Mr. Anderson (Beavis and Butt-head)

Mr. Tom Anderson (whose full name is revealed to be Thomas T. Anderson in "Credit Card") is a fictional character from the animated television series "Beavis and Butt-Head". His voice is provided by Mike Judge, who says Anderson is based on every middle-aged authority figure he knew growing up in New Mexico. Although he is white on the show, Mike Judge intended for Mr. Anderson to be a black man. The idea was scrapped when a cartoonist didn’t get the memo on making his skin black.

Anderson is an older man, presumably of post-retirement age, who lives with his wife Marcy near Beavis and Butt-Head in Highland. As mentioned in "Screamers", Anderson's address is 4120 Woodrow Court. Anderson is very conservative and he frequently makes reference to his days in the military, usually in a futile attempt to teach Beavis and Butt-Head the ethics of hard work and discipline.

Anderson first appeared in "Home Improvement". He instructed Beavis and Butt-Head to paint only the trim on his house. After sniffing paint thinner, they paint the outer walls, windows and roof of his house with heavy metal-related graffiti, and they paint his cat’s bottom. They also set fire to one of his shrubs. The episode ends with Beavis and Butt-Head driving Anderson’s lawn mower down the street.

He is primarily the target of pranks, although occasionally Beavis and Butt-Head attempt to do Anderson a favor. In "Washing the Dog" they develop a get-rich-quick scheme that involves being nice to an old person in order to get into his will. After concluding that Anderson might die soon - by the rather direct method of asking him - Beavis and Butt-Head offer to wash Anderson’s dog. They take his poodle to the laundromat and stuff it into a washing machine. This scene caused many complaints from parents, especially when at least one child put a dog into a washing machine after apparently being influenced by the show. Ultimately, the episode was banned from TV.

Beavis and Butt-Head’s antics detrimental to Mr. Anderson also include:
* Using Anderson’s credit card to buy pets.
* Putting a dead mouse and flies into his Burger World meal.
* Being hired to paint his house, and vandalizing it, then setting one of his bushes on fire and stealing his riding mower.
* Beavis and Butt-Head are recruited to prune Anderson’s tree. They end up cutting the entire tree down, which promptly collapses onto Anderson’s house, demolishing it. The duo tried to charge extra, saying “We pruned the house, too.”
* Later asked to buy items for him, Beavis and Butt-Head disregard the grocery list Anderson prepares for them and instead use the money he provides to purchase candy bars and magazines.
* When tasked with helping Anderson finish constructing a swimming pool, Beavis and Butt-Head manage to bulldoze Anderson’s tool shed from its foundation and fill the entire pre-dug hole with concrete (which they end up getting stuck in).
* While supervising Anderson’s yard sale (while he is away doing a favor for an old war buddy), Beavis and Butt-Head allow people to enter Anderson’s home. The duo eventually sell all his belongings at ridiculously low prices.
* Beavis and Butt-Head sneak onto a golf course and secretly begin stealing golf balls struck by Anderson. They then begin selling the balls, some to Anderson.

Anderson is also very near-sighted. When he meets Beavis and Butt-Head, he nearly always asks if they were responsible for some sort of ludicrous prank or general vandalizing of his property (e.g. “Are you the boys who painted my cat’s butt?”, "Say, ain't you the kids that have been whacking off in my tool shed?", etc.), to which they reply with a firm “No,” whilst snickering, making it obvious they are indeed the guilty parties. Anderson’s poor vision and memory problems allow them to continually get away with anything they do to him, as he never recognizes them. In one memorable episode, the two disguise themselves by wearing horn rimmed glasses, which fool Anderson so completely that he doesn’t even ask if they are responsible for some misdeed. In "Home Improvement" Anderson gives a completely inaccurate description of the two to the police: “One of them calls himself Butt-Hole. And the other one’s name is Joe, I think...I believe they were Oriental.”

In the movie "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America", the dimwitted duo cause mayhem and chaos involving Anderson right from the start. He mentions that kids have been “whackin’ off in my toolshed”, which the pair giggle at, implying they have been doing it. Other antics by Beavis and Butt-Head during the movie include:
* Ruining the television in his trailer by spitting cola on it.
* Nearly washing Anderson and his trailer away by opening the Hoover Dam.
* Causing Anderson to crash his car and trailer by flying into his windshield after escaping the trunk of the villain's car while traveling down the interstate.
* Causing Anderson and his wife to be arrested by the ATF when they are led to believe he is carrying a biological agent found in his camper, where he found Beavis masturbating.

Later in the movie he returns to Highland, having been proven innocent.Hank Hill from King of the Hill may be based off of Anderson.

Military service

* In "Washing the Dog" he mentions service in World War II, having "taken lead at Anzio", and being "Napalmed in Korea".

* In "Yard Sale," it is revealed that Anderson served in the Korean War, and won a Purple Heart (which Beavis sells for $5).