Portal:The Simpsons

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Simpsons Portal

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Developed by Groening, James L. Brooks, and Sam Simon, the series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Set in the fictional town of Springfield, it caricatures society, Western culture, television, and the human condition.

The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a solicitation for a series of animated shorts with producer Brooks. He created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after his own family members, substituting Bart for his own name; he thought Simpson was a funny name in that it sounded similar to "simpleton". The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After three seasons, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show and became Fox's first series to land in the Top 30 ratings in a season (1989–1990).

Since its debut on December 17, 1989, 770 episodes of the show have been broadcast. It is the longest-running American animated series, longest-running American sitcom, and the longest-running American scripted primetime television series, both in seasons and individual episodes. A feature-length film, The Simpsons Movie, was released in theaters worldwide on July 27, 2007, to critical and commercial success, with a sequel in development as of 2018. The series has also spawned numerous comic book series, video games, books, and other related media, as well as a billion-dollar merchandising industry. The Simpsons is produced by Gracie Films with 20th Television distributing the series. It has been distributed under the 20th Television Animation label since 2021, although the animation studio has produced animation for the series since season 28. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article

Matt Groening (born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist and television producer and writer from Portland, Oregon. Groening is best known as the creator of The Simpsons . He is also the creator of the comic Life in Hell and co-creator of Futurama. Life in Hell caught the attention of James L. Brooks. In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening with the proposition of working in animation for the FOX variety show The Tracey Ullman Show. Originally, Brooks wanted Groening to adapt his Life in Hell characters for the show. Fearing the loss of ownership rights, Groening decided to create something new and came up with a cartoon family, the Simpsons and named the members after his own family, except Bart, which was an anagram of the word brat. The shorts would be spun off into their own series: The Simpsons, which has since aired over 400 episodes in 19 seasons. In 1997, Groening got together with David X. Cohen and developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000. After four years on the air, the show was cancelled by Fox, but Comedy Central commissioned 16 new episodes to be aired in 2008. Groening has won 10 Primetime Emmy Awards, nine for The Simpsons and one for Futurama as well as a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for his work on Life in Hell.

More selected articles

More...

Selected image

Credit: Bill Oakley

Part of the writing staff of The Simpsons in 1992. Back row, left to right: Mike Mendel, Colin ABV Lewis (partial), Jeff Goldstein, Al Jean (partial), Conan O'Brien, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Mike Reiss, Ken Tsumara, George Meyer, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti (partial), CJ Gibson and David M. Stern. Front row, left to right: Dee Capelli, Lona Williams and Leslie Richter.

More selected pictures

More...

Character quote

“

Earlier on this broadcast, I said a word so vile that it should only be uttered by Satan himself while sitting on the toilet. I apologize and will make a large donation to charities that fight teen cursing. Good night.

”

— Kent Brockman ("You Kent Always Say What You Want")

More character quotes

More at Wikiquote...

Main Topics

Selected episode

"Trash of the Titans" is the 22nd episode of The Simpsons' ninth season and the 200th overall. It originally aired on the Fox network on April 26, 1998. It was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham, and directed by Jim Reardon. It saw Steve Martin guest star as Ray Patterson, and U2 as themselves, although Larry Mullen doesn't say a word in the episode. The band's head of Principal Management Paul McGuinness and Susie Smith, an employee of Principal Management also make brief appearances in the episode. It won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less). This episode is dedicated to the memory of Linda McCartney. She appeared alongside her husband Paul in the episode "Lisa the Vegetarian".

More selected episodes

More...

Did you know...

...that the title of Dan Castellaneta's album of comedy sketches I Am Not Homer is a parody of Leonard Nimoy's first autobiography I Am Not Spock?

...that Maggie Simpson has been voiced by several different actors, including Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones and Harry Shearer?

...that when it came time to give Grampa Simpson a first name, the writers named him Abraham which by coincidence was the name of Matt Groening's grandfather?

More did you know facts

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various The Simpsons-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop, as seen in the Springfield section of Universal Studios Hollywood (from Springfield (The Simpsons))
Image 2Moe's Bar in Concepción, Chile, based on images from The Simpsons (from Springfield (The Simpsons))
Image 3
Mike Scully
(from History of The Simpsons)
Image 4A Seattle 7-Eleven store transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart (from Springfield (The Simpsons))
Image 5In 1991, Nancy Cartwright accepted a Kids' Choice Awards while wearing a Bart Simpson costume. (from List of awards and nominations received by The Simpsons)
Image 6The show was criticized by several conservatives. Among those were President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush. (from History of The Simpsons)
Image 7Matt Selman won a WGA Award in 2004. (from List of awards and nominations received by The Simpsons)
Image 8Voice actress Maggie Roswell left The Simpsons over a pay dispute, but returned three years later. (from History of The Simpsons)
Image 9David Silverman, director of The Simpsons Movie.
Image 10Morgan Spurlock produced a documentary on The Simpsons in order to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary. (from History of The Simpsons)
Image 11Hank Azaria has won four Emmy awards for Outstanding Voice-over Performance (from List of awards and nominations received by The Simpsons)
Image 12Voice actor Phil Hartman was killed by his wife in a murder–suicide in 1998. (from History of The Simpsons)
Image 13"Lisa the Vegetarian", an episode produced by David Mirkin, won a Genesis Award in 1996
Image 14The Simpsons' visit to Rio de Janeiro almost led to a lawsuit and a diplomatic incident. (from History of The Simpsons)
Image 15In 2001, Yeardley Smith's character Lisa Simpson won an EMA Award. (from List of awards and nominations received by The Simpsons)
Image 16The Simpsons Movie premiered in Springfield, Vermont. (from History of The Simpsons)
Image 17Part of the writing staff of The Simpsons in 1992 (from History of The Simpsons)
Image 18In 2004, Matt Groening won a Lifetime achievement British Comedy Award.
Image 19
David Mirkin
Image 20Michael Jackson co-wrote the single "Do the Bartman" (from History of The Simpsons)

Selected quote

The Simpsons are fairly surprised to find themselves in a movie; they can't believe "anyone would pay to see what we did on TV for free." But I suspect a lot of people will...The movie is funny, sassy and intelligent in that moronic Simpsons' way.

— Roger Ebert

More selected quotes

More...

Subcategories

The Simpsons lists

no subcategories

Featured content

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject The Simpsons}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.