The Simpsons (1989– )
Description: This is an animated sitcom about the antics of a dysfunctional family. Homer is the oafish unhealthy beer loving father, Marge is the hardworking homemaker wife, Bart is the perpetual ten-year-old underachiever (and proud of it), Lisa is the unappreciated eight-year-old genius, and Maggie is the cute, pacifier loving silent infant.
Creators: James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Sam Simon
Stars: Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer
Photos
Trivia
This is the longest running primetime comedy series, as well as the longest-running primetime animated series, in U.S. television history.
The main characters were given a yellow coloring to attract the attention of channel hoppers.
In season three, episode fourteen, “Lisa the Greek,” Lisa, angry at Homer for tricking her into helping him gamble on football, makes a bet that if she loves him, the winner of the Super Bowl will be the Washington Redskins, and if she doesn’t, the Buffalo Bills would come out on top (Washington won). Actually, when the show premiered just before the Super Bowl, those two teams were squaring off in Superbowl XXVI, and Washington came out on top 37-24. Over the next three years, FOX made it a tradition to air the episode just before the Super Bowl, and change the dialogue, so that the teams would include whatever teams were playing that year. According to the DVD commentary, Lisa accurately picked the winning team every single year.
One of Cletus’ kids is named Crystal Meth.
A television critic titled his article “Worst Episode Ever!” after watching a late 1990s episode, and criticized the show’s writing. In the later seasons, there are many episodes in which the Comic Book Guy criticizes a character by saying “Worst episode ever!” and “Worst (action) ever!” in reference to the television critic’s article.
According to a Simpson family tree designed by Matt Groening, Mr. Burns is a distant relative of Homer. Further, it’s also revealed at the end of season twenty-one, episode thirteen, “The Simpsons: The Color Yellow (2010)” that Grandpa Simpson’s great-grandfather was black, making him 1/8 black, so Homer is 1/16 and Bart, Lisa, and Maggie are 1/32.
The primary cast all have agreements in their contracts that hold them to doing three movies based on the show in the future.
Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Mark Hamill, Steve Buscemi, James Caan, George Takei, Ricky Gervais, Simon Cowell and Joe Mantegna are the only guest actors to play both themselves and a fictional character on the series.
Homer (Dan Castellaneta) is the only character to have dialogue in every episode. While Marge (Julie Kavner) and Lisa (Yeardley Smith) also appear in every episode, Marge doesn’t have any dialogue in “Krusty Gets Kancelled” (Season 4 Episode 22), and Lisa doesn’t have any dialogue in “Chief of Hearts” (Season 21 Episode 18). Bart (Nancy Cartwright) doesn’t appear in “Four Great Women and a Manicure” (Season 20 Episode 20).
Homer’s e-mail address is ChunkyLover53@aol.com
People banned for life in the comic book store are: Bart Simpson, Milhouse Van Houten, Sideshow Bob Terwilliger, Nelson Muntz, George Lucas, and Matt Groening.
Comic Book Guy is based on Matt Groening himself: “He’s the way I think I look to other people.”