D’oh! For 30 years, “The Simpsons” has been shining a bright TV light on everyone’s suburbia

By Eric Kohanik, ReMIND Magazine

All hail The Simpsons! Now in its 28th season, the FOX series is not only the longest-running American animated show, but also the longest-running American sitcom — and the longest-running American primetime scripted show.

But the history of The Simpsons shining a bright light on everyone’s suburbia goes back even further, with the TV family first appearing onscreen 30 years ago.

Although the series made its debut in December of 1989, the animated adventures of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie actually premiered in April of 1987, as short vignettes before and after commercials on The Tracey Ullman Show. The popularity of those vignettes prompted FOX to spin them off into a series.

The brainchild of cartoonist Matt Groening, The Simpsons emerged after Groening was approached by writer/producer James L. Brooks in 1985. Brooks wanted Groening to turn Life in Hell, a popular comic strip he had been drawing since 1977, into an animated segment on Ullman’s variety show.

Instead, Groening came up with the Simpson family. He named the characters of Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie after his own father and mother and his two younger sisters. And, rather than using his own name, Groening came up with Bart, an appropriate moniker derived from the word “brat.”

In spite of the character names, Groening has always insisted that The Simpsons is not autobiographical and that his own family was nothing like the dysfunctional Simpson clan, except for the occasional bit of sibling rivalry.

Nevertheless, names of other characters ended up having connections to Groening’s past as well. Police Chief Wiggum’s last name, for instance, is the same as Groening’s mother’s maiden name. Other names — Flanders, Kearney, Lovejoy, Terwilliger, Quimby — were inspired by streets in Groening’s hometown of Portland, Ore.

But Portland never served as the show’s setting. The Simpsons is set in the fictional suburban town of Springfield. It’s the same name as the town that provided the backdrop for Father Knows Best back in the 1950s. It’s also the same name that adorns towns in most states across the U.S.

And so, Springfield could be any town, anywhere.

A stereotypical and idyllic suburban setting, Springfield provides a perfect stage for the show to praise — and poke fun at — the lifestyle of middle-class America. The series often laces storylines with chaos, misdeeds and misadventure as it explores themes and issues that are identifiable across the country and around the world.

The Simpsons has relied on a large and sometimes famous roster of writers to achieve that. That group has included such names as Conan O’Brien, Seth Rogen and Ricky Gervais. As for the voice actors who bring the stories to life, the core cast includes Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer.

Last fall, FOX announced that it was renewing The Simpsons for its 29th and 30th seasons. And so, Springfield and its residents are all set to keep the spotlight on suburbia a while longer.

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