| The Simpsons | |
|---|---|
| Season 1 | |
 DVD cover featuring the Simpson family | |
| Showrunners | |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Fox |
| Original release | December 17, 1989 – May 13, 1990 |
| Season chronology | |
The first season of the American animated television series The Simpsons premiered on the Fox network on December 17, 1989, with the Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", with the rest of the season airing from January 14 to May 13, 1990. The executive producers for the first production season were Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, and Sam Simon. It was produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television.[1]
The series was originally set to debut in fall 1989 with the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" (which was meant to introduce the main characters),[2] but during the first screening of the episode, the producers discovered that the animation was so poor that 70% of the episode needed to be redone.[3]
The producers considered aborting the series if the next episode turned out as bad, but it suffered from only easily fixable problems. The producers convinced Fox to move the debut to December 17, and aired "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" as the first episode of the series.[2] The first season won one Emmy Award, and received four additional nominations.[4] The DVD boxset was released on September 25, 2001, in Region 1 and September 24, 2001, in both Region 2 and Region 4.
With a total of 13 episodes, this is the shortest season of the show to date, and is the only season where Homer was halfway intelligent and at times was the voice of reason and where Dan Castellaneta voiced Homer in a loose Walter Matthau impression (as he had done in the shorts). Starting the next season, Homer would begin to adopt his more familiar voice and set a lower bar for intelligence.
This is also the only season to not have a Treehouse of Horror episode.
- ^ Richmond & Coffman 1997, pp. 16–17.
- ^ a b Groening, Matt (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Silverman, David (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Emmy Awards official site Archived February 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine "The Simpsons" "1989–1990" emmys.org. Retrieved on July 3, 2007