The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Company since 1989.In other countries, the television show started its broadcasts after 1989 either in its original English-language version or in a dubbed version.
By language
Arabic The show was first broadcast in the area in English with Arabic subtitles on networks like Showtime Arabia and Dubai's One TV, where it received a following in the area.Yahiaoui, Rashid & Hijazi, Duaa & Fattah, Ashraf. (2020). Rendering Satire in Dubbing vs. Subtitling: A Case Study of the Arabic Translation of the American Sitcom The Simpsons. Sendebar. 31. 287-311. 10.30827/sendebar.v31i0.13604.
The show was finally dubbed into Arabic in September 2005, under the title "Al-Shamshoon" (). In addition to being dubbed in Arabic (with subtitles provided for shots including written English, such as the chalkboards), references to alcohol, pork, and numerous other themes have been deleted or significantly modified. For instance, Homer drinks soda-pop instead of beer, and eats beef sausages and hot dogs as opposed to pork, while shots of him eating bacon and pork rinds were removed entirely. He also eats ka'ak instead of donuts, and all references to Moe's Tavern were cut. References to Rabbi Krustofsky, Krusty the Clown's father, were removed as well. According to Richard Poplak of the CBC, an ex-Disney employee in Lebanon told him that, in Poplak's words, "if a TV station can help it, they’ll excise references to Judaism from shows meant for the pan-Arab market." Badih Fattouh, MBC 1's acquisitions and drama commissioner head, said, "You must understand that we did not simply dub, but we Arabized the concept, and we toned it down a bit. We toned [down] the language—we Arabized it in the cultural sense."
MBC 1, a company owned by Saudi Arabian sheiks, created the Arabic adaptation. Amr Hosny, a scriptwriter who frequently adapts works for the Arab world, served as the writer. The creative personalities behind Al-Shamshoon were Egyptian. The producers decided to adapt the "classic" episodes, beginning with Season 4, rather than starting with the original episodes. The characters were also given typical Arabic names such as Omar, Mona, Beesa and Badr for Homer, Marge, Lisa and Bart, respectively, as part of the retooling, while voices were provided by leading actors including Egyptian film star Mohamed Henedi as "Omar". Their hometown "Springfield" was called "Rabeea" (Arabic for spring) and made it look like an American town with a major Arab population. Poplak said, "Although Fattouh and MBC will give no figures, the licence fees from 20th Century Fox could not have been cheap."
About the original series, Hosny said, "I loved it. I take off my chapeau: they are very good artists. And the writers are unbelievable. I loved the character of Homer. There is something very strange about this character. It’s very close to the Egyptian point of view. He’s a very simple and kind person; from some points of view you feel that he’s incredibly stupid, and from some points of view you feel he is wise. Sometimes I felt I was talking about an Egyptian person. Nothing is certain and taken for granted—it’s not ipso facto—and this makes good art". Hosny said that the sheiks who owned MBC interfered in the creative process, making the show more edited and less comprehensible. For instance, Hosny wanted to make a "Little Arab Town" where it would be explained why there were many Arab people living in the middle of the United States. The sheiks rejected Hosny's suggestions. Poplak said, "Instead, Springfield remained, and there was no coherent explanation given as to why a full Arab community exists within the middle of Middle America". Hosny wanted Homer to drink she'er, a non-alcoholic malt drink, so dubbing would be easy. The sheiks insisted that Homer should drink juice. Hosny also stated that he tried to underemphasize Waylon Smithers's homosexual attraction to Mr. Burns. Poplak said, "Through a steady process of cross-cultural attrition—no bacon sandwiches, no Moe’s Tavern, church becomes masjid (mosque)—The Simpsons was whittled down to a shadow of itself."
The show debuted after al-Iftar on October 4, 2005, the first night of Ramadan. The show overall had a poor reception. Fattouh said, "The show was not a big success. Otherwise, of course, we would have continued to do another season. I would say it was fairly received, but average. This made us reconsider". Poplak said, "That’s putting it mildly. MBC’s core viewers were baffled. From most accounts, the show was incoherent". The MBC show had a poor reception in the Saudi Arabian market, described by Poplak as "all-important". Cartoons in Saudi Arabia are perceived as being for children, and adults, puzzled at why cartoons were airing during the post-Iftar time, chose to watch other channels. Arabs who were fans of The Simpsons also had a negative reaction. As'ad AbuKhalil, a professor at California State University, Stanislaus and a blogger who operates the "Angry Arab News Service," () said that after he saw a promotional segment, "This is just beyond the pale[.]" and "It was just painful. ... The guy who played Homer Simpson was one of the most unfunny people I ever watched. Just drop the project, and air reruns of Tony Danza's show instead." Fattouh added "You see, culturally, it didn’t cross very well. Maybe the sense of humour is too North American. Comedy is especially a culturally sensitive matter. What you can define as funny is an outcome of learnings, habits, doings, local behaviour—it is the sum of so many factors. Drama is one thing, but with comedy, it is black and white. Deep inside, either you laugh or you say, ‘No, this is not funny.’ They did not think this was funny". As a result, only 34 of the 52 adapted episodes aired.
Poplak said, "It is a lesson in cross-cultural adaptation, and a warning of how delicate a powerful piece of television art like The Simpsons actually is."
The show in its unedited form currently airs on Fox Series in English with Arabic subtitles.
Catalan Antena 3 aired the show in Catalan for a brief period (within 1995) in Catalonia. They dubbed four seasons.
Czech The Simpsons ("Simpsonovi") in Czech is broadcast in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, premiering on January 8, 1993, on Czech Television, who broadcast the series until 2010, when the Czech broadcast rights were bought by Prima Cool. The late actress Helena Štáchová provided the voice of Lisa Simpson until 2017; since then, Ivana Korolová has voiced Lisa. Popular Czech actor Jiří Lábus voices Marge Simpson. Martin Dejdar voices Bart and Vlastimil Bedrna voiced Homer until the 12th season and Vlastimil Zavřel voices him since 13th season.
French The Simpsons has been dubbed into the French language twice, once in the Canadian province of Quebec and again in France. The show is titled "Les Simpson" in both regions, following local orthography standards. The French audio on most Region 1 DVDs is the Quebec dub, although very early releases used the European French dub instead. It is one of only a handful of American television shows that have wholly separate versions in Quebec and France, and a number of studies have been made comparing them. In France all the characters speak standard French, with the exception of the ethnic minorities: Apu is given a Goan Portuguese accent, while black characters such as Carl, who have American accents in the English version, speak with inflected accents typical of North African immigrants. Kirk Van Houten is given a stereotypical Brussels accent, as "Van Houten" is a name which can be assumed to be Belgian. In the Quebec version, blue-collar workers like Homer and Barney Gumble speak with a heavy joual drawl whereas the town élite, such as Principal Skinner and Reverend Lovejoy, speak with a French accent. In the Quebec version the ethnic minorities also have accents. Noticeably, Carl has the accent of a Black immigrant from Haiti.
Local idioms are occasionally adopted in place of direct translation. American cultural and political jokes are occasionally replaced with local references. For instance, a reference to Newt Gingrich in Quebec is generally replaced with one to Mike Harris. Most of the recurring characters keep their English names in each French version. Two exceptions are Sideshow Bob and Sideshow Mel, who are known as Tahiti Bob and Tahiti Mel in France, as the word sideshow has no direct translation. In Quebec, the title sideshow is kept as an Anglicism. Another exception is made for the Simpsons family's dog, Santa's Little Helper, who is called "Le p'tit renne au nez rouge" (the French name for the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", which literally means "Little Red-Nosed Reindeer") in the Quebec version and "Petit Papa Noël" (name of a French Christmas song that literally means "Little Father Christmas") in the French one.
In addition, although the location and setting of the show are not changed in the Quebec dub (still takes place in the United States), many references to the characters watching American TV shows, movies, etc. are changed to references to Québécois ones. For example, a reference to Homer watching CSI: Miami in the original was changed to Fortier, a similar Québécois show. Although these changed references would be familiar to the French-Canadian viewer, in real life these would be awkward because almost all Québécois media is unknown in the United States. This is an example of localizing the humour for the Quebec market. In the episode "Lisa's Rival", Bart's mention of getting Millhouse Van Houten on America's Most Wanted, is simply changed for "on television". In addition, most instances of the word "English" are changed to "French". Due to this, in one episode where Homer visits Canada, the roles of anglophones and francophones are completely reversed, resulting in a stereotypical English-Canadian speaking French and a stereotypical French-Canadian speaking English. In another episode, English-Canadians were given stereotypical American accents speaking French, even when the main characters from the U.S.A. were not. The same practice is done in the Quebec dub of King of the Hill, done by the same company and many of the same actors, but to a greater extent: instead of taking place in Arlen, Texas, the show takes place in Sainte-Irène, Quebec, and many of the characters' names are changed. However, American and Texas flags along with pictures of Texas state (such as on the side of police cars) are not edited.
Generally, names are pronounced according to French pronunciation rules. For example, Milhouse van Houten sounds like Meeloose Vanooten. Marge, the ge is pronounced /ʒ/ instead of /dʒ/, in Homer, the h is mute. The u in Krusty is pronounced as /œ/ as usual in French if words derive from English language such as club. Other names are slightly different such as Edna Krabappel who is named Edna Krapabelle. Unlike in the original version, some names are stressed on the second syllable like Li'Sa, Mag'Gie or Nel'Son.
The episodes are dubbed by a team of voice actors, similar to the one that does the original. The team does about two episodes per day. In general these voice actors also do the characters who were voiced by celebrities in the American version. In the French version, on occasion, official dubbers are brought in. For instance, in the episode "The Springfield Files", where agents Mulder and Scully from The X-Files appear the voice actors who do their voices on the French version of the X-Files guest starred.