Simpsons, The
Identification Television comedy series
Creator Matt Groening (1954- )
Date Began airing on December 17, 1989
The Simpsonsis the longest-running sitcom in television
histor y, representing the late twentieth centur y clash be-
tween ideal nuclear families of the past and contemporar y
dysfunctional ones. The traditional sitcom format paired
with biting contemporar y social, political, and religious
satire is the cornerstone of its success.
Created by Matt Groening,The Simpsonsoriginally
appeared onThe Tracey Ullman Showas a short sketch
in 1987 and was later developed as its own series,
debuting in December, 1989. The Simpson family
readily identifies with previous American sitcom
families insofar as Homer (voice of Dan Castella-
neta), Marge (voice of Julie Kavner), Bart (voice of
Nancy Cartwright), Lisa (voice of Yeardley Smith),
and Maggie represent the nuclear family of married
parents and exactly 2.2 children. Also familiar is
their middle-class existence in the fictional average
American town of Springfield, coupled with weekly
churchgoing. Conventional gender roles are also
largely upheld, as evidenced by Homer going to
work each day and Marge staying home to care for
the house and children.
Such an idealized family stereotype lends itself
immediately to parody after decades of sugary, mor-
ally edifying story lines from other television series,
andThe Simpsonshas challenged both nuclear family
politics as well as the notion that there is no “fun” in
dysfunctional. The animated nature ofThe Simpsons
permits Homer, a lazy, drunken father, to strangle
Bart, his foul-mouthed, vandalizing son, nearly ev-
ery episode without broaching the subject of child
abuse in any meaningful way. Soon after the series
began, the story lines made use of this medium to
progressively shift the central features of the show
from the American family to America, and this is per-
haps why the series has such a sustained viewer base
and lengthy history. The show’s ability to connect
with the real world in a completely unreal way leaves
the door wide open for all kinds of satire, from the
social to the political to the religious and beyond.
Cultural Satire By the 1990’s,The Simpsonswas one
of Fox network’s most successful programs, due in
large part to its contemporaneity. While the show ap-
pears to be fixed in time and place, one can easily
identify the passage of time across the series based
on the subject matter. Homer and Marge remain
married, and, in spite of various episodic events,
Homer works at the nuclear power plant and Marge
is a homemaker; Bart is always ten years old, in the
fourth grade, with a best friend named Milhouse;
Lisa is always eight years old, in the second grade,
and is the liberal voice of reason for the family; Mag-
gie, ever known for her pacifier-sucking, has yet to
outgrow her babyhood. Even though the characters
never age, there are developments in the series that
reveal a passage of time, such as the deaths of
Bleeding Gums Murphy and Maude Flanders. Most
remarkably, though, the passage of time is noted by
the relevance of the material upon which the various
shows comment.
In the 1990’s, show topics did not always center
on current events, yet episodes did not hesitate to778 Simpsons, The The Nineties in America
The Simpsonscreator Matt Groening stands with a cardboard
cutout of character Bart Simpson.(Hulton Archive/Getty
Images)