The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom. It was created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show started on December 17, 1989 and so far over 700 episodes have aired in 36 seasons. As of today, the show is in its 36th season. As a full-length movie, The Simpsons Movie, was released on July 27, 2007 as a celebration of the franchise. It is aimed at the whole family.

The Simpsons
Red logo
Genre	Animated sitcom Satire
Created by	Matt Groening
Based on	The Simpsons shorts by Matt Groening
Developed by	James L. Brooks Matt Groening Sam Simon
Voices of	Dan Castellaneta Julie Kavner Nancy Cartwright Yeardley Smith Hank Azaria Harry Shearer (Complete list)
Theme music composer	Danny Elfman
Opening theme	"The Simpsons Theme"
Composers	Richard Gibbs (1989) Alf Clausen (1990–2017) Bleeding Fingers Music (2017–present)
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	36
No. of episodes	780 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	List James L. Brooks (entire run) Matt Groening (entire run) Al Jean (1992–1993; 1995–present) Matt Selman (2005–present) John Frink (2009–present) Sam Simon (1989–1993) Mike Reiss (1992–1993; 1995–1998) David Mirkin (1993–1995) Bill Oakley (1995–1997) Josh Weinstein (1995–1997) Mike Scully (1997–2001) George Meyer (1999–2001) Carolyn Omine (2005–2006) Tim Long (2005–2008) Ian Maxtone-Graham (2005–2012)
Running time	21–24 minutes
Production companies	Klasky Csupo (1989-1992) IMX Communications (1996-present) Bardel Entertainment (2015) Film Roman (1992-2016) Rough Draft Studios (1992-present) Funbag Animation Studios (1994) Sunwoo Entertainment/Sunwoo Asia-Pacific (1991-1999) Gracie Films 20th Television[a] (1989–2021) 20th Television Animation (2021–present)
Original release
Network	Fox
Release	December 17, 1989 (1989-12-17) – present

The comedy takes place in the fictional town of Springfield, although it is speculated that its location may correspond to the real-life cities of Springfield, Oregon (a city near where Groening grew up) or Springfield, Wyoming, from the adventures of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Homer's name is an Homerous. His full name is Homer J. Simpson. Bart's name is an anagram of Brat. His full name is Bartholomew Jojo Simpson. This TV show has a yellow skinned cartoon family. In 1998, Phil Hartman was murdered by his wife, resulting in his characters being removed from the show. In 2000, Ned Flander's wife, Maude Flanders was killed off. Also in 2000, Barney Gumble became sober. In 2002, the production of The Simpsons had switched from cels to digital ink and paint. During that time, The Simpsons had suffering of franchise fatigue. "Sneed's Feed and Seed" from the episode E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt) became an internet meme.^[1][2]

History

The television show The Simpsons was originally shown as short shows on The Tracey Ullman Show. Fox then decided to give them their own show in 1989. It has been tremendously successful since onwards.

Shorts

See the main article: The Simpsons shorts

Episodes

See the main article: List of The Simpsons episodes

Season		No. of episodes	Originally aired			Viewership
			Season premiere	Season finale	Time slot (ET)	Avg. viewers (in millions)	Most watched episode
							Viewers (millions)	Episode title
1	1989–90	13	December 17, 1989	May 13, 1990	Sunday 8:30 pm	27.8	33.5[3]	"Life on the Fast Lane"
2	1990–91	22	October 11, 1990	July 11, 1991	Thursday 8:00 pm	24.4	33.6[4]	"Bart Gets an 'F'"
3	1991–92	24	September 19, 1991	August 27, 1992		21.8	25.5[5]	"Colonel Homer"
4	1992–93	22	September 24, 1992	May 13, 1993		22.4	28.6[6]	"Lisa's First Word"
5	1993–94	22	September 30, 1993	May 19, 1994		18.9	24.0[7]	"Treehouse of Horror IV"
6	1994–95	25	September 4, 1994	May 21, 1995	Sunday 8:00 pm	15.6	22.2[8]	"Treehouse of Horror V"
7	1995–96	25	September 17, 1995	May 19, 1996	Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–24) Sunday 8:30 pm (Episode 25)	15.1	22.6[9]	"Who Shot Mr. Burns? – Part II"
8	1996–97	25	October 27, 1996	May 18, 1997	Sunday 8:30 pm (Episodes 1–3) Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 4–12, 14–25) Friday 8:00 pm (Episode 13)[10]	14.5	20.41[11]	"The Springfield Files"
9	1997–98	25	September 21, 1997	May 17, 1998	Sunday 8:00 pm	15.3	19.80[12]	"The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons"
10	1998–99	23	August 23, 1998	May 16, 1999		13.5	19.11[13]	"Sunday, Cruddy Sunday"
11	1999–2000	22	September 26, 1999	May 21, 2000		8.8	19.16[14]	"Faith Off"
12	2000–01	21	November 1, 2000	May 20, 2001		15.5	18.52[15]	"HOMR"
13	2001–02	22	November 6, 2001	May 22, 2002	Tuesday 8:30 pm (Episode 1) Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 2–20) Sunday 7:30 pm (Episode 21) Wednesday 8:00 pm (Episode 22)	12.5	14.91[16]	"The Parent Rap"
14	2002–03	22	November 3, 2002	May 18, 2003	Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–11, 13–21) Sunday 8:30 pm (Episodes 12, 22)	14.4	22.04[17]	"I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can"
15	2003–04	22	November 2, 2003	May 23, 2004	Sunday 8:00 pm	11.0	16.30[18]	"I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot"
16	2004–05	21	November 7, 2004	May 15, 2005	Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–7, 9–16, 18, 20) Sunday 10:30 pm (Episode 8) Sunday 8:30 pm (Episodes 17, 19, 21)	10.2	23.07[19]	"Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass"
17	2005–06	22	September 11, 2005	May 21, 2006	Sunday 8:00 pm	9.55	11.66[20]	"Treehouse of Horror XVI"
18	2006–07	22	September 10, 2006	May 20, 2007		9.15	11.63[21]	"The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer"
19	2007–08	20	September 23, 2007	May 18, 2008		8.37	11.74[22]	"Treehouse of Horror XVIII"
20	2008–09	21	September 28, 2008	May 17, 2009	Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–7, 9–21) Sunday 8:30 pm (Episode 8)	7.1	12.40[23]	"Treehouse of Horror XIX"
21	2009–10	23	September 27, 2009	May 23, 2010	Sunday 8:00 pm	7.1	14.62[24]	"Once Upon a Time in Springfield"
22	2010–11	22	September 26, 2010	May 22, 2011		7.09	12.55[25]	"Moms I'd Like to Forget"
23	2011–12	22	September 25, 2011	May 20, 2012		6.15[26]	11.48[27]	"The D'oh-cial Network"
24	2012–13	22	September 30, 2012	May 19, 2013	Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–21) Sunday 8:30 pm (Episode 22)	5.41[28]	8.97[29]	"Homer Goes to Prep School"
25	2013–14	22	September 29, 2013	May 18, 2014	Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–11, 13–22) Sunday 7:30 pm (Episode 12)	5.02[30]	12.04[31]	"Steal This Episode"
26	2014–15	22	September 28, 2014	May 17, 2015	Sunday 8:00 pm	5.61[32]	10.62[33]	"The Man Who Came to Be Dinner"
27	2015–16	22	September 27, 2015	May 22, 2016		4.0[34]	8.33[35]	"Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles"
28	2016–17	22	September 25, 2016	May 21, 2017 (2017-05-21)		4.80[36]	8.19[37]	"Pork and Burns"
29	2017–18	21	October 1, 2017	May 20, 2018		4.07[38]	8.04[39]	"Frink Gets Testy"
30	2018–19	23	September 30, 2018	May 12, 2019		3.10[40]	8.20[41]	"The Girl on the Bus"
31	2019–20	22	September 29, 2019	May 17, 2020		2.58[42]	5.63[43]	"Go Big or Go Homer"
32	2020–21	22	September 27, 2020	May 23, 2021	Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–10, 12–22) Sunday 9:00 pm (Episode 11)	2.32[44]	4.93[45]	"Treehouse of Horror XXXI"
33	2021–22	22	September 26, 2021	May 22, 2022		2.25[46]	3.97[47]	"Portrait of a Lackey on Fire"
34	2022–23	22	September 25, 2022	May 21, 2023	Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–8, 10–22) Sunday 8:30 pm (Episode 9)	1.83[48]	4.77[49]	"From Beer to Paternity"
35	2023–24	18	October 1, 2023	May 19, 2024	Sunday 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–5, 7, 10–18) Sunday 8:30 pm (Episodes 6, 8, 9)	1.99[50]	5.41[51]	"Do the Wrong Thing"
36	2024–25	TBA	September 29, 2024	TBA	Sunday 8:00PM	TBA	TBA	TBA

Seasons of The Simpsons mostly have a total of 22 episodes.

Elements of the show

Chalkboard gag

Many episodes begin with a scene of Springfield Elementary School, where Bart Simpson is shown writing lines on a chalkboard as punishment for being bad. For example, in one episode, Bart writes, "I will not conduct my own fire drills." The line is supposed to be humourous. Not every episode has a new one and sometimes the chalkboard gag may be cut (removed) because there is not enough time.

Couch gag

In the opening, all the Simpsons come home after work or school. After Homer Simpson is almost or is hit by Marge's car, they all go into the living room, where something comical happens again. These are called "couch gags". On one couch gag Homer Simpson walked onto the screen like James Bond and shot the camera. Sometimes if an episode is a short one, then the couch gag will be very long. A couple of couch gags have been over one minute long. Couch gags in earlier seasons were simple but then became more interesting in later seasons.

Ending credits

At the end of the show, the credits are shown. Sometimes they might be changed. In one episode, the ending showed Homer reading from a document about Dateline. In another episode, where all of the characters sing in song, Snake keeps firing his gun in order to make the music that was playing stop.

Movie

See the main article: The Simpsons Movie

A film based on the show, The Simpsons Movie, was released in 2007, specifically on the day that it was released. It included the character Spider Pig as Homer's new pet after rescuing him from a chain restaurant, Krusty Burger.

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Series 6-8 Were In CBeebies

Series 9-11 Were In 4Severn

Series 12-13 Were In Sky One

1. Known as 20th Century Fox Television until season 31.

Other websites

• TheSimpsons.com Official website
• The Simpsons on IMDb
• The Simpsons at TV.com
• The Simpsons Archive
• The Simpsons Archived 2008-01-12 at the Wayback Machine at the Encyclopedia of Television
• The Simpsons Wiki
• The Simpsons Wiki at Wikia