The Simpsons Returns for Season 38 With a Strange Origin Story

Caption: Logo for the animated television series The Simpsons. Credit: 20th Television Animation / Wikimedia Commons.

The Simpsons returns to Fox for Season 38 on Sept. 27, adding another chapter to one of television’s longest-running franchises. The season premiere is the timely peg, but the more surprising story begins years before the Simpson family had its own half-hour show.

The characters first reached television as short animated segments on The Tracey Ullman Show. What started as brief interstitial cartoons became a stand-alone series, a merchandising machine and eventually the longest-running primetime scripted show in television history, according to Fox.

The family started as shorts between sketches

Matt Groening created the Simpson family for animated segments used on The Tracey Ullman Show, which debuted on the young Fox network in 1987. The shorts built enough recognition that the network spun the characters into their own series, which premiered in 1990.

That origin makes the show’s longevity even stranger. A side feature on a variety program outlived the program that introduced it and became one of the most recognizable entertainment properties in the world.

Tracey Ullman later sued Fox over the profits

The show’s success also produced a legal fight. In 1991, Ullman sued 20th Century Fox, arguing that her contracts entitled her to a share of merchandising and other profits connected to the spin-off. The Los Angeles Times reported that the lawsuit sought millions of dollars at a time when Simpsons merchandise had become a huge business.

A jury ultimately rejected Ullman’s claims in 1992. The dispute is a reminder that the show’s path from a few animated shorts to a global franchise was not as tidy as its eventual success can make it look.

Season 38 arrives after television changed around it

Fox’s current materials list the Season 38 premiere for Sept. 27. The network that launched The Simpsons was itself still new when the family first appeared; streaming did not exist, broadcast television dominated entertainment, and animation in prime time was far less common.

The reason to revisit the story now is not simply that another season is starting. It is that a show born as a small experiment has lasted long enough to become part of the history of the medium that created it.

References: FOXFLASH | THE SIMPSONS | Ullman Has a Cow Over ‘Simpsons’ : Lawsuit Alleges She Was Cut Out of Millions in Merchandising Profits