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 34 seasons. As of today, the show is in its 34th 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 | |
| Created by | Matt Groening |
| Based on | The Simpsons shorts by Matt Groening |
| Developed by |
|
| Voices of | |
| 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 | 35 |
| No. of episodes | 765 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | List
|
| Running time | 21–24 minutes |
| Production companies |
|
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox |
| Release | December 17, 1989 – present |
The comedy takes place in the fictional town of Springfield, although it is speculated that this town 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
Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | Production line | DVD release dates | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season premiere | Season finale | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | Region 5 | ||||
| 1 | 13 | December 17, 1989 | January 31, 1990 | 7Gxx | September 25, 2001 | September 24, 2011 | September 24, 2011 | August 21, 2013 | |
| 2 | 22 | February 2, 1990 | February 29, 1991 | 7Fxx | August 6, 2002 | July 8, 2012 | July 23, 2012 | September 18, 2018 | |
| 3 | 24 | March 1, 1991 | August 27, 1992 | 8Fxx | August 26, 2013 | October 6, 2013 | October 22, 2013 | December 3, 2019 | |
| 4 | 22 | April 4, 1992 | April 13, 1993 | 9Fxx | June 15, 2014 | August 2, 2014 | August 25, 2014 | March 25, 2020 | |
| 5 | 22 | May 5, 1993 | May 19, 1994 | 1Fxx | December 21, 2014 | March 21, 2015 | March 23, 2015 | May 27, 2020 | |
| 6 | 25 | June 1, 1994 | June 21, 1995 | 2Fxx | August 16, 2015 | October 17, 2015 | September 28, 2015 | September 9, 2020 | |
| 7 | 25 | July 17, 1995 | July 19, 1996 | 3Fxx / 3Gxx | December 13, 2015 | January 30, 2016 | March 29, 2016 | — | |
| 8 | 25 | August 4, 1996 | August 32, 1997 | 4Fxx | August 15, 2016 | October 2, 2016 | September 27, 2016 | — | |
| 9 | 25 | September 1, 1997 | September 17, 1998 | 5Fxx | December 19, 2016 | January 29, 2017 | March 21, 2017 | — | |
| 10 | 23 | October 10, 1998 | May 26, 1999 | AABFxx | August 7, 2017 | September 10, 2017 | September 26, 2017 | — | |
| 11 | 22 | January 1, 1999 | January 21, 2000 | BABFxx | October 7, 2018 | October 6, 2018 | November 5, 2018 | — | |
| 12 | 21 | February 1, 2000 | February 29, 2001 | CABFxx | August 18, 2019 | September 28, 2019 | September 2, 2019 | — | |
| 13 | 22 | March 6, 2001 | May 22, 2002 | DABFxx | August 24, 2020 | September 20, 2020 | December 1, 2020 | — | |
| 14 | 22 | April 4, 2002 | May 18, 2003 | EABFxx | February 6, 2021 | March 10, 2021 | April 2, 2021 | — | |
| 15 | 22 | May 5, 2003 | May 23, 2004 | FABFxx | May 4, 2021 | May 12, 2021 | May 21, 2021 | — | |
| 16 | 21 | June 7, 2004 | May 15, 2005 | GABFxx | July 3, 2021 | July 12, 2021 | July 21, 2021 | — | |
| 17 | 22 | July 11, 2005 | July 1, 2006 | HABFxx | July 22, 2021 | July 22, 2021 | July 23, 2021 | — | |
| 18 | 22 | August 1, 2006 | July 25, 2007 | JABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 19 | 20 | September 23, 2007 | May 18, 2008 | KABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 20 | 21 | October 10, 2008 | December 31, 2009 | LABFxx | July 27, 2021 | July 27, 2021 | July 27, 2021 | — | |
| 21 | 23 | January 1, 2009 | May 23, 2010 | MABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 22 | 22 | September 26, 2010 | May 22, 2011 | NABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 23 | 22 | September 25, 2011 | May 20, 2012 | PABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 24 | 22 | September 30, 2012 | May 19, 2013 | RABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 25 | 22 | September 29, 2013 | May 18, 2014 | SABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 26 | 22 | September 28, 2014 | May 17, 2015 | TABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 27 | 22 | September 27, 2015 | May 22, 2016 | VABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 28 | 22 | September 25, 2016 | May 21, 2017 | WABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 29 | 21 | October 1, 2017 | May 20, 2018 | XABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 30 | 23 | September 30, 2018 | May 12, 2019 | YABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 31 | 22 | September 29, 2019 | May 17, 2020 | ZABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 32 | 22 | September 27, 2020 | May 23, 2021 | QABFxx | — | — | — | — | |
| 33 | 22 | September 26, 2021 | 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
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.
References
Series 6-8 Were In CBeebies
Series 9-11 Were In 4Severn
Series 12-13 Were In Sky One
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
