Skinner business from season 9’s oh-so-polarizing “The Principal and the Pauper.”
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