D’oh! "The Simpsons"
will hit its 500th episode mark when the animated show airs this Sunday.
The sitcom about a hilariously maddening family of a bright, yellow hue
has already hit plenty of milestones unknown to many a TV show. Here, a
few facts about “The Simpsons.”
It’s a record holder
Now
in its 23rd season, the animated series is the most-watched show on
television, with an average weekly global viewership of more than 150
million viewers, and 8 million regular viewers who tune in to the weekly
timeslot on Fox. It’s also the longest-running animated sitcom,
surpassing "The Flintstones" by over a decade, and holds the record for
most guest stars featured in a series, including Drew Barrymore, Lady
Gaga, Paul McCartney, and Michael Jackson.
It has serious fans
The
love of the 'toon inspired two fans to make the record books with their
loyalty to the show: Jeremiah Franco and Carin Shreve set a new Guiness World Record
for longest continuous television viewing by watching
86 hours and 37 minutes of the Fox sitcom, which translates to three
and a half days.
The story behind Homer's trademark phrase
The
cartoon dad Homer’s catchphrase is defined as “expressing frustration
at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned,
or that one has just said or done something foolish,” and was added to
the Oxford English Dictionary in 2001. Dan Castellaneta, who voices
Homer, recounted to The Hollywood Reporter
how he got the idea for the term, which is written only as “annoyed
grunt” in the scripts. The actor said he latched on to the “Laurel and
Hardy” films’ foil, Jimmy Finlayson, who would always say "Dooooh!" He
added, “Matt said we only had a minute, so we shortened it to make it
faster.”
The cartoon got its start on another show
In 1987, the animated cartoon produced by Matt Groening aired in 30-second segments for "The Tracey Ullman Show"
on Fox. Marge, Homer, Lisa, Maggie, and Bart are all there, but have a
rougher look. But the "Simpsons" humor is unmistakable.
Bart is really a woman
Well, not exactly, but his character is voiced by one: Nancy Cartwright
gives life to the underachieving, foul-mouthed, skateboarding slacker.
Fun fact: Cartwright is also the voice of Nelson the bully. Ha, ha!
It’s a lot of work
It
may come as no big surprise that animating a weekly cartoon has a longer
lead time than using live actors, but six months? A single episode
takes half a year and 480 animators.
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