Fox's trademark cartoon is way more than just an animated sitcom that's gone on a little too long. From scrapped character traits to secrets hidden in plain sight, here are 10 excellent facts about The Simpsons.
#10: Homer and Krusty were originally the same person
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| They're almost twins! |
Have you ever wondered why Homer and Krusty looked so similar? That's because Matt Groening had the idea of them being the same character, with the latter being the former's celebrity alter ego. This concept was dropped because it was too complicated and hard to believe that someone as dimwitted as Homer could successfully lead a double life as a celebrity whilst working at a power plant.
#9: Some unused concepts made it into the merchandise
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| Everyone needs a wardrobe change every once in a while! |
Since merchandise was in production at the same time as the show itself in its early years, some unused character designs made it into some of the merchandise. For example, there are plenty of Bart toys that had him in a blue shirt whereas his normal shirt color is red. Also, some sprites of Marge in the Simpsons Arcade Game have her sporting rabbit ears underneath her iconic hairstyle, which was going to be a reveal in the final episode.
#8: It almost didn't happen
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| Image what an animated version of this would be like! |
Nowadays it's common knowledge that this show was originally little more than animated sketches on The Tracey Ullman Show. What you may not know, however, is that series creator Matt Groening originally planned to pitch an animated adaptation of his comic series Life In Hell. He didn't go through with it because that comic series was his primary income source back then and he didn't want to lose ownership of it, so he instead drew up some doodles of what would eventually become one of the most iconic families in television history.
#7: There's an ending planned
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| It could come full circle if Fox would just end this show already! |
While it's common to joke about how this show will never end, the showrunners have revealed they have an ending planned. Should the show finally end, the final scene will be the family going to a school play, just like the first scene of the series!
#6: The McBain movie is real (sort of)
An old running gag in the series is showing clips of the McBain movies starring fictional action hero Rainier Wolfcastle. Surprisingly, fans found out that these clips could be combined together to form a coherent movie and in fact 1 fan did just that on YouTube. You can watch that movie on this very article, at least until Fox's lawyers get involved.
#5: The characters were designed to be unique looking
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| They almost look like aliens, don't they? |
The characters were made yellow so they could grab the attention of channel surfers, while their strange head shapes and hairstyles were drawn so they could be easily identified in silhouette. Also Smithers being black in his debut episode was a mistake, though David Silverman claims it was the result of a tan during a vacation in the Carabeans.
#4: It broke several longevity records
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| Have a drink for every Simpsons episode that exists... Actually don't, you'll be dead in no time! |
In its 30+ years of being on the air, The Simpsons has broken a few longevity records for television. It is both the longest running American primetime TV show and the longest running American cartoon, surpassing both Gunsmoke and The Flintstones respectively.
#3: Kamp Krusty was originally a movie
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| This probably would've been interesting to see on the big screen. |
Several years before the official Simpsons movie came out, the Season 4 episode Kamp Krusty was originally pitched as a movie. This concept was dropped because the crew had trouble making the plot long enough to fill a 90 minute movie, so it was instead made into a regular 22 minute episode.
#2: Homer's catchphrase is more iconic than we realize
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| All Simpsons fans have done this, don't lie |
Everyone who knows this series has heard Homer exclaim "D'oh!" (or annoyed grunt as its called in the scripts) whenever he screwed something up. The phrase was so iconic that it was added to both the Oxford English Dictionary and the Webster's Millennium Dictionary of English. It also occasionally pops up in other shows, including The Critic episode Dukerella, The Loud House episode Lock N Loud, and the SpongeBob Squarepants episode Pickles.
#1: Maggie has some secrets
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| She's more than meets the eyes! |
When Maggie is rung up at the grocery store in the show's opening, the price meter reads $847.63, which was how much it took to raise a baby in the show's birth year of 1989. Also, the sound of her sucking her pacifier was created by Matt Groening himself sucking on a pacifier.
Did you have a swell time reading this? If not, eat my shorts! If you can think of some other facts about the Simpsons, leave some suggestions in the comment section. Thanks for reading and have a Duff if you can find one.
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