It all started on April 19, 1987, with “Good Night” — 47 more shorts were created over the next two years. They're clearly personal — Groening named and modeled the characters after his own family — and remarkably crude.

Did The Simpsons first come out?

The Simpsons began in 1987 as a cartoon short on the Tracy Ullman Show, a variety program on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Expanded to half an hour, it debuted as a Christmas special on December 17, 1989, and then began airing regularly in January 1990.

What was the first ever Simpsons episode?

The producers convinced Fox to move the debut to December 17, and aired "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" as the first episode of the series.