Newsgrouped during the third week of March 1990, alt.tv.simpsons, a Usenet newsgroup, is a free forum for discussing various aspects of the television series The Simpsons.
A separate mailing list also exists for discussing the show, simpsons- [email protected]. To subscribe, send mail to .
The Simpsons is an animated television series produced by Gracie Films for Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Network. It began as a series of interstitals (also called bumpers or shorts) for The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987, and premiered as a series on December 17, 1989 in the 8PM time slot. Regular broadcasts began on Sundays beginning January 14, 1990. Seasons Two, Three, Four, and Five were broadcast by Fox on Thursday nights in the 8PM slot, before returning to Sunday nights beginning with Season Six. For a brief while, Classic Simpsons was running, beginning at 7 pm to lead the failed block of comedy Fox scheduled for Winter of 1995.
Seasons One, Two, and Three were animated by Klasky-Csupo (pronounced "CLASS-key CHOOP-oh"), who also worked on The Tracey Ullman Show bumpers. Subsequent seasons have been animated by Film Roman, with in-between work being done for both animation houses by Akom Production Company, Anivision, and Rough Draft Studios in Korea.
The Simpson family was created in ~15 minutes while Matt Groening waited in the foyer to James L. Brooks' office, a long-standing legend confirmed in the Oprah Winfrey Interview by Groening himself.
Production on The Simpsons as a series began in April 1989.
It was under the suggestion of Pauly Platt, a "Life in Hell" (see Sec 2.2) fan in the "Tracey Ullman Show" offices, that brought Simpsons creator Matt Groening to work on Ullman.
According to Producer/Director David Silverman, production on the Ullman Simpsons shorts lasted approximately four weeks. Currently, production takes approximately six months for an episode of The Simpsons.
The four animators of the totallity of the Ullman shorts (David, Wesley Archer, Bill Kopp, Tim Berglund) got together working on the 1986 movie One Crazy Summer and its brief animated segments, before getting the opportunity to animate the Ullman shorts with the then-relatively new animation company Klasky-Csupo.
A complete Cast List is available. (See Sec 3.3)
| Year | Event |
| 1955 | Homer born (05/10/1955) |
| 1956 | Marge born (Within 1 year of Homer.) |
| 1974-1975 | Homer & Marge graduate High School |
| 1980 | Homer & Marge wed; Homer gets job at SNPP; Bart is born |
| 1983 | The Simpsons move into Evergreen Terrace; Lisa is born |
| 1989 | Maggie is born; Homer & Marge's 10th Anniversary; Snowball II becomes family cat after death of Snowball I; Santa's Little Helper becomes family dog |
According to the 1993 "Simpsons Fun Calendar," Maggie was actually born on 19th August 1985, and Bart was born on 17th December 1979. These calendars are MG's productions, and thus can not follow the continual updating the writers impose upon the series. However, from MG's view, these dates are approximately correct, considering the first airings of The Tracey Ullman Show bumpers and the fact that MG has plainly stated the characters do not age.
This is however, a little inconsistent with the UFA, another MG production which unfortunately is inconsistent with the series. In this, it is said that Bart was born on the April 1st, 1980. However, this production appears to have been written before Season Three season was completed, and thus has great inconsistencies with Season Three episodes like "I Married Marge". And according to the Olympic events scheduled on her birthday in "Lisa's First Word", Lisa was born on August 2, 1984. However, Homer also held up a newspaper on her birthday which puts the date closer to March.
More trickiness: Bart says he is two years and thirty eight days older than Lisa in "My Sister, My Sitter," which would make Bart's birthday June 25th, 1982.
At this time, it appears that the production staff has chosen to ignore certain established continuity references beginning with Season Five, and as such the LISA has chosen to reciprocate and ignore subsequent continuity where it interferes with previously established events.
Did You Know...
The habitual criminal Snake is regularly referred to as "Jailbird" in Simpsons scripts.
alt.tv.simpsons - For general discussion of The Simpsons de.alt.tv.simpsons - For German-speaking fans of The Simpsons uk.media.tv.simpsons - For fans of The Simpsons in the U.K. alt.fan.itchy-n-scratchy - For fans of Itchy & Scratchy alt.tv.simpsons.itchy-scratchy - For discussing "The Itchy & Scratchy Show" alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons - For images related to The Simpsons alt.binaries.sounds.cartoons - For sounds related to the Simpsons alt.tv.tiny-toon.fandom - For the "drooling fanboy" types alt.tv.king-of-hill - For discussing "King of the Hill" alt.tv.southpark - For discussing "South Park"
The following World Wide Web sites represent only a sampling of the dozens of Simpsons-related pages in existence. These sites are included on the basis of relative quality, uniqueness, and contribution to the field.
Pages dedicated to the show in general:
http://nerd.simplenet.com/fuxworld/sampsons/ http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~kwyjibo/ http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/6203/simp.html http://www.wcat.com/~varro/simpsons.html http://www.cyberspc.mb.ca/~davehall
http://simpsonsarch.home.pages.de/
http://www.teleport.com/~jrolsen/simpsons/simpsons00.html
http://members.aol.com/bobakabob/simpsons/index.html
Pages dedicated to specific characters:
http://www.pettifogger.com/hutz.htm
Commercial pages:
http://www.harryshearer.com (Harry Shearer's site for his Santa Monica based Public Radio program, "Le Show") http://www.wnol.com/wnol/simpsonschat.html
http://www.pdi.com/PDIPage/screening/special/simpsons.html
http://www.foxnetwork.com/simpindx.htm
http://www.thezone.pair.com/tv/simpsons.htm
The Ultimate TV List
Yahoo
Two servers suggested as starting points for Archie users are archie.au and nic.funet.fi.
The Lisa Simpson Fan Club (LSFC) is devoted to the girl who is arguably the smartest character on television today. For more information or to join the mailing list, visit the LSFC homepage at http://www.wcat.com/lsfc. You can also join the list by sending email to with the phrase subscribe lsfc in the body.
The Homer J. Simpson Fan Club is dedicated to worshipping the one and only Homer the Great. Send Email to for more information.
Acronym Translation a.t.s - The Usenet newsgroup alt.tv.simpsons MG - Matt Groening OFF - Our Favorite Family (The Simpsons, of course) SLH - Santa's Little Helper (the Simpsons' family dog) DYN - Did You Notice, Didja Notice LIH - "Life in Hell" (MG's comic strip) I&S - Itchy and Scratchy FFF, FF - Freeze-Frame Fun SNPP - Springfield Nuclear Power Plant IMHO, IMO - In My (Humble) Opinion BTW - By The Way WRT - With Regard(s) To, With Respect To ROFL - Rolling On the Floor Laughing IYKWIM - If You Know What I Mean AFAIK - As Far As I Know WTF - What The [Heck] IIRC - If I Recall Correctly, If I Remember Correctly OTOH - On the Other Hand
Other Terms:
Production Code - The four character episode number given to each episode
P-Code - Production Code, ie: 7G08, 7F24, 2F05. (See Sec 2.1)
Couch Gag - Part of the title sequence when the family runs into the
house and something unusual happens.
Ref - Reference, where an event or scene in the show parodies
another show, movie, or event.
Blackboard Quote - What Bart writes on the chalkboard at the beginning of the
title sequence
Cutoff - The last thing Bart writes on the chalkboard as he is
dismissed from school in the title sequence.
Episode Capsule - A compilation file for each episode. (See Sec 3.1)
As with most newsgroups, certain threads have been beaten to death. These issues generally revolve around topics that are based on individual interpretations of the evidence presented. As such, there are no set answers, and a large percentage of the readers have either already made up their minds on the subject, or have been bombarded with the topic before.
In the fall of 1997 (and then again in the summer of 1998), held a monthlong poll on alt.tv.simpsons which got a pretty respectable response that would determine what is considered the best episode of The Simpsons, and what is considered the worst. As of the 1998 poll, "Lisa's Wedding" was voted best episode, and "All Singing, All Dancing" was voted worst. The results of this poll will hopefully be helpful in putting an end to this tired debate. Ben Collins is also responsible for a series of polls which provide conclusive collective opinions on some of the Topics that Tend to Go Nowhere which plague alt.tv.simpsons. See the results of his alt.tv.simpsons polls at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Studio/7587/
The following is a list of topics which competantly meet the requirements for being a "topic that tends to go no where." As such, it's probably a good idea to try and avoid them.
Be respectful of other people's opinions. If there are people posting negative/positive reviews for episodes of later/earlier years, let it be. Some of the above listed topics tend to generate strong emotional feelings from some people, and if you wish to discuss them, it's best to take it to private e-mail or not to discuss it at all if you don't wish to discuss it rationally and courteously. (See Sec 2.1, Sec 3.3)
In addition, it is wise to avoid fanning the flames of posters who are intentionally starting inflammatory threads simply to elicit an angry response by not responding to them. These are called trolls, and even alt.tv.simpsons isn't immune to them.
Also, it is asked that binary files (GIFs, JPEGs, WAVs, MPEGs, etc.) be directed to the appropriate alt.binaries.* newsgroup rather than posting them to a.t.s directly.
On to Section II
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Copyright © 1999 Artist Bros. Enterprises - (See Sec 4.3)