The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks, and Sam Simon, premiering on the Fox Broadcasting Company on December 17, 1989. The longest-running American animated series, the longest-running American sitcom, and the longest-running American scripted primetime television show in history, The Simpsons follows the Simpson family in the fictional town of Springfield across a catalog that reached over 800 episodes in its thirty-seventh season. A second theatrical film, following The Simpsons Movie in 2007, is scheduled for theatrical release on September 3, 2027. Fox renewed the show in April 2025 for four additional seasons through Season 40, which will coincide with the series’ fortieth anniversary.

Origin: The Tracey Ullman Show and the Full Series

Matt Groening created the Simpson family as animated bumpers for The Tracey Ullman Show, a Fox variety program, with the first short airing on April 19, 1987. Groening sketched the family in the waiting room before a meeting with executive producer James L. Brooks, naming the characters after his own family members, Homer, Marge, and Lisa, with Bart as an anagram of brat. The shorts ran for three seasons before Fox commissioned a full half-hour series. The Simpsons premiered December 17, 1989 with the Christmas special Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, establishing the format and voice cast that would continue for the following four decades.

Sam Simon served as the show’s primary creative force alongside Groening in the early seasons before his acrimonious departure in 1993. The writing staff that Simon assembled, including George Meyer, John Swartzwelder, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Conan O’Brien, and Greg Daniels, produced the show’s most critically celebrated work across the first eight to ten seasons. Danny Elfman composed the show’s theme, and the opening sequence’s variable couch gag has become one of the most recognizable running jokes in television history.

The Voice Cast

Dan Castellaneta voices Homer Simpson, Dan Castellaneta and Nancy Cartwright play the two leads, with Cartwright voicing Bart, Julie Kavner voicing Marge, and Yeardley Smith voicing Lisa. Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria between them voice the majority of Springfield’s supporting cast, with Shearer playing Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, and many others, while Azaria covered Apu, Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, and others across the show’s first three decades. Following public discussion of the practice of white actors voicing non-white characters, several recurring roles were recast in 2020, with Hank Azaria stepping down from Apu and other non-white characters. The main cast signed new contracts as part of the April 2025 renewal deal covering the show through Season 40.

The Classic Era and Cultural Impact

The Simpsons’ first decade is widely regarded as one of the greatest runs in American television comedy. The show’s combination of satirical social commentary, character-based emotional storytelling, and absurdist humor influenced virtually every animated sitcom that followed and reshaped what animation could accomplish in primetime. Bart Simpson became a cultural phenomenon in the show’s earliest seasons, appearing on merchandise across every available surface before the character’s novelty wore off and the ensemble’s depth became the show’s actual commercial foundation. The show surpassed Gunsmoke in 2009 to become the longest-running primetime American series by seasons and surpassed its episode total in 2018.

The show’s cultural footprint includes coining or popularizing dozens of phrases that entered common usage, its annual Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials as one of television’s longest-running anthology events, and a long history of celebrity guest appearances ranging from Michael Jackson to Stephen Hawking to Elizabeth Taylor. The debate about when the show’s quality peaked and what constitutes the line between the classic and later era has been a fixture of fan discussion for over two decades, with most critical consensus placing the golden era somewhere between Seasons 3 and 8.

The Simpsons Movie (2007)

The Simpsons Movie, directed by David Silverman and written by a team of eleven writers including Groening, Brooks, Al Jean, and John Swartzwelder, released July 27, 2007, to strong critical and commercial reception. The film followed Homer’s accidental contamination of Springfield’s water supply triggering the EPA’s decision to encase the town in a glass dome, with the family fleeing to Alaska before returning to save Springfield from destruction. The film grossed $527 million worldwide and became one of the highest-grossing animated films released to that point. A sequel was repeatedly discussed in the years following without formal confirmation.

The Simpsons Movie 2 (2027)

A second Simpsons theatrical film was officially announced in September 2025 with a release date of September 3, 2027. The announcement was accompanied by a teaser reading Homer’s coming back for seconds with the original 2007 film’s release date as a reference point. No plot details, director, or writer credits have been confirmed beyond the 2027 release window.

The Simpsons Games

The Simpsons has produced games across nearly every gaming era since the early 1990s. The Simpsons Arcade Game, developed by Konami and released in 1991, is among the most beloved licensed arcade games of its era, a four-player brawler that sent Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa through Springfield to rescue Maggie from Smithers and Mr. Burns. The Simpsons: Road Rage in 2001 was a Crazy Taxi clone for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The Simpsons: Hit and Run in 2003, developed by Radical Entertainment, is the most commercially and critically successful Simpsons game, an open-world driving and action game that captured the show’s humor and Springfield’s layout with more fidelity than any previous adaptation. The Simpsons Game in 2007 was a movie tie-in that incorporated meta-humor about the game industry. The Simpsons: Tapped Out has operated as a mobile city-builder since 2012 and remains active with regular updates tied to current episodes and cultural events.

The Simpsons in the Streaming Era

Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019 brought The Simpsons under Disney ownership, with the complete series moving to Disney+ as an exclusive streaming home alongside continued Fox broadcast. FXX holds cable and digital syndication rights in the United States. The April 2025 renewal for four additional seasons through Season 40 includes both Fox episodes and Disney+ exclusive episodes per season, with the deal structured to carry the show to its fortieth anniversary in the 2028-2029 television season. A streaming mini-series of shorts released November 1, 2025 tied to a Simpsons-themed Fortnite season, extending the franchise’s cross-media presence into gaming tie-ins.