Next chance to move on...
Pointless trivia about America's favourite dysfunctional family, The Simpsons.
Matt Groening (whose name is pronounced "gray-ning", not "groaning", by the way) originally planned to make an animated series out of his comic strip Life in Hell, but realised when sitting in the waiting room of the animation studio that he didn't want to sign the rights to his characters away, so he came up with the idea of The Simpsons on the spot. At first, the Simpsons shorts were commercial break padding on The Tracy Ullman Show, but soon it became a full-fledged series.
The first season has a lot of episodes aired out of production order. The first episode ever made was "Some Enchanted Evening"; it even opens with a scene introducing and establishing each member of the Simpson family. Despite this, it was the thirteenth episode aired and the season finale when it was broadcast, due to animation problems (the animation in the episode is very crude, even by first season standards). The first episode aired was "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", most likely because it was a Christmas episode and the airdate was December 17, which is close to Christmas.
In his first appearance in the episode "Homer's Odyssey", Waylon Smithers appears black. This was admitted to be an animation error, and all subsequent episodes have him white (or, well, yellow).
According to Matt Groening, the characters in the show were made yellow (with the exception of black or otherwise ethnic characters) in order to catch people's eyes when they were channel-flipping.
Matt Groening named the Simpson family members after his own family members, with the exception of Bart, whose name is just an anagram of "brat". The other characters in the show were mostly named after streets near where he grew up, including Flanders and Quimby.
Krusty the Klown is based on a real-life clown Matt knew called Rusty Nails. Matt said that he was a good clown, but had a scary name. Krusty looks almost identical to Homer, only with a wig and clown makeup on - the initial plan was for him to actually be Homer in a secret identity, but that idea was scrapped for being stupid. Matt Groening has said that the reason Krusty looks so much like Homer is for the irony that Bart dislikes his father, but worships someone who looks almost identical to him in appearance.
Homer's catchphrase "D'oh!" (which is written in the scripts as "(annoyed grunt)") was briefly added to the Oxford English Dictionary, along with "meh", "embiggen" and "cromulent". Speaking of the scripts, Marge's "Hrrrmm" noise is written as "(frustrated murmur)", and Professor Frink's babbling is written as "(Frink noises)". The "D'oh!" was actually an improvisation by Homer's voice actor, Dan Castellaneta.
Before The Simpsons came along, saying the name "Homer" to people would make them think of the ancient Greek author, famous for writing The Odyssey, so the name carried a sense of eloquence and intelligence with it. After The Simpsons, well... not so much anymore.
The Simpsons writers have said that they've referenced Citizen Kane so much in The Simpsons that one might be able to recreate the entire movie just from scenes from the show.
In the early(ish) seasons, occasionally we see a fragment of a McBain movie that The Simpsons are watching. Though these seem to be random scenes, if they are put together in the order they're shown, they actually fit together and make a complete, coherent story.
The first Itchy and Scratchy cartoon is very heavily based on Tom & Jerry, to the point where it has Scratchy attempting to kill Itchy (in the rest of the cartoons, Itchy - the mouse - is always the one who performs gratuitous acts of cartoon violence on Scratchy, while Scratchy himself often seems to be neutrally if not kindly disposed to Itchy).
Phil Hartmann, voice actor for Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure, was tragically murdered, which is why his characters only ever appear in brief, non-speaking cameos after a certain point. In the comics, though, they continue to have prominence, mainly because obviously comics don't have voice acting. It was a sign of respect from the production staff that they retired his character rather than simply changing the voice actor.
The original voice actor for Lunchlady Doris also died (though of old age). Originally they were planning on retiring the character, like with Troy/Lionel, but they managed to find a replacement for her instead.
The Simpsons has been dubbed into more languages than probably any other animated show, and out of all the dubs, the character who seems to be the hardest to dub correctly is Marge - many dubbers have a hard time imitating her unique, raspy voice, with the result that most come off as either sounding completely different, or sounding like a bad imitation of her. Julie Kavner, Marge's voice actor (who also voices Marge's sisters, Patty and Selma, as well as her mother, Jacqueline) refuses to do Marge's voice in real life, as she doesn't want to spoil the magic.
Bart's voice actor, Nancy Cartwright, originally tried out for the role of Lisa.
Comic Book Guy (real name Jeff Albertson) was based on Matt Groening himself. Matt said "He's what I think I look like to other people". His catchphrase of "Worst. X. Ever!" came from a magazine article critiquing The Simpsons, which was headed "Worst Episode Ever!". Comic Book Guy repeated this word-for-word (referring to an Itchy & Scratchy episode) in the show, and it then morphed into a generic snowclone catchphrase. Incidentally, the only other time he actually said "Worst. Episode. Ever.", he was referring to a cardiac episode.
For some reason, the media seemed to think that "Cowabunga!" was Bart Simpson's catchphrase, even though (at the time this belief was prevalent) he had only ever said the word once - in the episode "Bart Gets an "F"", when Bart is overjoyed at having (barely) passed his exam. The scriptwriters even mentioned in the DVD commentary that they were surprised he even said it then. This was poked fun at in the episode "Behind the Laughter", the premise of which was that The Simpson family were actors acting out the show we normally see. In one episode, a scene (written by Homer) calls for Bart to say "Cowabunga!", and Bart, during rehearsal, claims that he's never said "Cowabunga!" before in his life. The episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star" ends with a flash-forward to the distant future, where two Bart-worshipping religious sects are at war with each other - one side's battle cry is "Eat my shorts!", while the other's is "Cowabunga!" The word "Cowabunga" wasn't invented by Bart either - it originated on Howdy Doody, which began airing in 1947, and was popularised by 1960s surfer culture.
A running joke throughout the entire series is that no one knows exactly what state Springfield is in. Matt Groening's usual response to this question is "It's in every state but yours". Notably, in The Simpsons Movie, Ned Flanders tells Bart that Springfield is bordered by Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky, which are all nowhere near each other in real life. David Silverman, who directed the movie and various episodes, jokingly claimed that Springfield is in the state of North Takoma, which is not a real state, though state abbreviations NT and TA are used within the show.
The famous "Five Corners" landmark shown in The Simpsons (where five different states border each other) doesn't actually exist in real life, but something close to it does - the Four Corners, a region where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico all border each other.
Matt Groening (whose name is pronounced "gray-ning", not "groaning", by the way) originally planned to make an animated series out of his comic strip Life in Hell, but realised when sitting in the waiting room of the animation studio that he didn't want to sign the rights to his characters away, so he came up with the idea of The Simpsons on the spot. At first, the Simpsons shorts were commercial break padding on The Tracy Ullman Show, but soon it became a full-fledged series.
The first season has a lot of episodes aired out of production order. The first episode ever made was "Some Enchanted Evening"; it even opens with a scene introducing and establishing each member of the Simpson family. Despite this, it was the thirteenth episode aired and the season finale when it was broadcast, due to animation problems (the animation in the episode is very crude, even by first season standards). The first episode aired was "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", most likely because it was a Christmas episode and the airdate was December 17, which is close to Christmas.
In his first appearance in the episode "Homer's Odyssey", Waylon Smithers appears black. This was admitted to be an animation error, and all subsequent episodes have him white (or, well, yellow).
According to Matt Groening, the characters in the show were made yellow (with the exception of black or otherwise ethnic characters) in order to catch people's eyes when they were channel-flipping.
Matt Groening named the Simpson family members after his own family members, with the exception of Bart, whose name is just an anagram of "brat". The other characters in the show were mostly named after streets near where he grew up, including Flanders and Quimby.
Krusty the Klown is based on a real-life clown Matt knew called Rusty Nails. Matt said that he was a good clown, but had a scary name. Krusty looks almost identical to Homer, only with a wig and clown makeup on - the initial plan was for him to actually be Homer in a secret identity, but that idea was scrapped for being stupid. Matt Groening has said that the reason Krusty looks so much like Homer is for the irony that Bart dislikes his father, but worships someone who looks almost identical to him in appearance.
Homer's catchphrase "D'oh!" (which is written in the scripts as "(annoyed grunt)") was briefly added to the Oxford English Dictionary, along with "meh", "embiggen" and "cromulent". Speaking of the scripts, Marge's "Hrrrmm" noise is written as "(frustrated murmur)", and Professor Frink's babbling is written as "(Frink noises)". The "D'oh!" was actually an improvisation by Homer's voice actor, Dan Castellaneta.
Before The Simpsons came along, saying the name "Homer" to people would make them think of the ancient Greek author, famous for writing The Odyssey, so the name carried a sense of eloquence and intelligence with it. After The Simpsons, well... not so much anymore.
The Simpsons writers have said that they've referenced Citizen Kane so much in The Simpsons that one might be able to recreate the entire movie just from scenes from the show.
In the early(ish) seasons, occasionally we see a fragment of a McBain movie that The Simpsons are watching. Though these seem to be random scenes, if they are put together in the order they're shown, they actually fit together and make a complete, coherent story.
The first Itchy and Scratchy cartoon is very heavily based on Tom & Jerry, to the point where it has Scratchy attempting to kill Itchy (in the rest of the cartoons, Itchy - the mouse - is always the one who performs gratuitous acts of cartoon violence on Scratchy, while Scratchy himself often seems to be neutrally if not kindly disposed to Itchy).
Phil Hartmann, voice actor for Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure, was tragically murdered, which is why his characters only ever appear in brief, non-speaking cameos after a certain point. In the comics, though, they continue to have prominence, mainly because obviously comics don't have voice acting. It was a sign of respect from the production staff that they retired his character rather than simply changing the voice actor.
The original voice actor for Lunchlady Doris also died (though of old age). Originally they were planning on retiring the character, like with Troy/Lionel, but they managed to find a replacement for her instead.
The Simpsons has been dubbed into more languages than probably any other animated show, and out of all the dubs, the character who seems to be the hardest to dub correctly is Marge - many dubbers have a hard time imitating her unique, raspy voice, with the result that most come off as either sounding completely different, or sounding like a bad imitation of her. Julie Kavner, Marge's voice actor (who also voices Marge's sisters, Patty and Selma, as well as her mother, Jacqueline) refuses to do Marge's voice in real life, as she doesn't want to spoil the magic.
Bart's voice actor, Nancy Cartwright, originally tried out for the role of Lisa.
Comic Book Guy (real name Jeff Albertson) was based on Matt Groening himself. Matt said "He's what I think I look like to other people". His catchphrase of "Worst. X. Ever!" came from a magazine article critiquing The Simpsons, which was headed "Worst Episode Ever!". Comic Book Guy repeated this word-for-word (referring to an Itchy & Scratchy episode) in the show, and it then morphed into a generic snowclone catchphrase. Incidentally, the only other time he actually said "Worst. Episode. Ever.", he was referring to a cardiac episode.
For some reason, the media seemed to think that "Cowabunga!" was Bart Simpson's catchphrase, even though (at the time this belief was prevalent) he had only ever said the word once - in the episode "Bart Gets an "F"", when Bart is overjoyed at having (barely) passed his exam. The scriptwriters even mentioned in the DVD commentary that they were surprised he even said it then. This was poked fun at in the episode "Behind the Laughter", the premise of which was that The Simpson family were actors acting out the show we normally see. In one episode, a scene (written by Homer) calls for Bart to say "Cowabunga!", and Bart, during rehearsal, claims that he's never said "Cowabunga!" before in his life. The episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star" ends with a flash-forward to the distant future, where two Bart-worshipping religious sects are at war with each other - one side's battle cry is "Eat my shorts!", while the other's is "Cowabunga!" The word "Cowabunga" wasn't invented by Bart either - it originated on Howdy Doody, which began airing in 1947, and was popularised by 1960s surfer culture.
A running joke throughout the entire series is that no one knows exactly what state Springfield is in. Matt Groening's usual response to this question is "It's in every state but yours". Notably, in The Simpsons Movie, Ned Flanders tells Bart that Springfield is bordered by Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky, which are all nowhere near each other in real life. David Silverman, who directed the movie and various episodes, jokingly claimed that Springfield is in the state of North Takoma, which is not a real state, though state abbreviations NT and TA are used within the show.
The famous "Five Corners" landmark shown in The Simpsons (where five different states border each other) doesn't actually exist in real life, but something close to it does - the Four Corners, a region where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico all border each other.
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