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The Simpsons is the longest-running animated television series and sitcom series in U.S. television history, with 16 seasons and 338 episodes since its debut on December 17, 1989. Highly satirical, the show lampoons almost everything possible; mainly, the middle class, " Middle American" lifestyle its titular family exhibits, but more generally American culture, society, the Fox network, and television itself.
The characters were originally by Matt GroeningMatthew Abram Groening (born February 15, 1954) (name rhymes with raining SAMPA ['grEniN]) is an American cartoonist and the creator of the television series Futurama and The Simpsons where he currently serves as creative consultant. In high school, he wa as part of a series of original animated segments for The Tracy Ullman Show. Over the course of the series, Groening has used many of the themes present in his long-running comic stripThis article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. There is a separate article about The Comic Strip, the British comedy group. A comic strip is a short strip or sequence of drawings, telling a s series, Life in HellLife in Hell is a weekly comic strip by Matt Groening featuring anthropomorphic rabbits and gay lovers exploring the wide world of love, sex, work, and death. In short, Life in Hell is described as a cute little comic strip full of fun, merriment, laughs,. (For instance, the idea of creative school children as constantly being persecuted and suppressed by totalitarian grown-ups stems from the strip.)
The Simpsons is set in the fictional U.S.The United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in town of Springfield. A running joke is that the state in which it is located is never explicitly mentioned, although many irreconcilable details are given about it (see Where Is The Simpsons' Springfield?).
The show's basic premise centers on the antics of the family: Homer and Marge, and their children, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as their pets Santa's Little Helper – the dog – and Snowball II – the cat. ( Snowball I was run over and killed earlier in Simpsons history.)
Homer is a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and a generally well-meaning buffoon whose short attention span is often drawn to outrageous schemes and adventures. Marge was once intelligent and sophisticated, but has come to conform with the stereotype of housewife/mother. Bart, the older sibling, is a troublemaker and classroom terror ("a vile burlesque of irrepressible youth" is how Lisa once described him) who thinks of himself as a rebel, while Lisa is a brainy student and jazz music fan who dreams of a better future (she is referred to as "the future of the family"). Maggie is an eternal baby. Despite the fact that numerous years (and birthdays) clearly pass (for example, many Christmas episodes), the Simpsons do not appear to age. It should be mentioned that some characters' ages have fluctuated throughout the years; this is most likely due to simple oversight on the part of the writers.
The show also has a vast array of quirky supporting characters, including co-workers, teachers, family friends, extended relatives, and local celebrities. Many of these characters have developed a vast cult following of their own. For a comprehensive list, see characters from The Simpsons.
Authority, especially in undeserving hands, is a constant target of the show's often sharp satire. This probably explains the often strong negative reaction to the show from social conservatives. Nearly every authority figure in the show is portrayed unflatteringly: Homer is thoughtless and irresponsible, the antithesis of the ideal 1950s TV father; though he always comes through for his family in the end. Springfield police chief Clancy Wiggum (voiced by Hank Azaria in an Edward G. Robinson-influenced tone) is obese, stupid, lazy, corrupt and not overly concerned with constitutional rights (not to mention that he somewhat resembles a pig). Mayor Quimby – who sounds like John F. Kennedy – is a corrupt womanizer. Seymour Skinner, the principal of Springfield Elementary School, is an uptight, humorless bachelor who lives with his domineering mother. He has frequent flashbacks to his capture and imprisonment by the Viet Cong, and he is repeatedly likened to Norman Bates in Psycho. Reverend Lovejoy, the pastor of the local church, is jaded and moralistic. While most of these characters are more incompetent than truly evil, there is one true sadist: Montgomery Burns, owner of the Springfield Nuclear Plant and Homer Simpson's boss; he is often compared to Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane. It is probably not a coincidence that Harry Shearer's voice for Montgomery Burns closely resembles his voice for former US President Ronald Reagan.
The show also routinely mocks and satirizes show business conventions and personalities. Krusty the Clown has an enthusiastic following among Springfield's kids, but offstage he is a jaded, cynical hack, in poor health from a long history of overindulgence and substance abuse. He will endorse any product for a price. Kent Brockman is a self-important, spoiled TV news anchorman with little regard for journalistic ethics, possibly thanks to the fact that he won the lottery in one episode. Viewers also learn that Brockman had an ethnic name in the 1960s, which he anglicized by the time the Simpsons episodes of the 1990s take place.
The plots of most episodes focus on the adventures of one particular family member, frequently Homer. However the plots have never been very predictable or constant and tend to be very character-driven. Recurring themes in episodes include:
There are also a number of different types of scenes that recur often, in many different episodes, that have become conventions of the show's storytelling style. Examples of these stock scenes include:
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