Written by: Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor
When the Simpson family first appeared as an animated short in 1987, nobody could have predicted the series’s influence on pop culture.
Created by cartoonist Matt Groening, “The Simpsons” originally started as a 30-second short on “The Tracey Ullman Show” — a variety program akin to “Robot Chicken” — airing on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Eventually, it expanded to half an hour and aired Dec. 17, 1989, as a Christmas special titled “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.” The rest of season one began airing regularly in January 1990.
Oregon-born Groening partnered with seasoned producer-director James L. Brooks as the show’s executive producer with Sam Simon attached as a writer. Brooks is best known for “Mary Tyler Moore” and “As Good As It Gets,” while Simon is known for “Friends” and “Cheers.”
The show centers on a family with all the dysfunctions of the modern world but with the demographics of the 1950s: two married parents, two preteen children, an infant and plenty of living extended family. Springfield — named after Springfield, Oregon — is filled with all kinds of strange residents, ones that often fulfill stereotypical roles seen on television. An endless rollout of walk-on guest stars eventually joined the show and were voiced by their real-life counterparts — former President George Bush and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking were among these guest stars.
In the ’90s, the show’s popularity skyrocketed and was so successful in its first two years that the term “Simpsonmania” was coined and used to describe the show’s rise to fame. In 1990, as many as one million Bart Simpson shirts were sold in a day, and Simpson merchandise generated $2 billion in revenue for the series. “The Simpsons” was Fox Network’s first television series to rank among the top 30 highest-rated shows in 1990.
As time went on, “The Simpsons” began to pass other shows in terms of series longevity. “The Simpsons” surpassed “The Flintstones” as the longest-running prime-time animated series in the United States Feb. 9, 1997. In 2004, the series surpassed “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” which ran from 1952 to 1966, as the longest-running sitcom — animated or live-action — in the United States. “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” was also originally the leader in number of episodes — a whopping 453 — but in the spring of 2009, “The Simpsons” surpassed it.
“The Simpsons” and “Scooby-Doo” battled it out in October of 2004 for American animated show with the highest number of episodes, but when network executives canceled “Scooby-Doo” again the following year, “The Simpsons” reclaimed it with 378 episodes at the end of season 17. By season 18, the series had 400 episodes. It is now recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s longest-running sitcom.
“The Simpsons Movie” was released July 27, 2007, and grossed $536.4 million worldwide, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2007, the second-highest-grossing traditionally animated film — second only to Disney’s “The Lion King” — as well as the highest-grossing film based on an animated television series and the highest grossing adult animated movie of all time. The film was nominated for numerous awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
The movie, much like the series, includes celebrity cameos, with Tom Hanks and the members of Green Day playing themselves.
However, by the time “The Simpsons Movie” was released to theaters, critics began calling the show “tired” and fans were becoming disillusioned with the series. Jim Schembri of The Morning Herald believed the show’s decline was due to an abandonment of character-driven storylines and overused celebrity cameos and references to popular culture.
“The central tragedy of ‘The Simpsons’ is that it has gone from commanding attention to merely being attention-seeking. It began by proving that cartoon characters don’t have to be caricatures; they can be invested with real emotions. Now the show has in essence fermented into a limp parody of itself. Memorable story arcs have been sacrificed for the sake of celebrity walk-ons and punchline-hungry dialogue,” Schembri said.
Many fans and critics say the show’s golden era was in its first ten seasons and claim that when showrunners Mike Scully and Al Jean were added to the roster, then began the show’s true decline.
Groening was quick to defend the show, as well as his showrunners, saying: “I honestly don’t see any end in sight. I think it’s possible that the show will become too financially cumbersome but right now, the show is creatively, I think, as good or better than it’s ever been. The animation is incredibly detailed and imaginative, and the stories do things that we haven’t done before. So creatively there’s no reason to quit.”
Currently, viewership of “The Simpsons” has been on the decline since season 21, which first aired in September 2009. While season one had an average viewership of 13.4 million viewers, season 21 had a dismal average of 7.2 million viewers. The first two episodes of season 36 have even worse numbers — episode two did not even break a million viewers, currently stagnant at 886,000.
Although, even as the show’s viewership declines, fans still come together to share their love of “The Simpsons,” especially the first ten seasons. Instagram accounts such as @bortposting, @the_simpsons_man and @bortofdarkness regularly post memes about the show’s golden era and all three accounts have a combined following of 281,200. r/Simpsons on Reddit has 43,000 members and is among the top three percent of Reddit pages.
Critics and fans alike do have hope for season 36. The season’s premiere began with a fake series finale and featured altered clips from classic episodes that were given tragic outcomes. On X (formerly Twitter), user @tonygoldmark shared their theory that the show’s recent quality could be because “the show is now being run by people who grew up watching it, and precisely understand the memetic impact it’s had.” Many fans also attributed this increase in episode quality to Matt Selman taking over as the primary showrunner starting in season 33. And although the season premiere was very standalone, its references reminded viewers that it is still the same show they loved watching years ago.
Episode three of season 36 aired on Fox Oct. 20 and is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu
