Simpsons TV Show

First Aired: December 1989 on Fox

Starring: Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson (voice), Julie Kavner as Marjorie "Marge" Bouvier Simpson (voice), Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson (voice), and Yeardley Smith as Lisa Simpson (voice).

Simpsons TV Show is one of FOX TV network's most successful series to date. It stemmed as a "spin-off" from the Tracey Ullman Show. The Simpsons was a short 1 minuted cartoon originally appearing as a filler for the show. The executive producers of that series, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon decided that these characters could support a half hour series. Not only did the Simpsons take off, it has become the most popular prime-time cartoon series on television.

Movie DVD This season has several milestones. It is the first to feature some truly classic episodes as opposed to the isolated funny moments of the first season. For the first time we got a hint of how well The Simpsons could be at pulling the heart strings as well as the funny bone. It has the first tree house of horror. Most importantly though, it is here that The Simpsons team learned how to drive the comedy from a whole ensemble of characters as opposed to the family alone. Bryce Wilson

DVD Journal Season Three of Matt Groening's hit animated comedy The Simpsons saw the writers and animators hitting their artistic stride — character design became more consistent, and the show's pacing and thematic elements settled into the rhythm that continued throughout the show's run. In his introduction to this DVD box set, Groening describes it as "the season in which The Simpsons found love. Dawn Taylor

DVD Verdict Look, everyone knows about The Simpsons. Revered by many as the greatest thing ever on TV, lauded as a consistently funny exercise in parody and slapstick, The Simpsons has been around forever, and rightfully so. Johnson's Dossier

Simpsons Official Site