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The Simpsons (often shortened to Simpsons) is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The main characters are a satire of a working-class family, consisting of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The series lampoons many aspects of American culture, society, politics, and history.
The cartoon made its debut as 60-second animated bumpers for The Tracey Ullman Show, with the first short airing on April 19, 1987. The shorts were then expanded into a full-length 30-minute television spin-off by 20th Century Fox, first airing on December 17, 1989. As of 2023, 34 seasons have aired, with the 34th airing since September 25.
The series currently holds the record for the longest-running prime-time sitcom in the US, running for 32 years and 34 seasons, as well as three seasons of shorts since 1989, and becoming the longest-running program on FOX.
The Simpsons was conceived in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office by Matt Groening. He was asked to do a series of animated shorts, and decided to do his Life in Hell series; since he realized that animating Life in Hell would require the rescinding of publication rights for his life's work, he chose another approach and formulated his version of a dysfunctional family. He named the characters after his own family and substituted Bart for his own name, as it was an anagram of 'brat'.
The Simpsons first appeared to the world on April 19, 1987, on The Tracey Ullman Show. Groening submitted crudely drawn sketches of the family to the animators, assuming they would clean them up in production. However, the animators just re-traced over his drawings; that is why the Simpsons appear crudely drawn in the shorts. UK: 20th Century Fox. In 1989, a team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour prime time series for FOX. FOX was initially nervous to air the Simpsons, as there hadn't been a cartoon in primetime since The Flintstones, and that they were unsure if they could keep the audience's attention for the duration of the episode. They proposed doing three seven-minute shorts and four specials until the audience adjusted, but the producers gambled for thirteen half-hour episodes for the series. The Simpsons was originally to premiere in the fall of 1989, with "Some Enchanted Evening," but when the episode came back from animation in Korea, it had major animation problems with it. James L. Brooks was extremely dissatisfied with the product and called for many parts of the episode to be redone. The producers then agreed to just go ahead and air "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," on December 17, 1989, as a Christmas special.
Executive Producers[]
Through the entire show's history, Matt Groeningand James L. Brooks have served as the show's executive producers. Sam Simon was also in this position, although not credited. When Simon left in 1993, he arranged a deal to be credited as executive producer as well as get profits even though he no longer works on the show.
Writers[]
The first team of writers for The Simpsons was assembled by Sam Simon. These were: John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, George Meyer, Jeff Martin, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen, and Wallace Wolodarsky. Newer Simpsons writing teams usually have 16 writers and episode ideas are thought of and proposed in early December. The main writer writes the first draft and the group changes it, adding in-jokes and removing parts they don't like. This can sometimes change a script entirely. Up until 2004, the head of these groups was George Meyer, who apparently wrote a lot of the best lines from episodes. But the idea of all this came from the magic hand of Matt Groening who invented the pictures.
Voice Actors[]
Main cast actors[]
| Dan Castellaneta | Julie Kavner | Nancy Cartwright | Yeardley Smith | Who the hell voices Tessa? | Hank Azaria | Harry Shearer |
| Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, Hans Moleman and many others | Marge Simpson, Jacqueline Bouvier, Patty, and Selma | Bart, Hugo II, Nelson, Ralph, Todd Flanders, Maggie(currently) and others | Lisa | Tessa | Moe, Chief Wiggum, Apu, Comic Book Guy, Carl, Cletus, Professor Frink, Dr. Nick, Superintendent Chalmers, and many others | Mr. Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Rev. Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Hibbert, Lenny, Principal Skinner, Otto, Rainier Wolfcastle, and many others. |
Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner were already members of The Tracey Ullman Show. Rather than hire more actors for voices for the Simpsons animated shorts, the producers asked both Castellaneta and Kavner to provide the voices of characters Homer and Marge Simpson. Yeardley Smith originally wanted to play the role of Bart Simpson, but the producers found her voice too "girlish". Instead, she was given the role of Bart's sister, Lisa Simpson. Bart was voiced by Nancy Cartwright, who originally auditioned for the role of Lisa but chose to be the voice of Bart instead after finding out that Lisa had a lack of personality at the time, while the character of Bart was "devious, underachieving, school-hating, irreverent, and clever".
Hank Azaria was a voice actor for the short-lived cartoon "Hollywood Dog" at the time. The casting director of the cartoon was also casting director of The Simpsons, and Hank signed up for the role of Moe Szyslak. Later, he voiced several other characters, including Chief Wiggum and Apu, Harry Shearer was reluctant to be a voice actor on the show but was convinced by James L. Brooks to join the cast "after three phone calls
Tracey Ullman era[]
The Tracey Ullman Show was a weekly American television variety show, hosted by British comedian and one-time pop singer Tracey Ullman. It was also produced by Simpsons co-producer James L. Brooks, and co-written by 1989-1994 Simpsons executive producer Sam Simon. It debuted on April 5, 1987 as the FOX network's second prime-time series and ran until May 26, 1990. The show featured sketch comedy, which included Simpsons voices Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner in live-action roles, along with many musical numbers, featuring Emmy Award-winning choreography by Paula Abdul.
The Simpsons[]
the Simpson family as they originally appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show
The Simpsons first appeared as short vignettes on The Tracey Ullman Show. These cartoon shorts acted as bumpers that are shown before and after commercials. The shorts were written by Matt Groening and animated at Klasky-Csupo by a team consisting of David Silverman, Bill Kopp and Wes Archer (in the later seasons, the shorts were animated by Silverman and Archer) Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith and Julie Kavner provided the voices of characters Homer Simpson, Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson, and Marge Simpson.
The characters were crudely drawn because Matt Groening assumed that the animators would clean them up after he submitted the rough sketches to them. Instead, the animators simply traced over the sketches.
The first short, Good Night, was aired on April 19, 1987. Later, the shorts were given their own segment on the show before the cartoon was developed into a 30 minute TV animated spin-off in 1989.
Cast[]
- Tracey Ullman - Various Characters
- Sam McMurray - Himself/Various Characters
- Anna Levine - Herself/Various Characters
- Dan Castellaneta - Himself/Homer Simpson/Abraham Simpson II/Krusty the Clown/Candy Store Bandit
- Julie Kavner - Herself/Marge Simpson/Various Characters
- Nancy Cartwright - Bart Simpson
- Yeardley Smith - Lisa Simpson, Maggie Simpson
- Liz Georges - Maggie Simpson
es:The Tracey Ullman Show
Gallery[]
