The Simpsons shorts

This article is about the 1980s shorts. For the 2020s shorts, see The Simpsons Disney+ shorts.

The Simpson family as they appeared in the early shorts from The Tracey Ullman Show. Their design gradually evolved towards those seen in the standalone show.

The Simpsons shorts are a series of animated short films that aired as a recurring segment on Fox variety television series The Tracey Ullman Show for three seasons, before the characters spun off into The Simpsons, their own half-hour prime-time show. They feature Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, and a few secondary characters. The series was created by Matt Groening, who designed the Simpson family and wrote many of the shorts. The shorts first aired on April 19, 1987, starting with "Good Night". The final short to air was "TV Simpsons", originally airing on May 14, 1989. The Simpsons later debuted on December 17, 1989, as an independent series with the Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".[1]

One marketing study found that only 14 percent of Americans were familiar with the shorts, compared to 85 percent in November 1990 who were familiar with the Simpsons family, 11 months after the full-length show began airing.[2]

Only a few of these shorts have been released on DVD. "Good Night" was included on The Simpsons Season 1 DVD. Five of these shorts were later used in the clip-show episode "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" on the half-hour show, which was released on the Season 7 DVD. These five shorts were "Good Night", which was featured in its entirety, and portions of "The Perfect Crime", "Space Patrol", "World War III", and "Bathtime".[3] In "You Kent Always Say What You Want", the short "Family Portrait" replaces the entire opening sequence in celebration of the 400th episode. ("Family Portrait" was previously released as a pre-feature short on the 1989 CBS-Fox VHS release of the film Working Girl.) In June 2013, it was reported that FXX was trying to acquire the shorts for their Simpsons app, "Simpsons World".[4]

The version of the Simpson family from the shorts was depicted as ghosts haunting the Simpsons house in the season twenty six episode "Treehouse of Horror XXV".[5]

The shorts' interpretation of Homer was also briefly seen in Homer's dream in the post credits scene of the season 33 episode "Mothers and Other Strangers".

  1. ^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". BBC. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved November 22, 2007.
  2. ^ McDougal, Dennis; Cerone, Daniel (April 19, 1991). "Ullman Has a Cow Over 'Simpsons' : Lawsuit Alleges She Was Cut Out of Millions in Merchandising Profits". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 10, 2014.
  3. ^ Richmond & Coffman 1997, p. 191.
  4. ^ Jason Lynch (2014). "Here's how the new Simpsons app will change your life". Quartz. Archived from the original on October 8, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  5. ^ "A 'Simpsons' crossover with... 'The Simpsons'?". ew.com. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014.