Doh! It’s already been 30 years of ‘The Simpsons’ on TV Catch up at the library
¡Ay, caramba! America’s favorite cartoon family, The Simpsons, celebrates its 30th anniversary this week, looking not a day older than they did on their premiere date of Dec. 17, 1989.
The iconic family almost never existed in their current incarnation - cartoonist Matt Groening originally planned a series of animated shorts based on his comic strip Life in Hell, featuring anthropomorphic rabbits.
In the lobby before the pitch meeting, though, Groening realized that in using his own comic strip characters he would lose the publication rights to his life’s work.
On the fly, he quickly sketched out crude drawings of a family. Parents Marge and Homer Simpson, and siblings Lisa and Maggie were all named after Groening’s own family members. For the rascally son Bart, Groening used an anagram of the word “brat.”
The resulting animated Simpsons shorts were so popular that they led to the launch of the full-length Simpsons series in 1989. Nearly 700 episodes and 30 years later, the show boasts 34 Primetime Emmy Awards, 30 Annie Awards, 2 Guinness World Records, and a Peabody Award.
The entire show is inextricably linked to Matt Groening and his home state of Oregon. Simpsons tycoon Montgomery Burns was named after Montgomery Park and Burnside Street in Groening’s hometown of Portland. Goofy neighbor Ned Flanders can be traced to Portland’s NE Flanders St.
The Simpsons live in a town generically named Springfield. The deciding factor for its name was precisely how commonplace it is – “In anticipation of the success of the show,” Groening thought, “This will be cool; everyone will think it’s their Springfield. And they do.”
The Simpsons represent the everyday, working class family, and this resonates in homes across the world. The sitcom veers into the absurd. But even in those absurdities, people see the idiosyncrasies of their own lives reflected. It doesn’t appear this family will be moving off our screens any time soon.
Watch where it all began with season 1 of The Simpsons, available through the Manatee County library system.
Fans will love all the fascinating tidbits packed into “The Simpsons Forever!” and its follow-up “The Simpsons: One Step Beyond Forever.” These guides have it all: quotes, episode synopses, character details, and more.
For a chronological overview of little known facts about each Simpsons family member, check out “The Simpsons Family History” by Matt Groening.
Interested in the behind-the-scenes of creating The Simpsons? You might enjoy reading “Springfield Confidential,” by Mike Reiss, the longest-serving Simpsons writer.
Check out “The Simpsons: A Cultural History” by Moritz Fink. Explore the show’s roots, profiles its most popular characters, and examine its impact in shaping American culture and television animation.
Philosophers will love “The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D’oh! Of Homer.” Within these pages you can explore the politics of the nuclear family, Marxism in Springfield, or even ask “does Homer exhibit Aristotelian virtues?”
All these titles and more can be accessed through the Manatee County library system found at mymanatee.org/library.
Bethany Stevens is a librarian at the Braden River library in East Manatee. Speaking Volumes, written by Manatee County Library System staff members, is published each Sunday in the Bradenton Herald.
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 2:13 PM.