Top 10 Facts About The Simpsons
The Simpsons is one of those shows that feels like it has always existed. It has been on so long, influenced so much, and produced so many bizarre little pieces of trivia that digging into its history is almost as entertaining as watching the show itself. Behind the couch gags, donut runs, and chaos in Springfield, there is a mountain of weird, clever, and genuinely surprising backstory.
Some of these facts are the kind that make you grin and go, "Of course that happened." Others feel like the sort of thing Comic Book Guy would bring up just to flex on everyone in the room. From the way the family was created to the hidden real-world inspirations behind names, voices, music, and characters, The Simpsons has a history packed with creative accidents, smart choices, and a few details that are stranger than a three-eyed fish in a nuclear runoff pond.
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The Simpsons are named after members of Matt Groening's family, except Bart
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Most of the characters' last names come from street names in Portland, Oregon, where Matt Groening grew up
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The original music masters by the characters were reported to have been destroyed or lost in the Universal Studios fire of June 1, 2008
It was reported in June 2019 by The New York Times that The Simpsons was one of the artists whose original music masters were possibly either lost or destroyed. However, they could be both lost and destroyed in different original music masters. This may have included the original music masters for the successful album The Simpsons Sing the Blues. At this point, it probably wasn't the music scores. It was likely any original music masters that included the actual songs, outtakes, the instrumental music itself, two or three of these, or all of these for either part or the whole of any songs by any characters of The Simpsons.
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The family was created because animating Life in Hell for The Tracey Ullman Show would have required Matt Groening to give up rights to his comic
Garth Ancier contends that Groening created the characters at home and brought them in the next day, while Phil Roman claims Groening sketched out the characters on the drive to Fox.
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In the opening credits, Maggie is scanned at $847.63, the estimated monthly cost of raising a baby in 1989
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Lisa and Maggie have both been voiced by the same person at times
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The Simpsons was the first successful animated program in American prime time since Wait Till Your Father Gets Home in the 1970s
Yep, it wasn't anything like any show at the time because of its writing, development, episodes, and characters. It says on Wikipedia that during most of the 1980s, US pundits considered animated shows appropriate only for children, and animating a show was too expensive to achieve a quality suitable for prime-time television. The Simpsons changed this perception.
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"Do the Bartman" topped the UK singles chart in 1991
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Season 5's "Deep Space Homer" can be watched by astronauts on the International Space Station
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"Some Enchanted Evening" was the first episode produced, but it aired last in the first season
Some Enchanted Evening was unfinished, and it was the first episode delivered from overseas South Korean animation faculty AKOM. However, it wasn't received well by the production faculty of Gracie Films after its screening, with James L. Brooks reacting negatively to the original animation of the episode and responding with profanity. The producers felt that the animation didn't have the distinct style it needed.
At this point, the showrunners decided they wanted a realistic environment without anything wacky or exaggerated. As a result, 70 percent of the animation had to be redone. Bart the Genius had a similar problem, but it had easily fixable animation issues, which actually saved the show because it would've been cancelled if this episode's animation had turned out worse than the other one.
Some Enchanted Evening was delayed to a later date, and the Christmas special was scheduled to air in December 1989 as the first episode of the first season.
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The Simpsons Movie has an angry mob scene featuring more than 320 character cameos
This includes Dr. Marvin Monroe, who was retired in Season 7 after his irritating voice became annoying for Matt Groening, as well as making Harry Shearer's voice strained, and B.G. Murphy, who has previously died in the hospital, making Lisa devastated. Oh, by the way, Dr. Marvin Monroe was revealed to be dead many times, especially with his memorials revealed in later episodes. However, he did make a comeback in the episode "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife", when Marge sees him and says that he hasn't seen him in years while she was autographing pages to her novel she has written (probably...), he said that he has been very sick.
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Some lines from The Simpsons Movie were recorded more than a hundred times, leaving the cast exhausted
This includes the part where Marge gives an emotional message to Homer on their wedding tape, in which was recorded over according to Marge. Julie Kavner, the voice of Marge, was sick at the time and worked hard to record that performance, as it was rewritten many times and had different kinds of performances. After around over 100 or 150 takes, she probably got exhausted. She never came back to the recording studio for a week or so...
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SpongeBob has appeared in the show multiple times
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Krusty and Homer are drawn the same way
The Homer-is-Krusty story was dropped.
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The Simpsons holds a world record for celebrity cameos in a TV series
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If you stitch together the McBain clips from various 1990s episodes, they form a complete film
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Groening called the town Springfield because there are dozens of cities with that name in the United States, which helped keep fans guessing about the show's setting
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There is an Itchy & Scratchy video game
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Lisa had her eighth birthday multiple times
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It is one of the few programs dubbed in both Standard French and Quebec French
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Harry Shearer did not voice his characters for The Simpsons Ride
He did not participate because supposedly, he had scheduling and availability conflicts, "as the cast recordings were scheduled during the production break between seasons, where voice actors would have time off." Some of his characters also do not appear in the ride at all.
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Several American schools banned Bart Simpson T-shirts
The ABC News report was included as a hidden bonus in the Complete First Season DVD.
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On January 14, 2000, The Simpsons received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
It was a huge time for The Simpsons where they finally got a well-deserved award.
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The Fourth Doctor from Doctor Who appears in a few episodes
He appears in Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming, Treehouse of Horror X, and Mayored to the Mob.
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The Simpsons is a spinoff of The Tracey Ullman Show
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The New Orleans song in "A Streetcar Named Marge" caused controversy, and the writers apologized in a later blackboard gag
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Twelve 7-Eleven stores were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts to promote The Simpsons Movie
The products included Buzz Cola, Krusty-O cereal, pink doughnuts with sprinkles, and Squishees.