Sitcoms usually operate as if they’re on borrowed time. In the case of How I Met Your Mother, the show drags out the mystery of who Ted Mosby ends up with for the better part of nine seasons. However, by the final outing, it realizes it needs to put the pedal to the metal, even if the journey is far more important than the destination. There are also those sitcoms that see the warning light when they start to run out of gas. The Office, for example, keeps the party going for a long time, with Jim continuously pranking Dwight and Andy, making a fool of himself every chance he gets. But all their journeys eventually reach a natural stopping point.
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There is one show that bucks all of the trends, though, by speeding past every exit ramp that it sees. In fact, 2025 marks its 36th year on the air, which is no small feat in the modern TV landscape. While it has one advantage that most other sitcoms don’t, that hasn’t stopped it from lapping the competition time and time again with its unique stories and great humor.
It’s Been Almost Four Decades Since TV Changed Forever
Variety shows used to be all the rage back in the day because they entertained their audiences in a multitude of ways. The Tracey Ullman Show was among the best, and it owed a lot of its success to producer James L. Brooks, who was never afraid to take risks. In 1987, Brooks reached out to cartoonist Matt Groening, best known at the time for his comic strip Life in Hell, wanting to see if he would be interested in creating animated shorts for his show. Groening jumped at the oppurtunity and created the Simpson family, which made its TV debut on April 19, 1987. It took a couple of years for the rest of the industry to wise up, but eventually the good people over at Fox agreed to take Groening’s idea and turn it into a series called The Simpsons.
“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” which aired on December 17, 1989, follows the titular family as they go shopping at Christmastime. Unfortunately, Homer Simpson can’t buy as many presents as he would like for his wife and kids because he’s not getting his annual bonus. To try to make money quickly, he takes his son, Bart, to a dog racing track and bets big on a dog named Santa’s Little Helper. In typical sitcom fashion, the animal loses, leaving Homer between a rock and a hard place. However, Bart informs his father that bringing Santa’s Little Helper home would be the best gift of all, which cheers the patriarch up. The Simpsons‘ first episode doesn’t have too many bells or whistles, but it doubles down on the series’ core theme: family, which continues to keep the ship afloat to this day.
The Simpsons Still Hasn’t Lost Its Fastball
800 episodes of The Simpsons have aired since December 17, 1989, and there are going to be more where those came from. While Groening isn’t as involved as he once was, handing over day-to-day showrunning duties to other creatives, he remains part of the process, helping with scripts and serving as a producer. He even played a version of himself in the most recent season of the show, his fourth such time doing so. But it’s probably difficult for Groening to get a grasp on just how impactful his show has been since he’s still working on it.
Of course, The Simpsons paved the way for other animated sitcoms, such as Family Guy, which also continues a historic run on Fox. However, the real story is how the series has evolved beyond the small screen. Homer and the other residents of Springfield appear in theme parks and on countless pieces of merchandise. They’re even movie stars, with The Simpsons Movie among the most successful animated films of all time. A sequel is in the works, and many fans believe that could be the end of the road for the franchise. If it is, that would be one hell of a way for a property that started as a short to go out.
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