The Simpsons premiered as a half-hour series
On this day · 17 December 1989
A yellow, dysfunctional family debuted on Fox in 1989 and never left, becoming the longest-running scripted primetime show in America.
On December 17, 1989, Fox aired “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” the first full half-hour episode of The Simpsons. The family had spent two years as crude interstitial shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show; the planned debut, “Some Enchanted Evening,” was held back when its animation came out a mess, so a Christmas episode introduced Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie instead.
Few expected much. Cartoons were not primetime fare, and the gags were broader and grubbier than anything else on network television. Yet the show stuck, and kept sticking.
By 31 seasons and 684 episodes, Guinness World Records had logged it as the longest-running animated sitcom by episode count.
Decades on, The Simpsons is the longest-running American scripted primetime series ever, both in seasons and in individual episodes. Matt Groening’s family had simply outlasted everyone else who shared the schedule, joke by joke.
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