The Simpsons started as four 15-second cartoons
Fox ordered 13 episodes without seeing finished animation, on a network that did not yet reach the whole country.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend · Matt GroeningThe offer kept shrinking. Matt Groening, the cartoonist who created The Simpsons, had been asked to supply a two minute cartoon every week for The Tracey Ullman Show. Then the request became one minute. Then, he recalled, the instruction was, "It's four 15-second cartoons."
With only seconds to fill, Groening figured there was time for just one thing, a quick sight gag. He made them fast, simple, and visual.
That tiny assignment became a show that ran for 38 seasons and more than 800 episodes. "That's a lot of pencil mileage," Groening joked, referring to the animation work.
The first sign that the seconds-long jokes were landing came in an unlikely place. Groening said some of the cartoons were shown before movies released by Fox, and audiences applauded when the titles came up. He took that as evidence that people were already watching.
Then came the larger gamble. Instead of ordering a single test show, Fox ordered 13 episodes with no pilot. Jim Brooks, a producer on the show, refused the smaller order and insisted on 13.
The network committed before it could see what it had bought. Animation takes about six months, so all 13 episodes were written before any finished animation came back. "We lucked out," Groening said.
The risk was compounded by distribution. Fox was a brand new network, so regional that it did not reach every market in the country. Even with that limited footprint, the show was extremely popular.
By the second or third episode, Groening said, it was clear the show was a hit. Conan O'Brien, then a writer at Saturday Night Live, recalled that comedy writers felt The Simpsons was the place to be. O'Brien also recalled that when Saturday Night Live was about 14 years old, he thought of it as a pony soon to be put down, a memory he connected to the 15th anniversary special.
Length has created its own problem. The staff acknowledges that it repeats jokes, and its current motto is to try not to repeat recently. Groening said Al Jean serves as the show's living brain, and he said Jean and the internet help them check whether a joke was already done.
Questions people ask
Why was ordering 13 episodes without a pilot such a big risk?
A pilot is a single trial episode used to test whether a series works. Ordering 13 episodes upfront, called a straight series order, is riskier because the network pays for a full batch before audience reaction. It is more common now with streaming services, but it was unusual for an unproven animated show in 1989.
Why does animation take six months?
Animated episodes go through writing, voice recording, storyboards, layout, animation, and color, with work often sent to overseas studios. The process routinely takes six to nine months for a 22 minute episode. That lag is why live action shows can adjust quickly, while animated shows must commit far in advance.
What did it mean that Fox did not reach the entire country?
Fox launched in October 1986 as America's fourth broadcast network, initially programming only a few nights per week. Many cities had weak affiliates or none at all, so national hits were harder to build. The Simpsons helped establish Fox as a full competitor to ABC, CBS, and NBC.