Although their series wouldn’t premiere until December of 1989, it was on this date in 1987 that America’s favorite non-prehistoric cartoon family made their debut on the Tracey Ullman Show. To tell more of the story, here’s actor Troy McClure (or at least quotes from him taken from one of the more memorable clip shows):
“Hi! I’m Troy McClure. You may remember me from such Fox Network specials as Alien Nose Job and Five Fabulous Weeks of the Chevy Chase Show. The Simpsons began as the brainchild of cartoonist Matt Groening, the already-famous creator of such comics as Damnation, Johnny Reb, and True Murder Stories. In 1987, Groening teamed up with award-winning producers James L. Brooks and Sam Simon. And what better place to premiere their creation than The Tracey Ullman Show, the nation’s showcase for psychiatrist jokes and musical comedy numbers? On April 19, 1987, America first met the Simpsons. Maybe the drawings were a little crude, but all the characters were there. As wacky as those kids were, they were no match for Captain Wacky- later renamed Homer. The Simpsons have come a long way since an old drunk made humans out of his rabbit characters to pay off his gambling debts. Who knows what adventures they’ll have between now and the time the show becomes unprofitable?”
I’ve been watching this show weekly for about ten years now - and like many Dopers I’ve seen all the episodes - but its longevity amazes me. The Simpsons went on the air as a series when I was in the second grade. I’ve since graduated college, and my youngest brother is watching it as a high school student.
And we’re still waiting on the movie. Three more months.
I suspect you can probably remove the “non-prehistoric” qualifier from that sentence. The Simpsons’ TV show has overtaken the Flintstones’ by a wide margin, and I imagine that whatever degree of pop-culture memory exists for the Flintstones after their first-run shows have been off the air will be exceeded by the Simpsons as well…if they ever do leave the air.
I started watching Tracey Ulmann in seventh grade and the Simpsons in 9th grade.
Now I am a 32 year old lawyer with two children, one of whom is starting kindergarten!
When the show started, I had very little body hair. Now the stuff is growing on my ears and back.
Getting old sucks, but the show has been a good friend along the way.
I especially like that this season has gotten back to solid episodes, week after week.
In honor of this anniversary, I give my top 20 episodes ever (in order)!
1 Mountain of Madness
2 Itchy & Scratchy Land
3 Homer’s Barbershop Quartet
4 Homer Badman
5 Mr. Plow
6 Team Homer
7 A Fish Called Selma
8 Lisa Gets an “A”
9 Guess Who’s Coming to Criticize Dinner?
10 The Mansion Family
11 Homer the Great
12 You Only Move Twice
13 Homer the Heretic
14 The Trouble With Trillions
15 Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment
16 Behind the Laughter
17 Saturdays of Thunder
18 Marge vs. the Monorail
19 Bart vs. Australia
20 The Homer They Fall
I’ve been watching since '89 when we moved out here to Southern California and had to live with my grandparents for 5 months while my parents tried to get on their feet.
Living with the grandparents sucked and I looked forward every week to the new Simpsons episode and then talking about it on Monday with friends on the playground in 5th grade.
You’ll notice my list is heavy on episodes that feature Mr. Burns in a prominent role.
“Cheating is the gift man gave himself!”
“Simpson, I have a confession. I’m not quite the tunnel-digger I made myself out to be.”
“I have powers…POLITICAL POWERS!”
“Okay, search party, before we set out, let’s take a moment to humor the children.
[to Bart and Lisa] Kids, your father’s gonna be just fine! Okay, everybody, put on your corpse-handling gloves, we’ve got two frozen bodies buried somewhere in this mountain.”
Burns is my fav too, but I think my problem with this episode is that it shows him being friendly with Homer, which kind of ruins things for me. I can go for them associating with each other, like the prank monkey episode, but not for them being pals. Just a personal thing I guess. And I know with 400 episodes and as many different writers continuity is impossible, but my favorite running gag of all time is Burns not knowing who Homer is, and this episode ignores this.
I was in college when it came on. Tracey Ullman wouldn’t be the typical show for a bunch of college guys but somehow we saw the first episode and kept coming back strictly for the Simpsons. Each sketch was what, two minutes long? There must not have been too many of us watching since the show didn’t last too long.
:rolleyes: I’ve been hearing this exactly stated sentiment for more than ten years now. Did all the diehard fans get together on Usenet one day and decide that this would forever be their stock response to Simpsons criticism? For fuck’s sake.
No, the worst Simpsons episode is total shit, pure and simple. I watched regularly up to about Season 15. I still shiver at the cornocupia of unrelenting suck that was Season 11. I kept telling myself it was a cyclical thing and was bound to get better again. But then something funny happened. By Season 15, I just didn’t care anymore. I went out on Sunday nights and couldn’t even be bothered to set my VCR. It took some real incompetence to turn the loyalty I had for that show into total apathy.
This show has been mediocre for far longer than it was ever good.
Or maybe some people just like the show and there is no need for eyerolling? I personally still enjoy the show but I don’t go out of my way to see new ones when they come on. I still find it funny but not as good as it once was.
Three more months.
