The Simpsons is a television show created by
Matt Groening. The Simpsons were conceived in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office, by Matt Groening
The family, in a 2009 appearance.
. He was asked to do a series of animated shorts, and decided to do his
Life in Hell series; but 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 19th, 1987 on
The T
The family as they appeared in 1987.
. 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. In 1989, a team of production companies adapted the Simpsons into a half-hour primetime series, for the FOX Broadcasting Company. FOX was initally nervous to air the Simpsons; as there hasn'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, major problems with it, causing James L. Brooks to exclaim: "This is shit." The producers then decided to just go ahead and air "
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," on December 17th, 1989. After the first season, The Simpsons went on to have twenty-one more seasons; and are the longest running television show of all-time.
