The Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom starring the animated Simpson family, which was created by Matt Groening. He conceived of the characters in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office and named them after his own family members, substituting "Bart" for his own name. The family debuted as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show called The Simpsons, which debuted on December 17, 1989. The show was an early hit for Fox, becoming the first Fox series to land in the top 30 ratings in a season (1989–90).
The show was controversial from its beginning and that controversy has made the news many times. In the early seasons, some parents characterized Bart as a poor role model for children and several United States public schools banned The Simpsons merchandise and T-shirts. In January 1992, then-President George H. W. Bush made a speech during his re-election campaign in which he said: "We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons." In 2002, the show was nearly sued by the Rio de Janeiro tourist board for creating an unreal image of the city on the show.
The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide in July of 2007. Previous attempts to create a film version of The Simpsons failed due to the lack of a script of appropriate length and production crew members. Eventually, producers Brooks, Groening, Al Jean, Mike Scully, and Richard Sakai began development of the film in 2001. They conceived numerous plot ideas, with Groening's being the one developed into a film. The script was re-written over a hundred times, and this creativity continued after animation had begun in 2006. The film was a box office success, and received overwhelmingly positive reviews.
The Simpsons eventually became the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program, and in 2009 it surpassed Gunsmoke as the longest-running American primetime, scripted television series. Since its debut on December 17, 1989, the show has broadcast episodes and its 37th season premiered on September 28, 2025.
Background Matt Groening grew up with an interest in cartooning from his father, Homer Groening, who drew one-page strips for magazines. After college in Oregon, Groening moved to Los Angeles to pursue a writing career, working a series of odd jobs upon arrival. In 1977, while employed at the record store Licorice Pizza during the rise of punk rock, he created a comic series titled Life in Hell. He distributed photocopies of the strip in the store's punk section, which gradually gained attention. Groening later joined the Los Angeles Reader, where Life in Hell became a regular feature in the paper's classifieds section. By the early 1980s, the strip had developed a cult following. Together with his then-partner Deborah Caplan, Groening began self-publishing collections of Life in Hell, which were later distributed nationally by Pantheon Books.
By the mid-1980s, producer James L. Brooks had established a distinguished career in both film and television. He had co-created The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi, and by the beginning of the decade had transitioned into film, earning acclaim for comedies such as Terms of Endearment (1983). Producer Polly Platt gifted Brooks an original Life in Hell drawing by Groening, subtitled the "Los Angeles Way of death", which captured his attention with its irreverent tone. In 1985, Brooks invited Groening to a meeting at his office on the Paramount Pictures lot to discuss the possibility of working on a project, though it did not immediately produce a collaboration.
By 1986, Brooks had moved over to 20th Century Fox, and with its support founded his own production company, Gracie Films. At Fox, he helped The Tracey Ullman Show, a variety showcase starring the comedian for the studio's fledgling broadcast network. Ken Estin, who co-created the program, was also a fan of Groening and asked him to use his Life In Hell characters for small animated bumpers. Groening realized that adapting Life in Hell for animation would require relinquishing the publication rights to his life's work, and therefore declined the offer. Producer Richard Sakai then contacted Groening to ask if he had any other characters that Fox could potentially merchandise. In response, Groening sketched out a dysfunctional family concept that would become The Simpsons. He named the characters after his own family members, substituting "Bart" for his own name, adapting an anagram of the word "brat". Fox negotiated a deal which would prove extremely lucrative for Groening, in which he retained a large portion of revenue from merchandising. At the time, not many television programs had been licensed for merchandising, aside from M*A*S*H; the thinking on behalf of the studio, according to Estin, was that by giving Groening a bigger share of potential merchandising, they could pay him less upfront for the shorts.
Accounts differ regarding how quickly the characters were created. Then-Fox president Garth Ancier has stated that Groening designed the family at home and brought the drawings to Fox the following day, while animator Phil Roman recalls that Groening developed the characters during the drive to the studio. Groening himself has said that he conceived The Simpsons hurriedly while waiting in the lobby of Brooks's office before the pitch meeting—a version that is the most widely reported. Alternatively, Estin claimed that after Groening refused to surrender merchandising rights, he was dismissed from the project. Brooks and Sakai, however, remained open to any new concept Groening proposed, at which point he pitched them The Simpsons.
The Tracey Ullman shorts (1987–1989)
The Tracey Ullman Show debuted in April 1987 on Fox, and became a critical darling, becoming the first show from the network to be nominated for an Emmy Award; the series ended up with 10 awards across 33 nominations over the course of its run. Appearing initially alongside cartoons by M. K. Brown, the Simpson family first appeared in short subjects on April 19, 1987, and were featured the first three seasons.
Several members of the cast of the program voiced the characters, which were recorded in a makeshift studio on the show's soundstage, and all of them reprised their roles in the eventual series. Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner voiced Homer and Marge; Castellaneta later added Abraham Simpson and Krusty the Clown across the shorts. Homer's voice in the shorts is a loose impression of Walter Matthau, whereas it became more robust and humorous on the half-hour show, allowing Homer to cover a fuller range of emotions. Nancy Cartwright and Yeardley Smith performed the voices of Bart Simpson and Lisa Simpson, respectively.
To animate the short segments, Brooks and his team selected Klasky Csupo, a small Hollywood animation studio that offered to produce the cartoons at low cost. Brooks had initially intended for the shorts to be rendered using basic line drawings, but Klasky Csupo provided full-color animation for the same price. The studio employed only three young animators—recent CalArts graduates Bill Kopp, Wes Archer, and David Silverman—who adapted Groening's scripts into animated form within a single week, handling layouts, animation, and inbetweening entirely by hand. Groening submitted only basic sketches to the animators, assuming that the figures would be refined during production. Instead, the animators largely traced his sketches directly, contributing to the crude appearance of the characters in the early shorts. Colorist Gyorgyi Peluce chose the characters’ distinctive yellow hue, while Silverman established standardized drawing rules, simplifying and streamlining the designs to ensure consistency.
During extended breaks on-set, the crew of the show began stringing the shorts together on tape to entertain the studio audience, which generated big laughs. As the shorts gained popularity, the staff of The Tracey Ullman Show reportedly began to view them as a distraction from the main program. Jay Kogen, one of the show’s writers who, along with Wallace Wolodarsky, helped form the series’ initial writing staff, argued that the shorts were the strongest part of the program. Tracey Ullman herself was said to have disliked the segments, allegedly remarking, "When are these horrible cartoons getting off my show?" Groening, for his part, requested that Ullman voice characters in the shorts, but was often told she was "too busy", according to one report. Nevertheless, Fox executives took notice of the shorts’ potential, and the concept of adapting the series to a half-hour format took shape.
Adapting the show into a half-hour format presented significant challenges. In the United States, there had not been a weekly primetime animated series aimed at adults in over twenty-five years, since The Flintstones. Brooks’ interest in developing the sitcom was partly sparked by David Silverman, who, at a Christmas party, drunkenly approached him and passionately suggested the idea, emphasizing the impact a primetime animated series could have on television animation, which had been in a creative lull. Both Groening and Brooks were supportive of the concept, but persuading studio chairman Barry Diller proved more difficult. Diller initially considered the project financially prohibitive—each short had an estimated budget of around $15,000, while a half-hour series of thirteen episodes ran into the millions. The Fox network was unsure if the show could sustain the audience's attention for the duration of an episode. and proposed doing three seven-minute shorts per episode and four specials until the audience adjusted, an approach Brooks rejected. According to Alan Siegel in Stupid TV, Be More Funny, ABC had at one point expressed interest in financing the series. Ultimately, Diller relented—partly out of concern that Brooks might take his talents to another network—and greenlit the show without requiring a pilot episode. Groening said his goal was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash".
The Groening, Brooks, and Simon years (1989–1991)
The Simpsons entered production in 1988 and began assembling its creative staff. Brooks, occupied with his film career, was unable to oversee the series full-time, and Groening had no prior experience running a television show. To lead the project, Brooks hand-picked television veteran Sam Simon, a writer-producer with whom he had previously collaborated on programs such as Taxi, to serve as the series’ first showrunner. Simon also brought relevant animation experience, having worked in storyboards earlier in his career. Simon assembled and led the initial writing team, composed of writers known for their sharp comedic sensibilities: Al Jean, Mike Reiss, George Meyer, Jon Vitti, John Swartzwelder, Jeff Martin, Jay Kogen, and Wallace Wolodarsky. Simon has been credited as "developing [the show's] sensibility". Levine says he "brought a level of honesty to the characters" and made them "three-dimensional", adding that Simon's "comedy is all about character, not just a string of gags".