The Simpsons (TV series)

CREATOR Matt Groening (1954– )

DATE Began airing on December 17, 1989

The Simpsons , the longest-running scripted prime-time series in television history, began by representing the late-twentieth-century clash between ideal nuclear families of the past and contemporary dysfunctional ones. The traditional sitcom format paired with biting contemporary social, political, and religious satire remained the cornerstone of its success into the first decades of the twenty-first century.

Created by Matt Groening, The Simpsons originally appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show as a short sketch in 1987 and was later developed as its own series, debuting in December 1989. The Simpson family fits the mold of previous American sitcom families; father Homer (voice of Dan Castellaneta), mother Marge (voice of Julie Kavner), and children Bart (voice of Nancy Cartwright), Lisa (voice of Yeardley Smith), and Maggie represent the nuclear family of married parents and a couple of children. Also familiar is their middle-class existence in the fictional average American town of Springfield, coupled with weekly churchgoing. Conventional gender roles are also largely upheld, as evidenced by Homer going to work each day and Marge mostly staying home to care for the house and children.

When the Simpsons first premiered, such an idealized family stereotype lent itself immediately to parody after decades of sugary, morally edifying story lines from other television series. In the decades after its premiere, The Simpsons continued to challenge both nuclear family politics as well as the notion that there is no “fun” in dysfunctional. The animated nature of The Simpsons permits Homer, a lazy, drunken father, to strangle Bart, his foul-mouthed, vandalizing son, on several episodes without broaching the subject of child abuse in any meaningful way. Soon after the series began, the story lines made use of this medium to progressively shift the central features of the show from the American family to United States in general, allowing it to tackle new topics and helping the show sustain a loyal viewer base. The show earned both praise and criticism for its willingness to tackle all kinds of satire, from the social to the political to the religious and beyond.

Cultural Satire

By the 1990s, The Simpsons had become one of Fox Network’s most successful programs, due in large part to its contemporaneity. While the show appears to be fixed in time and place, one can easily identify the passage of time across the series based on the subject matter. Homer and Marge remain married, and, in spite of various episodic events, Homer works at the nuclear power plant and Marge is a homemaker; Bart is always ten years old, in the fourth grade, with a best friend named Milhouse; Lisa is always eight years old, in the second grade, and is the liberal voice of reason for the family; Maggie, ever known for her pacifier-sucking, has yet to outgrow her babyhood. Even though the characters never age, there are developments in the series that reveal a passage of time, such as the deaths of Bleeding Gums Murphy and Maude Flanders. Most remarkably, though, the passage of time is noted by the relevance of the material upon which the various shows comment.

In the 1990s, show topics did not always center on current events, yet episodes did not hesitate to lampoon news topics, such as President Bill Clinton’s well-publicized affair with Monica Lewinsky, the grunge rock movement and Lollapalooza, as well as the dot-com boom. These kinds of popular culture motifs typically do not take center stage but rather appear as subtle elements of story lines involving the central characters. For example, President Bill Clinton often appeared in The Simpsons as a lusty and shameless womanizer, Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth made appearances as part of the Hullabalooza festival Homer joins as part of the sideshow, and Homer attempted to start his own internet business, only to be thwarted, mob-style, by Bill Gates himself.

In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the show largely stuck with this formula, incorporating parodies and representations of mainstream films, television, books, figures, and other aspects of popular culture while also offering fresh perspectives on perennial, universal themes like friendship, family, generational differences, education, and more. Celebrity cameos, sometimes as themselves, also remained a common feature. While some critics questioned whether, after so many episodes, the series remained as strong, others argued that it continued to use its medium and sharp humor effectively. In 2019 the show was renewed for an additional two seasons, and in 2021 was renewed for both seasons thirty-three and thirty-four. By that point, the show had become the longest-running primetime scripted television show in US history up to that point, and had won thirty-four Emmy Awards. In 2023, the show was renewed for seasons thirty-five and thirty-six, which would air in 2024 and 2025.

Unlike the satirical depictions of American culture on a show like Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons not only criticized but also paradoxically became American culture. Merchandise touting phrases such as “Eat my shorts” made these taglines common property to the point of cliché, and Homer’s annoyed grunt of “D’oh!” eventually became so ubiquitous that the Oxford English Dictionary included it as a word in its own right. In 2007, the consistent popularity of the show, both in the United States and internationally, led to a film adaptation, The Simpsons Movie, released in theaters.

Impact

The influence of The Simpsons on television has proven immeasurable. The success of the show created a new category of animated television programs aimed at adult audiences and is cited as directly influential in the creation of such other Fox series as King of the Hill, Family Guy, and American Dad! as well as the Comedy Central hit South Park, to name but a few.

Bibliography

Alberti, John, ed. Leaving Springfield: “The Simpsons” and the Possibilities of Oppositional Culture. Wayne State University Press, 2004.

Cantor, Paul A. “The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family.” Political Theory, vol. 27, no. 6, Dec. 1999, p. 734.

Fox, Jesse David. "The Simpsons Is Good Again After 34 seasons, 750 Episodes, and a Decades-Long Funk, the Show Innovated Its Way Back to Popularity and Relevance." Vulture, 5 June 2023, www.vulture.com/article/the-simpsons-is-good-again.html. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Gonzalez, Sandra. "'Simpsons' Scores Two-Season Renewal from Fox and Could Out Live Us All." CNN, 6 Feb. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/02/06/entertainment/simpsons-renewed-season-31-and-32/index.html. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Irwin, William. “The Simpsons” and Philosophy: The D’oh! of Homer. Open Court, 2001.

Tallerico, Brian. "‘The Simpsons’ at 30: Six Era-Defining Episodes." The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2018, www.cnn.com/2019/02/06/entertainment/simpsons-renewed-season-31-and-32/index.html. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Turner, Chris. Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation. Da Capo Press, 2004.

Wilber, Jennifer. "A History of Matt Groening’s 'The Simpsons.'" ReelRundown, 25 Mar. 2022, reelrundown.com/animation/A-History-of-Matt-Groenings-The-Simpsons. Accessed 22 May 2024.