Twenty years of The Simpsons animated series brings twenty facts about your favorite animated family that you likely didn’t know. The Simpsons debuted on December 17, 1989 and have had twenty consecutive seasons since.
20 Facts about The Simpsons:
- The Simpsons actually started off as animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. Watch these animated shorts at SimpsonCrazy.com.
- The couch gag at the beginning of each episode makes it easier for production to extend the length of the episode if needed. The typical couch gag lasts about 5 seconds while the longest one on record lasts 46 seconds.
- The Simpsons holds the world record for the “Most Guest Stars Featured in a Television Series.”
- There are a total of 121 Springfields in the United States. In 2007, the official state of The Simpsons’ Springfield was revealed as Vermont. This city hosted the premiere of The Simpsons Movie.
- The Simpsons is dubbed in many other languages- including Japanese, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Quebec French, and Arabic. In the Arabic broadcast, Homer drinks soda instead of beer and eats Egyptian beef sausages instead of hot dogs. What?!
- The Simpsons became the longest running primetime animated show passing The Flinstones in 1997. The Simpsons have aired over 434 episodes in 20 seasons.
- Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, allegedly designed the Simpson family in ten minutes.
- Groening named the characters after people in his own family. Although instead of using his name, he used Bart which is an anagram of brat.
- Groening refused to name Grandpa Simpson after his own grandfather. He left the naming of him to other writers who coincidentally chose Abraham which is actually Groening’s Grandpa’s real name.
- The character of bartender, Moe Szyslak, was based on Louis “Red” Deutsch. Deutsch was bartender who is remembered for his profane tirades against prank calls in the mid-70′s.
- On January 14, 2000, the Simpson family was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- The Simpsons have six main cast members. These six people do the voices for almost all of the characters.
- The series recently just switched to HD on February 15, 2009 at the start of the 20th season.
- The first season of The Simpsons had an average of 13.4 million viewers while the nineteenth season had an average of 7.7 million viewers.
- Development of The Simpsons Movie began in 2001. The script was rewritten over a hundred times before being finalized.
- The Empire State Building was illuminated yellow as part of the DVD and Blu-ray Disc promotion for The Simpsons Movie. That was the first time the Empire State Building was used for a film promotion
- The Simpsons is the only non-variety show to guest star George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr.
- On December 31, 1999, Time Magazine named it the 20th century’s best television series.
- Episodes of The Simpsons are ready up to year in advance since they take so long to produce. This is why they weren’t effected by the writer’s strike.
- In 2008, the main voice actors for The Simpsons recieved a pay raise to $400,000 per episode.
The 21st season of The Simpson’s begins September 27, 2009 on Fox. The 21st season holds a few surprises for fans. Seth Rogen, the popular comedic actor from movies such as Pineapple Express and the new film Funny People, co-wrote a Simpsons episode. The excited Rogen is quoted as saying, “We sat down for a read-through and three hours later I’m in a studio improv-ing with Homer Simpson, it was the single greatest day of my life.”
The Simpsons have been renewed through the 22nd season.
