It’s hard to believe that 20 years ago the Tracy Ulman show introduced the world to a crudely drawn, poorly animated cartoon that would forever change television. It aired as a small filler segment for the show, but the popularity of The Simpsons spread like wildfire. In 1990, 20th Century Fox decided to take a gamble and make The Simpsons a primetime sitcom cartoon spearheaded by creator Matt Groening. That gamble was about to make history.
The Simpsons are a disfunctional family by every stretch of the means. Bart, the oldest, is a crude, sassy, back talking, and disrespectful troublemaker. His sister, Lisa, is a straight-A, liberal genius with a heart of gold. Maggie, the baby of the family, will probably never grow up and never speak. Then you add in a dimwitted, drunken father named Homer, and his wife Marge, who keeps the family a bit level headed. With these kinds of characters, you have one of the funniest cartoons in the nation.
Matt Groening is a genius. He created a town called Springfield that is filled with so many characters of all nations, religions, and social statuses and then combines them into one town. The jokes of the cartoon will offend probably just about everyone, so don’t feel singled out. Despite the diversity, it allows us all to relate to someone in the cartoon. Like it or not, the Simpsons family is a model of the modern American family; we just don’t want to admit it. We all have a Bart or a Lisa in the family, and we all have a Homer too somewhere if you dig deep enough.
Want some more amazing facts about this series? The Simpsons have completed this January, 450 episodes. Each one of those episodes was completely different than the previous, and never overlapped a topic once. The jokes are new each show, while maintaining the standard themes of each character. I don’t know how the creators made that possible for all these years. The show is also the longest running cartoon in U.S. history, and has won just about every award given including a Guilder Award.
Today, The Simpsons is a household name and the characters’ faces show up on just about every kind of merchandise you can imagine, including bottle openers. Since the first show appeared, they have come out with two video games, the first which appeared in arcades and on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. In 2007, the Simpsons family starred in their first ever full length motion picture. Heck, they are the only non-living actors/actresses with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Simpsons were considered vulgar back in the early ’90s and most stations boycotted them. The current president at the time, George H.W. Bush, even mentioned them in a speech as something we should not model our families after. That would soon change as America grew more and more tolerant and what you see now on television makes the Simpsons look like saints.
To enhance the awe of this amazing show, some of Hollywood’s brightest stars have made guest appearances on The Simpsons, including Bill Clinton. Everyone wants to be a character on the popular cartoon because if you land on the Simpsons, you’re one of the in-crowd.
This series has set a huge milestone for animation in general, to which many people have tried to match the bar The Simpsons have set. Creator Seth MacFarlane of The Family Guy said he got a lot of inspiration from The Simpsons for his hit cartoon. If you watch the two shows you can see how similar they actually are. Matt Groening states that the trick to the comedy is to “do what you think is funny, don’t worry about who you will insult or what others think because in comedy you always insult someone.” That is the mantra that has made the success of these lovable yellow characters, and that mantra has oozed over into The Family Guy as well.
Love them or hate them, The Simpsons are here to stay, and will probably be here for another 20 years. It wouldn’t be America without this family. This is Homer’s world!
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