The Simpsons is an animated American
sitcom created by Matt Groening for the
Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a soft-satirical parody of the "Middle American" lifestyle
epitomized by its title family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart,
Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional
town of Springfield, and lampoons many aspects of the human condition, as well as American culture,
society as a whole, and television itself.
The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a pitch for a series of animated
shorts with the producer James L. Brooks. Groening created a dysfunctional family, and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart
for his own name.[1]
The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987.[2] After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show.
The Simpsons was an early hit for Fox and won several major awards. Time magazine's December 31, 1999
issue named it the 20th Century's best television series,[3] and on January 14, 2000 it
was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Simpsons is the
longest-running American sitcom[4] and
the longest-running American animated program.[5] Homer's annoyed grunt "D'oh!" has been adopted into the English lexicon, while The Simpsons has been cited as an influence on many
adult-oriented animated sitcoms.[6]
Since its debut on December 17, 1989, the show has aired
404 episodes over 19 seasons. As of March
20, 2006, it was renewed for a 19th season
due to be aired in 2007–2008, premiering on September 23, 2007.[7][8] The season 18 finale, aired on May 20, is the
400th episode, and 2007 marks the 20th anniversary of The
Simpsons franchise. The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film, was
released worldwide on July 26 and July 27 2007.
Origins
-
Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's
office. Brooks had asked Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts, which Groening initially intended to present
as his Life in Hell series. However, when Groening 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.[9] He named the characters after
his own family members, substituting "Bart" for his own name.[1]
The Simpson family first appeared as shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show on
April 19 1987.[2] Groening submitted only basic sketches to the animators and assumed that
the figures would be cleaned-up in production. However, the animators merely re-traced his drawings, which led to the crude
appearance of the characters in the initial short episodes.[1]
In 1989, a team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The team included what is now the Klasky Csupo animation house. Jim Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that
prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content.[10]
Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash"
that they were watching.[11] The
half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989 with
"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", a Christmas special.[12] "Some Enchanted Evening"
was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not air until May 1990 because of animation problems.[13]
The Simpsons was the Fox network's first TV series to rank among a season's top 30 highest-rated shows.[14] Its success prompted Fox to reschedule the
series to compete with The Cosby Show, a move that hurt the ratings of The
Simpsons.[15] In 1992, Tracey Ullman
filed a lawsuit against Fox, claiming that her show was the source of the series' success. The suit said she should receive a
share of the profits of The Simpsons—a claim rejected by the courts.[16]
The show was controversial from its beginning. The rebellious lead character at the time, Bart, frequently received no
punishment for his misbehavior, which led some parents and conservatives to characterize
him as a poor role model for children.[17][18] At the time, then-current
President George H. W. Bush said, "We're going to strengthen the American family to
make them more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons."[19] Several US public schools even banned The Simpsons
merchandise and t-shirts, such as one featuring Bart
and the caption "Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!')".[19] Despite the ban, The Simpsons merchandise sold well and generated US$2 billion in revenue during the first 14 months of sales.[19]
Production
List of show runners throughout the series' run:
Executive producers
Groening, Brooks, and Simon have served as executive producers during the show's
entire history and also function as creative consultants. A more involved position on the show is the show runner, who acts as head writer and manages the show's production for an entire season.[20]
Writing
-
Al Jean (left) is the current executive producer of the show and
David Mirkin (right) is a former executive producer and has been a part of the writing staff since
1994.
The Simpsons's writing team consists of sixteen writers who propose episode ideas at the beginning of each
December.[21] The main writer of each episode
writes the first draft. Group rewriting sessions develop final scripts by adding or removing jokes, inserting scenes, and calling
for re-readings of lines by the show’s vocal performers.[22] The leader of these sessions is George Meyer, who has
developed the show since Season One. According to long-time writer Jon Vitti, Meyer usually
invents the best lines in a given episode, even though other writers may receive script credits.[22] Each episode takes six months to produce so the show rarely comments on
current events.[23] However, episodes occasionally mention
planned events, such as the Olympics or the Super
Bowl.
Credited with sixty episodes, John Swartzwelder is the most prolific writer on
The Simpsons' staff.[24] One of the best-known
former writers is Conan O'Brien, who contributed to several episodes in the early 1990s
before replacing David Letterman as host of the talk
show Late Night.[25] English comedian Ricky Gervais wrote the
episode "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", becoming the first
celebrity to both write and guest star in an episode.[26]
Voice actors
-
![Hank Azaria has been a part of the Simpsons regular voice cast since the second season.[27]](http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/d/d0/150px-Hankazaria05.jpg)
Hank Azaria has been a part of the
Simpsons regular voice cast since the second
season.
[27]
With one exception, episode credits list only the voice actors, and not the characters
they voice. Both Fox and the production crew wanted to keep their identities secret during the early seasons and, therefore,
closed most of the recording sessions while refusing to publish photos of the recording artists.[28] However, the network eventually revealed which roles each actor performed in
the episode "Old Money", because the producers said the voice actors should
receive credit for their work.[29] In 2003, the cast
appeared in an episode of Inside the Actors Studio, doing live
performances of their characters' voices.
The Simpsons has six main cast members. Dan Castellaneta performs
Homer Simpson, Abraham Simpson, Krusty the Clown, and other adult, male characters.[30] Julie Kavner speaks the voices of Marge Simpson and Patty and Selma, as well as several
minor characters.[30] Nancy Cartwright performs the voice of Bart Simpson and other
children.[30] Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson, is the only cast member
who regularly voices only one character, although she occasionally plays other episodic characters.[30] There are two male actors who do not voice members of the title family
but play a majority of the male townspeople. Hank Azaria voices recurring characters such as
Moe, Chief Wiggum, and Apu, and Harry Shearer provides voices for
Mr. Burns, Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, and Dr. Hibbert.[30] With the
exception of Harry Shearer, every main cast member has won an Emmy for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance.[31]
In addition to the main cast, Pamela Hayden, Tress
MacNeille, Marcia Wallace, Maggie Roswell,
and Russi Taylor voice supporting characters.[30] From 1999 to 2002, Maggie Roswell's characters were voiced by
Marcia Mitzman Gaven. Karl Wiedergott has
appeared in minor roles, but does not voice any recurring characters.[32] Repeat "special guest" cast members include Albert Brooks,
Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Joe Mantegna and Kelsey Grammer.[33]
The main cast has been involved in much-publicized pay disputes with Fox on more than one occasion. In 1998, they threatened
to strike, forcing 20th Century Fox to increase their salary from $30,000 per episode
to $125,000. The series creator Groening supported the actors in their action.[34] The show's revenue continued to rise through syndication and DVD sales, the main cast stopped
appearing for script readings in April 2004. The work stoppage occurred after weeks of unsuccessful negotiations with Fox, in
which the cast asked for an increase in their pay to $360,000 per episode, or $8 million over a 22-episode season. On
May 2, 2004, the actors reached an agreement with Fox.[35]
The show has been dubbed into several other languages, including
Japanese, German, Spanish, and Swedish. It is also one the few programs dubbed
in both French and Quebec French.[36] The Simpsons has been broadcast in Arabic, but due to Islamic customs, numerous aspects of the show
have been changed. For example, Homer drinks soda instead of beer and eats Egyptian
beef sausages instead of hot dogs. Because of such changes, the Arabized version of the series met with a negative reaction from
the life-long Simpsons fans in the area.[37]
Animation
Several different U.S. and international studios animate The Simpsons. Throughout the run of the animated shorts on
The Tracey Ullman Show, the animation was produced domestically at Klasky
Csupo.[38] With the debut of the
series, because of an increased workload, Fox subcontracted production to several international studios, located in
South Korea.[38] Artists at the U.S. animation studio, Film Roman, draw storyboards, design new characters, backgrounds, props and draw character and background layouts, which in
turn become animatics to be screened for the writers at Gracie Films for any changes to be
made before the work is shipped overseas. The overseas studios then draw the inbetweens,
ink and paint, and render the animation to tape before it's shipped back to the
U.S. to be delivered to Fox three to four months later.[39]
For the first three seasons, Klasky Csupo animated The Simpsons in the U.S. In
1992, the show's production company, Gracie Films, switched
domestic production to Film Roman,[40] who continue to animate the show as of 2007.
In Season 14, production switched from traditional cel animation to digital ink and paint.[41] The first episode to experiment with digital coloring was
"Radioactive Man" in 1995. Animators used digital ink and paint
during production of the Season 12 episode "Tennis the Menace", but Gracie Films delayed the regular use of digital ink and paint until two
seasons later. The already completed "Tennis the Menace" was broadcast as made.[42]
Characters
-
The Simpsons sports a vast array of secondary and tertiary characters.
The Simpsons are a typical family who live in a fictional "Middle
American" town of Springfield.[43]
Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power
Plant—a position at odds with his careless, buffoonish personality.
He is married to Marge Simpson, a stereotypical American housewife and mother. They have three children: Bart, a ten-year-old troublemaker; Lisa, a precocious
eight-year-old activist; and Maggie, a baby who rarely
speaks, but communicates by sucking on a pacifier. The family owns a dog, Santa's Little Helper, and a cat, Snowball II.
Both pets have had starring roles in several episodes. Despite the passing of yearly milestones such as holidays or birthdays,
the Simpsons do not physically age.
The show includes an array of quirky characters: co-workers, teachers, family friends, extended relatives, and local
celebrities. The creators originally intended many of these characters as one-time jokesters or for fulfilling needed functions
in the town. However, a number of them have gained expanded roles and subsequently starred in their own episodes. According to
Matt Groening, the show adopted the concept of a large supporting cast from the comedy show SCTV.[15]
Setting
-
The Simpsons takes place in the fictional American town of Springfield, without any geographical coordinates or
references to US states that might identify which part of the country it represents.
Nevertheless, fans have tried to determine the town's location by taking the town's characteristics, surrounding geography, and
nearby landmarks as clues. As a response, the show has become intentionally evasive in regard to Springfield's location.[44] The name "Springfield" is a common one in America and
appears in over half of the states.[45] Springfield's
geography, and that of its surroundings, contain coastlines, deserts, vast farmland, tall mountains, or whatever the story or
joke requires.[46] Despite this, Groening has said that
Springfield has much in common with Portland, Oregon, the city where he grew up.[47]
Themes
-
- See also: Politics in The Simpsons,
Religion in The Simpsons, and Education in The Simpsons
The Simpsons uses the standard setup of a situational comedy or "sitcom" as
its premise. The series centers around a family and their life in a typical American town.[43] However, because of its animated nature, The Simpsons's scope is
larger than that of a regular sitcom. The town of Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the
issues faced by modern society. By having Homer work in a nuclear power plant, the show can comment on the state of the
environment.[48] Through Bart and Lisa's days at
Springfield Elementary School, the show's writers illustrate pressing or
controversial issues in the field of education. The town features a vast array of media channels—from kids' television
programming to local news, which enables the producers to make jokes about themselves and the entertainment industry.[49]
Some commentators say the show is political in nature and susceptible to a left-wing bias.[50] Al Jean admitted in an interview that "We [the
show] are of liberal bent."[51] The
writers often evince an appreciation for progressive ideals, but the show makes jokes across the political spectrum.[52] The show portrays government and large corporations as
callous entities that take advantage of the common worker.[51] Thus, the writers often portray authority figures in an unflattering or negative light. In
The Simpsons, politicians are corrupt, ministers such as Reverend
Lovejoy are indifferent to churchgoers, and the local police force is incompetent.[53] Religion also figures as a recurring theme. In times of crisis, the family
often turns to God, and the show has dealt with most of the major religions.[54]
Hallmarks
Opening sequence
Shot from an overblown, extended
couch gag (often used when an episode is running
short).
-
- See also: Chalkboard gag and
couch gag
The Simpsons' opening sequence is one of the show's most memorable hallmarks.
Most episodes open with the camera zooming through the show's title towards the town of Springfield. The camera then follows the members of the family on their way home. Upon
entering their house, the Simpsons settle down on their couch to watch television. The opening was created by David Silverman, the first task he did when production began on the show.[55] The series' distinctive theme song was composed by musician Danny Elfman in
1989, after Groening approached him requesting a retro style piece. This piece, which took two days to create, has been noted by
Elfman as the most popular of his career.[56]
One of the most distinctive aspects of the opening is that several segments are changed from episode to episode. Bart writes
something different on the school chalkboard,[55] Lisa may play a different solo on her saxophone, and a different visual gag accompanies
the family as they enter their living room to sit on the couch.[57]
Halloween episodes
-
The special Halloween episode has become an annual tradition.
"Treehouse of Horror" (1990) established the pattern of three separate,
self-contained stories in each Halloween episode. These pieces usually involve the family in some horror, science fiction, or supernatural setting and often parody
or pay homage to a famous piece of work in those genres.[58] They always take place outside the normal continuity of the show. Although the Treehouse
series is meant to be seen on Halloween, in recent years, new installments have premiered after Halloween. This is due to Fox's
current contract with Major League Baseball's World
Series.[59]
Humor
-
The show uses catchphrases, and most of the primary and secondary characters have at least one each.[60] Notable expressions include Homer's annoyed grunt "D'oh!", Mr. Burns' "Excellent..." and Nelson Muntz's "Ha-ha!". Some of Bart's catchphrases, such as
"¡Ay, caramba!", "Don't have a cow, man!" and "Eat my shorts!" appeared on t-shirts
in the show's early days.[61] However, Bart rarely used
the latter two phrases until after they became popular through the merchandising. The use of many of these catchphrases has
declined in recent seasons. The episode "Bart Gets Famous" mocks catchphrase-based
humor, as Bart achieves fame on the Krusty the Clown Show for saying "I didn't do it."[62]
The show's humor also turns on cultural references that cover a wide spectrum of society so that viewers from all generations
can enjoy the show.[63] Such
references, for example, come from movies, television, music, literature, science, and history.[63] Whenever possible, the animators also put jokes or sight gags
into the show's background via humorous or incongruous bits of text in signs, newspapers, and elsewhere.[64] The audience may often not notice the visual
jokes in a single viewing. Some are so fleeting that they become apparent only by pausing a video recording of the show.[64]
Influences on culture
Influences on language
A number of neologisms that originated on The Simpsons have entered the popular
vernacular.[65] Mark
Liberman, director of the Linguistic Data Consortium, commented that
"The Simpsons has apparently taken over from Shakespeare and the Bible as our culture's greatest source of idioms,
catchphrases and sundry other textual allusions."[66] The
most famous is Homer's annoyed grunt: "D'oh!" So ubiquitous is the catchphrase that it is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, but without the apostrophe.[67] The first listed usage comes not from The Simpsons, but from a 1945
BBC radio script in which the writers spelled the word "dooh". Dan Castellaneta says he
borrowed the phrase from James Finlayson, an actor in early Laurel and Hardy comedies, who pronounced it in a more elongated and whining tone.[68] The director of The Simpsons told Castellaneta to
shorten the noise, and it went on to become the well-known exclamation in the TV series.[68]
Other Simpsons expressions that have entered popular use include "excellent" (drawn out as a sinister "eeeexcelllent…"
in the style of Charles Montgomery Burns), Homer's triumphant "Woohoo!" and Nelson Muntz's mocking "HA-ha!" Groundskeeper Willie's description of the French as
"cheese-eating surrender monkeys" was used by conservative
National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg
in 2003, after France's opposition to the proposed invasion of Iraq. The phrase
quickly spread to other journalists.[69] "Cromulent", a
word used in "Lisa the Iconoclast" has since appeared in the Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English.[70] "Kwyjibo", a fake Scrabble
word invented by Bart in "Bart the Genius" was used as one of the aliases of the creator
of the Melissa worm.[71] "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords", also known as the Overlord meme, was used by
Kent Brockman in "Deep Space Homer" and has
seeped into popular culture to describe a number of events. Variants of Brockman's utterance are used to express mock submission,
usually for the purpose of humor.[72] It has been used in
media, such as New Scientist magazine.[73] The dismissive
term "Meh" has also been popularized by the show.[74]
Influence on television
The Simpsons was the first successful animated program in prime time since Wait Till Your Father Gets Home in the 1970s.[75] During most of the 1980s, pundits considered animated shows as appropriate only
for kids, and animating a show was too expensive to achieve a quality suitable for prime-time television. The Simpsons
changed this perception.[38] The use of
Korean animation studios doing in-betweening, coloring, and filming made the episodes cheaper. The success of The Simpsons
and the lower production cost prompted television networks to take chances on other animated series.[38] This development led to a 1990s boom in new, animated prime-time
shows, such as South Park, Family Guy,
King of the Hill, Futurama, and
The Critic.[38] South Park later paid homage to The Simpsons with the episode
"Simpsons Already Did It".[76]
The Simpsons has also influenced live-action shows like Malcolm in the
Middle, which debuted January 9, 2000 in the time
slot after The Simpsons.[6][77]
Malcolm in the Middle featured the use of sight gags and did not use a laugh track
like most sitcoms. Ricky Gervais has called
The Simpsons a major influence on his British comedy The Office,
which also dispenses with a laugh track.[78]
Critical reactions and achievements
The Simpsons have been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Awards
-
The Simpsons has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 23 Emmy
Awards, 24 Annie Awards[79] and a Peabody Award.[80] In a 1998 issue celebrating the 20th Century's greatest achievements in arts
and entertainment, TIME magazine named The Simpsons the century's best
television series.[3] In that same issue,
TIME included Bart Simpson in the Time 100, the publication's list of the century's
100 most influential people.[81] Bart was
the only fictional character on the list. On January 14, 2000,
the Simpsons won a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Also in 2000,
Entertainment Weekly magazine TV critic Ken Tucker named The Simpsons
the greatest television show of the 1990s. Furthermore, viewers of the UK television channel Channel
4 have voted "The Simpsons" at the top of two polls: 2001's 100 Greatest
Kids' TV shows, and 2005's 100 Greatest Cartoons, with Homer Simpson voted
into first place in 2001's 100 Greatest TV Characters. In 2002, The Simpsons ranked #8 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time,[82] and in 2007 it was included in TIME's list of the "100 Best
TV Shows of All Time."[83]
Run length achievements
On February 9 1997, The Simpsons surpassed
The Flintstones with the episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" as the longest-running
prime-time animated series in the United States. In 2004, The Simpsons replaced
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952 to 1966) as the
longest-running sitcom (animated or live action) in the United States.[4] In October 2004, Scooby-Doo briefly overtook The Simpsons as the American animated show with the highest number of
episodes.[84] However, network executives in April 2005
again cancelled Scooby-Doo, which finished with 371 episodes, and The Simpsons reclaimed the title with 378
episodes at the end of their seventeenth season.[5] In May 2007, The Simpsons reached their 400th episode at the end of the eighteenth
season. While The Simpsons has the record for the number of episodes by an American animated show, other animated series
have surpassed The Simpsons. For example, the Japanese anime series Doraemon has over 600 episodes to its credit.[85]
The year 2007 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Simpsons franchise. With its nineteenth year (2007–2008), the series will
be only one season behind Gunsmoke's US primetime, scripted television record of 20
produced seasons. However, Gunsmoke's episode count of 635 episodes far surpasses The Simpsons, which would not
reach that mark until its 29th season, under normal programming schedules.[4]
Criticism of declining quality
For many years, critics' reviews of new Simpsons episodes praised the show for its wit, realism, and
intelligence.[11][86] However, in the mid-90s, the tone and emphasis
of the show began to change. Some critics started calling the show "tired".[87] By 2000, some long-term fans had become disillusioned with the show and pointed to its shift
from character-driven plots to what they perceived as an overemphasis on zany antics.[88][89]
In 2003, to celebrate the show's 300th episode "Barting Over", USA Today published a pair of Simpsons related articles: a top-ten episodes list chosen by the webmaster
of The Simpsons Archive fansite,[90] and a top-15 list by The Simpsons' own writers.[91] The most recent episode listed on the fan list was 1997's "Homer's Phobia"; the Simpsons' writers most recent choice was 2000's "Behind the Laughter". In 2004, Harry Shearer criticized what
he perceived as the show's declining quality: "I rate the last three seasons as among the worst, so Season Four looks very good
to me now."[92]
Despite this criticism, The Simpsons has managed to maintain a large viewership and attract new fans. However, while
the first season enjoyed an average of 13.4 million viewers per episode in the US,[14] the seventeenth season ended with an average of 9.2 million
viewers.[93] In an April 2006 interview, Matt Groening
said, "I honestly don't see any end in sight. I think it's possible that the show will become too financially cumbersome...but
right now, the show is creatively, I think, as good or better than it's ever been. The animation is incredibly detailed and
imaginative, and the stories do things that we haven't done before. So creatively there's no reason to quit."[94]
Merchandise
Monopoly: The Simpsons Edition
-
- See also: The Simpsons
discography
The popularity of The Simpsons has made it a billion-dollar merchandizing industry.[19] The title family and supporting characters appear on everything
from t-shirts to posters. On April 24 2007, it was officially
announced that a Simpsons Ride will be implemented into the Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios
Hollywood. It is scheduled for a Spring 2008 opening.[95] The Simpsons has inspired special editions of well-known board games, including
Clue, Scrabble, Monopoly, Operation, and The Game of Life, as well as the trivia games What Would Homer Do? and Simpsons Jeopardy!.[96]
Several card games such as trump cards and The Simpsons Trading Card Game have also been released.
A sampling of
Simpsons comic books.
Numerous Simpson-related publications have been released over the years. So far, nine comic
book series have been published by Bongo Comics since 1993.[97] The Simpsons and Bart Simpson comics are also reprinted in
the United Kingdom, under the same titles, with various stories from the other Bongo series reprinted in the main Simpsons comic.
The comics have also been collected in book form; many other Simpsons books such as episode guides have also been
published.
Collections of original music featured in the TV series have been released on the albums Songs in the Key of Springfield and Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons. Several songs have been recorded with the purpose of
a single or album release and have not been featured on the show. The best known single is "Do
the Bartman", which was co-written by Michael Jackson,[98] and became an international success, topping the UK Singles Chart for three weeks,[99] and being certified gold by the BPI.[100] In the United Kingdom, "
![Hank Azaria has been a part of the Simpsons regular voice cast since the second season.[27]](http://www.answers.com/main/Record2?a=NR&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcommons.wikimedia.org%2Fwiki%2FImage%3AHankazaria05.jpg)
