This is a history of the animated television series The Simpsons. The show was created by Matt Groening, who conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office. He named the characters after his own family members, substituting "Bart" for his own name. The family debuted as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. In 1989, the shorts were spun off into the series The Simpsons which debuted on December 17, 1989. Since then, the series has aired 441 episodes, 20 seasons and The Simpsons Movie was released in 2007.

The show was controversial from its beginning. Bart frequently received no punishment for his misbehavior, which led some parents and conservatives to characterize him as a poor role model for children. Several United States public schools even banned The Simpsons merchandise and t-shirts. In the October 1990, Barbara Bush called The Simpsons "the dumbest thing [she] had ever seen". In January 1992, then-current President George H. W. Bush made a speech during his re-election in which he said: "We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons". The writers rushed out a reply in the form of a short segment which aired three days later before a rerun of "Stark Raving Dad" in which Bart replied, "Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too."

The main cast has been involved in much-publicized pay disputes with Fox on more than one occasion. In 1998, they threatened to strike, forcing 20th Century Fox to increase their salary from $30,000 per episode to $125,000. As the show's revenue continued to rise through syndication and DVD sales, the main cast stopped appearing for script readings in April 2004. The cast asked for an increase in their pay to $360,000 per episode, or $8 million over a 22-episode season. On May 2, 2004, the actors reached an agreement with Fox. There was another dispute in 2008, and the actors' salary was raised to $400,000 per episode. At the end of 2007 the writers of The Simpsons went on strike together with the Writers Guild of America. The broadcasting of The Simpsons was not be affected by the strike. Since it takes a long time to produce an episode of an animated show, the episodes are ready up to a year in advance.

In Season 14, production switched from traditional cel animation to digital ink and paint. The first episode to experiment with digital coloring was "Radioactive Man" in 1995. Animators used digital ink and paint during production of the Season 12 episode "Tennis the Menace", but Gracie Films delayed the regular use of digital ink and paint until two seasons later. On July 27, 2007, The Simpsons Movie was released. Previous attempts to create a film version of The Simpsons failed due to the lack of a script of appropriate length and production crew members. Eventually, producers James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Scully, and Richard Sakai began development of the film in 2001. Tie-in promotions were made with several companies, including 7-Eleven, which transformed selected stores into Kwik-E-Marts. The film was a box office success, and received generally positive reviews.

Contents 1 The Tracey Ullman shorts 2 The half-hour show 2.1 The first season 2.2 Bartmania 2.3 Season 2 onward 2.4 Feud with George H. W. Bush 2.5 New Orleans controversy 2.6 Tracey Ullman lawsuit 2.7 Labor difficulties 2.8 Rio de Janeiro controversy 2.9 Later seasons 3 Film 4 References 4.1 Sources 4.2 Notes

[edit] The Tracey Ullman shorts

Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office. Brooks had asked Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts, which Groening initially intended to present as his Life in Hell series. However, when Groening realized that animating Life in Hell would require the rescinding of publication rights for his life's work, he chose another approach and formulated his version of a dysfunctional family.^[1] He named the characters after his own family members, substituting "Bart" for his own name.^[2]

The Simpson family first appeared in short subjects in The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987.^[3] Groening submitted only basic sketches to the animators and assumed that the figures would be cleaned-up in production. However, the animators merely re-traced his drawings, which led to the crude appearance of the characters in the initial short episodes.^[2] The animation was produced domestically at Klasky Csupo,^[4] with Wesley Archer, David Silverman, and Bill Kopp being animators for the first season.^[5] After season one it was animated by Archer and Silverman.^[5] Georgie Peluse was the colorist and the person who decided to make the characters yellow.^[5]

The actors who voiced the characters would later reprise their roles in The Simpsons. Dan Castellaneta performed the voices of Homer Simpson, Abraham Simpson, and Krusty the Clown.^[6] Homer's voice sounds different in the shorts compared to most episodes of the half-hour show. In the shorts, his voice is a loose impression of Walter Matthau, whereas it is more robust and humorous on the half-hour show, allowing Homer to cover a fuller range of emotions.^[7] Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, and Yeardley Smith performed the voices of Marge Simpson, Bart Simpson, and Lisa Simpson respectively.^[6] While most of the characters' personalities are similar to what they are in the series, Lisa is portrayed as a female version of Bart without the intelligence that she possesses in the half-hour series.

The shorts were featured on the first three seasons on The Tracey Ullman Show. By the fourth and last season of The Tracey Ullman Show the first season of the half-hour show was on the air. In the two first seasons the shorts were divided into three or four parts,^[8] but in the third season they were played as a single story.^[8]

[edit] The half-hour show

[edit] The first season

In 1989, a team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The team included what is now the Klasky Csupo animation house. Jim Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content.^[9] Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching.^[10] The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989 with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", a Christmas special.^[11]

The series was originally set to debut in the fall of 1989 with the episode "Some Enchanted Evening", which was meant to introduce the main characters.^[12] However, during the first screening of the episode, the producers discovered that the animation was so appalling that 70% of the episode needed to be redone.^[13] The producers considered aborting the series if the next episode ("Bart the Genius") turned out as bad, but it only suffered from easily fixable problems. The producers convinced Fox to move the debut to December 17, and aired "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" as the first episode of the series.^[12] The Simpsons was the Fox network's first TV series to rank among a season's top 30 highest-rated shows.^[14]

[edit] Bartmania

The show was controversial from its beginning. The rebellious lead character at the time, Bart, frequently received no punishment for his misbehavior, which led some parents and conservatives to characterize him as a poor role model for children.^[15][16] Several US public schools even banned The Simpsons merchandise and t-shirts, such as one featuring Bart and the caption "Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!')".^[17] Despite the ban, The Simpsons merchandise sold well and generated US$2 billion in revenue during the first 14 months of sales.^[17]

[edit] Season 2 onward

"Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" was the first episode produced for the season, but "Bart Gets an F" aired first because Bart was popular at the time and the producers had wanted to premiere with a Bart themed episode.^[18] The second season featured a new opening sequence, which was shortened by fifteen seconds from its original length of roughly 1 minute, 30 seconds. The opening sequence for the first season showed Bart stealing a "Bus Stop" sign; whilst the new sequence featured him skateboarding past several characters who had been introduced during the previous season. Starting with this season, there were three versions of the opening: a full roughly 1 minute 15 second long version, a 45 second version and a 25 second version. This gave the show's editors more leeway.^[13]

Due to the show's success, over the summer of 1990, the Fox network decided to switch The Simpsons timeslots. It would move from 8:00 PM on Sunday night to the same time on Thursday where it would compete with The Cosby Show, the number one show at the time.^[19] Many of the producers, including James L. Brooks, were against the move because The Simpsons had been in the top 10 while airing on Sunday and they felt the move would destroy its ratings.^[12] All through the summer of 1990, several news outlets published stories about the supposed "Bill vs. Bart" rivalry.^[12] The Cosby Show beat The Simpsons every time during the second season and The Simpsons fell out of the top 10. It would not be until the third season episode "Homer at the Bat" that The Simpsons would beat The Cosby Show in the ratings.^[18] The show remained in its Thursday timeslot until season 6.^[19]

[edit] Feud with George H. W. Bush

In the October 1, 1990 edition of People, Barbara Bush called The Simpsons "the dumbest thing [she] had ever seen" which had led to the writers sending a letter to Bush where they posed as Marge Simpson. Bush immediately sent a reply in which she apologized.^[20]

On January 27, 1992 then-current President George H. W. Bush made a speech during his re-election campaign that reignited the feud between the Simpsons and the Bushes. At that point family values were the cornerstone of Bush's campaign platform. So he gave the following speech at the National Religious Broadcaster's convention in Washington. "We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons".^[20]

The next broadcast of the Simpsons was a rerun of "Stark Raving Dad" on January 30. In that broadcast there was hastily included a new opening, which was a response to Bush's speech. The scene begins in the Simpsons living room. Homer, Patty, and Selma sit on couch. Maggie is in her high chair next to the couch. Bart and Lisa are sprawled on the carpet. They all stare at the TV and watch Bush's speech. When Bush says, "We need a nation closer to the Waltons than the Simpsons," Bart replies "Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too."^[21]

The feud eventually led to the idea for the episode "Two Bad Neighbors", which has George and Barbara move into the house across the street from the Simpsons.

[edit] New Orleans controversy

Main page A Streetcar Named Marge

During the fourth season the episode "A Streetcar Named Marge" was produced. The musical within the episode contains a controversial song about New Orleans, which describes the city as a "home of pirates, drunks and whores", among other things. Jeff Martin, the writer of the episode, had meant the song to be a parody of the opening number in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which speaks of London in unflattering terms.^[22] Al Jean later explained that two Cajun characters were supposed to walk out of the theater in disgust, but none of the voice actors could provide a convincing Cajun accent.^[23]

Before the premiere of the fourth season, the producers sent two episodes to critics: "Kamp Krusty" and "A Streetcar Named Marge".^[18] A New Orleans critic viewed "A Streetcar Named Marge" and published the song lyrics in his newspaper before the episode aired.^[23] Many readers took the lyrics out of context, and New Orleans' Fox affiliate, WNOL, received about one hundred complaints on the day the episode aired. Several local radio stations also held on-air protests in response to the song.^[24]

The Simpsons' producers rushed out a chalkboard gag for "Homer the Heretic", which aired a week after "A Streetcar Named Marge". It read, "I will not defame New Orleans." The gag was their attempt to "apologize" for the song and hopefully bring the controversy to an end.^[22] "We didn't realize people would get so mad," said Al Jean. "It was the best apology we could come up with in eight words or less."^[25] The issue passed quickly, and a person in a Bart Simpson costume even served as Krewe of Tucks Grand Marshal at the 1993 New Orleans Mardi Gras.^[26]

[edit] Tracey Ullman lawsuit

Tracey Ullman filed a lawsuit in 1992, claiming that her show was the source of The Simpsons success and therefore should receive a share of the show's profit. "I breast-fed those little devils," Tracey Ullman once said of The Simpsons. She wanted a share of The Simpsons' merchandising and gross profits and believed she was entitled to $2.5 million of Fox's estimated $50 million in 1992. The Fox network had paid her $58,000 in royalties for The Simpsons as well as $3 million for the 3 1/2 seasons her show was on the air. Eventually the courts ruled in favor of the network.^[27]

[edit] Labor difficulties

The main cast has been involved in much-publicized pay disputes with Fox on more than one occasion. In 1998, they threatened to strike, forcing 20th Century Fox to increase their salary from $30,000 per episode to $125,000. The series creator Groening supported the actors in their action.^[28]

Most writers in animation belong to Animation Guild, but The Simpsons as well as other animated shows on Fox are different. In 1998 the shows made the change to become signatories to the guild. "Everyone expected a big fight with the studio," said Mike Scully, a producer of "The Simpsons" and continues "But it never materialized, because they conceded that prime-time animation was successful and everyone was benefiting". Chris Alexander, a spokesman for Fox's television division, explains that "We wanted to treat everyone equally".^[29]

[edit] Rio de Janeiro controversy

In 2002, the Rio de Janeiro tourist board found the season 13 episode "Blame It on Lisa" so offending for the Brazilian people that they threatened to sue the producers. The board's exact word were "What really hurt was the idea of the monkeys, the image that Rio de Janeiro was a jungle ... It's a completely unreal image of the city".^[30] Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso found it to be "a distorted vision of Brazilian reality".^[31] Rio de Janeiro had just spent millions promoting the city internationally. Their reputation was already damaged because of an outbreak of dengue fever a few years earlier. The producers apologized and the issue did not go any further. However it was international news for a while.^[30]

[edit] Later seasons

In season 14, production switched from traditional cel animation to digital ink and paint.^[32] The first episode to experiment with digital coloring was "Radioactive Man" in 1995. Animators used digital ink and paint during production of the Season 12 episode "Tennis the Menace", but Gracie Films delayed the regular use of digital ink and paint until two seasons later. The already completed "Tennis the Menace" was broadcast as made.^[33]

As the show's revenue continued to rise through syndication and DVD sales, the main cast stopped appearing for script readings in April 2004. The work stoppage occurred after weeks of unsuccessful negotiations with Fox, in which the cast asked for an increase in their pay to $360,000 per episode, or $8 million over a 22-episode season. On May 2, 2004, the actors reached an agreement with Fox.^[34]

At the end of 2007 the writers of The Simpsons went on strike together with the Writers Guild of America. The broadcasting of The Simpsons was not affected by the strike. Since it takes a long time to produce an episode of an animated show, the episodes are ready up to a year in advance. So the strike would have had to go on for a while for the show to have run out of new episodes.^[35] Production of season 20 was delayed because of contract negotiations with the six main voice actors.^[36] The dispute was resolved, and the actors' salary was raised to $400,000 per episode. The delay in production has caused the planned 22 episodes to be shortened to 20.^[37]

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the premiere of The Simpsons, Fox has announced that a year-long celebration of the show titled "Best. 20 Years. Ever." which will run from January 14, 2009 to January 14, 2010. One of the first parts of the celebration is the "Unleash Your Yellow" contest in which entrants must design a poster for the show.^[38] As part of the celebration, the Irish-themed episode "In the Name of the Grandfather" will be broadcast on Sky1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland on March 17, 2009. The American debut will be March 22. It was the first ever episode of the show to air in Europe before airing in the United States.^[39]

"Take My Life, Please" aired on February 15, 2009, and was the first episode of The Simpsons to air in 720p high-definition television. With the new broadcasting system came a new opening sequence. It was the first major permanent change to the show's introduction since its launch in 1989; previous changes have included variations in the duration of the intro, and special one-shot introductions for the Treehouse of Horror Halloween episodes. This new intro also includes some 3D animation when the camera pans over Springfield.^[40][41]

With its twentieth season (2008–2009) currently airing, the series is equal with Gunsmoke as the longest-running American primetime, scripted television series.^[42][43] On February 26, 2009, Fox announced that it had renewed the show and ordered two additional seasons, which would take the series through its twenty-second season.^[44]

[edit] Film

20th Century Fox, Gracie Films, and Film Roman produced an animated The Simpsons film that was released on July 27, 2007.^[45] The production staff of The Simpsons had entertained the thought of a film since early in the series, but production never came together. Groening felt a feature length film would allow them to increase the show's scale and animate sequences too complex for a TV series.^[46] The film was directed by David Silverman and written by a team of Simpsons writers comprising Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, George Meyer, Mike Reiss, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, David Mirkin, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, and Ian Maxtone-Graham.^[45] Work continued on the screenplay from 2003 onwards and did not cease,^[47] taking place in the small bungalow where Matt Groening first pitched The Simpsons in 1987.^[48] The writers spent six months discussing a plot,^[49] and each pitched a "half-assed" idea.^[48] Groening read about a town that had to get rid of pig feces in their water supply, which inspired the plot of the film.^[50] Having eventually decided on the basic outline for the film, the writers then separated it into seven sections. Jean, Scully, Reiss, Swartzwelder, Vitti, Mirkin, and Meyer wrote twenty five pages each, with the group meeting one month later to merge the seven sections in to one "very rough draft."^[11] The script went through one hundred revisions.^[49] Groening described his desire to also make the film dramatically stronger than a TV episode, as "we wanna really give you something that you haven't seen before. There are moments you actually forget that you're watching a cartoon and that is difficult when you have characters as ugly as the Simpsons."^[51] The film was originally planned for release in summer 2006,^[52] but Al Jean stated at San Diego's Comic-Con International 2004 that the producers were taking their time, to make sure that the film was perfect.^[53]

Production of the film occurred alongside continued writing of the series despite long-time claims by those involved in the show that a film would enter production only after the series had concluded.^[45] There had been talk of a possible feature-length Simpsons film ever since the early seasons of the series. James L. Brooks originally thought that the story of the episode "Kamp Krusty" was suitable for a film, but encountered difficulties in trying to expand the script to feature-length.^[54] For a long time, difficulties such as lack of a suitable story and an already fully engaged crew of writers delayed the project.^[55]

After winning a Fox and USA Today competition, Springfield, Vermont hosted the film's world premiere.^[56] The Simpsons Movie grossed a combined total of $74 million in its opening weekend in the US, taking it to the top of the box office,^[57] and set the record for highest grossing opening weekend for a film based on a television series, surpassing Mission: Impossible II.^[58] It opened at the top of the international box office, taking $96 million from seventy-one overseas territories — including $27.8 million in the United Kingdom, making it Fox's second highest opening ever in that country.^[59] In Australia, it grossed AU$13.2 million, the biggest opening for an animated film and third largest opening weekend in the country.^[60] As of November 23, 2007 the film has a worldwide gross of $525,267,904.^[61]

In July 2007, convenience store chain 7-Eleven converted 11 of its stores in the United States and one in Canada into Kwik-E-Marts to celebrate the release of The Simpsons Movie. Prior to July, the promotion had long been known but the locations were kept a secret until the morning of July 1, when the 12 stores were made over with industrial foam, vinyl and actual Kwik-E-Mart signs.^[62] These 12 locations, as well as the majority of other North American 7-Elevens, sold products found in The Simpsons, such as "Buzz Cola", "Krusty-O's", "Squishees", pink frosted "Sprinklicious doughnuts" and other Simpsons-themed merchandise. It was decided that Duff Beer would not be sold due to the movie being rated PG-13, and the promoters wanted to have "good, responsible fun," though it was noted that it was a tough decision.^[62] The promotion resulted in a 30% increase in profits for the changed 7-Eleven stores.^[63] The conversions lasted through early August, when the stores were converted back to 7-Elevens.^[64]

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

[edit] Notes

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