The first full episode of ‘The Simpsons’, “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire” aired on December 17th, 1989, so now the series is 30 years old. On Monday, The Empire State Building was lit up yellow to celebrate The 30th year anniversary.
The Simpsons actually began as a cartoon short on The Tracey Ullman Show that would air between commercial breaks. This began in April of 1987. They created 48 cartoon segments.
Cartoonist Matt Groening began his career writing ‘Life In Hell’, a comic series about cartoon rabbits. Originally producer James L. Brooks poached Matt to write ‘Life In Hell‘ shorts, but Matt created ‘The Simpsons‘ Instead.
The First full length episode on Fox was a Christmas special about Homer trying to get more money to buy Christmas presents. Bart gets a Tattoo and Homer and Barney work as mall Santas. At the end of the episode Homer, Barney, and Bart go to a dog racing track to gamble their money. Homer loses, but they end up taking a dog home which becomes their Christmas gift and they name him “Santa’s Little Helper”. Fox called the episode a Christmas special and a sneak preview of the series that would began its initial season in earnest the following January.
The Simpsons has gone on to create almost six hundred and seventy episodes, a record for a scripted television series. Only the television show ‘Gunsmoke‘ has also passed six hundred episodes. The Simpsons became the longest running series after its 640th episode.
FXX announced on Friday plans to broadcast a record-breaking marathon of The Simpsons featuring 661 episodes of the animated series to celebrate the 30th anniversary. The 15 day marathon will begin on Dec. 17 at 8 p.m. EDT which is exactly 30 years to the date and time that The Simpsons premiered on Fox in 1989. All 661 episodes from the show’s first 30 seasons will be aired in sequence along with The Simpsons Movie that was released in between Season 18 and Season 19.The marathon is set to become the longest-running marathon in television history by passing the 13-day Simpsons marathon that took place in 2016.