Modeled after
Bill Cosby's character on
The Cosby Show and voiced by
Harry Shearer, Dr. Julius Hibbert is
Springfield's best physician on
The Simpsons. He's been known to handle a wide variety of medical incidents such as a
broken jaw,
panda virus,
"stupid" genes,
pregnancy,
burst kidneys, and
stress attacks. His general practice is located at
Springfield Hospital. The general rule of medicine in
Springfield is "When in doubt, call Dr. Hibbert. Unless you have no money, then call
Dr. Nick Riviera."
There's much more to the man than his medical training, of course. He has a wife and two children (also modeled after the Huxtable family from The Cosby Show) and he lives in a lavish house modeled after, again, The Cosby Show home. Other family includes two brothers - Bleeding Gums Murphy and the orphanage director in Shelbyville - although he does not know they are his brothers. He's been known to change his look over the years and has gone through phases of styling dreadlocks, an afro, emulating Mr. T, and eventually settled into his current look of the early phases of going bald. His most overt personality quirk is his near-constant chuckling, a trait which have led some to believe he is quite insentitive, but instead he is just letting out stress with laughter. He also enjoys Cuban cigars, family restaurants, attending Mensa, NRA, & RRepublican meetings, and giving out lollipops to his younger patients.
In reality the character of Dr. Hibbert was purposely modeled after Bill Cosby's Cliff Huxtable as a sly dig at The Simpsons's then-competition. At the time of his creation the two shows were scheduled in competing timeslots - Thursdays at 8:00pm - and the writers thought it would be fun to give The Cosby Show a friendly jab in the ribs, as it were. Modeling the doctor's family after Clair, Theo, and Rudy Huxtable was just the icing on the cake.
References:
http://www.thesimpsons.com/bios/bios_townspeople_hibbert.html
http://www.snpp.com