Simpsons essay

   The Simpsons is an American animated television series created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a working-class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional city of Springfield, and lampoons American culture, society, television and many aspects of the human condition.
   The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a pitch for a series of animated shorts with the producer James L. Brooks. Groening created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name. The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show and was an early hit for Fox, becoming the first Fox series to land in the Top 30 ratings in a season (1989–1990).
   Since its debut on December 17, 1989 the show has broadcast 476 episodes and the twenty-second season started airing on September 26, 2010. The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on July 26 and July 27, 2007, and grossed US $527 million worldwide.
The Simpsons is the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program, and in 2009 it surpassed Gunsmoke as the longest running American primetime entertainment series. Homer's exclamatory catchphrase "D'oh!" has been adopted into the English lexicon, while The Simpsons has influenced many adult-oriented animated sitcoms.

    Origins
   Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office. Brooks had asked Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts, which Groening initially intended to present as his Life in Hell series. However, when Groening realized that animating Life in Hell would require the rescinding of publication rights for his life's work, he chose another approach and formulated his version of a dysfunctional family. He named the characters after his own family members, substituting "Bart" for his own name.
   The Simpson family first appeared as shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. Groening submitted only basic sketches to the animators and assumed that the figures would be cleaned up in production. However, the animators merely re-traced his drawings, which led to the crude appearance of the characters in the initial short episodes. The animation was produced domestically at Klasky Csupo, with Wesley Archer, David Silverman, and Bill Kopp being animators for the first season. Gyorgyi Peluce was the colorist and the person who decided to make the characters yellow.
   In 1989, a team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The team included what is now the Klasky Csupo animation house. Jim Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching. The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989 with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", a Christmas special. "Some Enchanted Evening" was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1990, as the last episode of the first season, because of animation problems.


Production
   Executive producers
   Matt Groening and James L. Brooks have served as executive producers during the show's entire history, and also function as creative consultants. Sam Simon, described by former Simpsons director Brad Bird as "the unsung hero" of the show, served as creative supervisor for the first four seasons. He was constantly at odds with Groening, Brooks and Gracie Films and left in 1993. Before leaving, he negotiated a deal that sees him receive a share of the profits every year, and an executive producer credit despite not having worked on the show since 1993. A more involved position on the show is the show runner, who acts as head writer and manages the show's production for an entire season.

    Voice actors
   The Simpsons has six main cast members. Dan Castellaneta performs Homer Simpson, Abraham Simpson, Krusty the Clown, Barney Gumble and other adult, male characters. Julie Kavner speaks the voices of Marge Simpson and Patty and Selma, as well as several minor characters. Castellaneta and Kavner had been a part of The Tracey Ullman Show cast and were given the parts so that new actors would not be needed. Nancy Cartwright performs the voices of Bart Simpson, Ralph Wiggum and other children. Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson. The producers decided to hold casting for the roles of Bart and Lisa. Cartwright is the only one of the six main Simpsons cast members who had been professionally trained in voice acting prior to working on the show. There are two male actors who do not voice members of the title family but play a majority of the male townspeople; Hank Azaria, who has been a part of the Simpsons regular voice cast since the second season, voices recurring characters such as Moe, Chief Wiggum and Apu, and Harry Shearer provides voices for Mr. Burns, Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, and Dr. Hibbert.  

   Characters
   The Simpsons are a typical family who live in a fictional "Middle American" town of Springfield. Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, a position at odds with his careless, buffoonish personality. He is married to Marge Simpson, a stereotypical American housewife and mother. They have three children: Bart, a ten-year-old troublemaker; Lisa, a precocious eight-year-old activist; and Maggie, the baby of the family who rarely speaks, but communicates by sucking on a pacifier. The family owns a dog, Santa's Little Helper, and a cat, Snowball V, renamed Snowball II in "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot". Although the family is dysfunctional, many episodes examine their relationships and bonds with each other and they are often shown to care about one another.

   The show includes an array of quirky characters: co-workers, teachers, family friends, extended relatives, townspeople and local celebrities. The creators originally intended many of these characters as one-time jokesters or for fulfilling needed functions in the town. A number of them have gained expanded roles and subsequently starred in their own episodes. According to Matt Groening, the show adopted the concept of a large supporting cast from the comedy show SCTV.

   Themes
   The Simpsons uses the standard setup of a situational comedy, or sitcom, as its premise. The series centers on a family and their life in a typical American town. However, because of its animated nature, The Simpsons' scope is larger than that of a regular sitcom. The town of Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. By having Homer work in a nuclear power plant, the show can comment on the state of the environment. Through Bart and Lisa's days at Springfield Elementary School, the show's writers illustrate pressing or controversial issues in the field of education. The town features a vast array of media channels—from kids' television programming to local news, which enables the producers to make jokes about themselves and the entertainment industry.
   Some commentators say the show is political in nature and susceptible to a left-wing bias. The writers often evince an appreciation for liberal ideals, but the show makes jokes across the political spectrum. The show portrays government and large corporations as callous entities that take advantage of the common worker. Thus, the writers often portray authority figures in an unflattering or negative light. In The Simpsons, politicians are corrupt, ministers such as Reverend Lovejoy are indifferent to churchgoers, and the local police force is incompetent. Religion also figures as a recurring theme. In times of crisis, the family often turns to God, and the show has dealt with most of the major religions.


Hallmarks
   Opening sequence
   The Simpsons' opening sequence is one of the show's most memorable hallmarks. Most episodes open with the camera zooming through the show's title towards the town of Springfield. The camera then follows the members of the family on their way home. Upon entering their house, the Simpsons settle down on their couch to watch television. The opening was created by David Silverman, the first task he did when production began on the show. The series' distinctive theme song was composed by musician Danny Elfman in 1989, after Groening approached him requesting a retro style piece. This piece, which took two days to create, has been noted by Elfman as the most popular of his career.
One of the most distinctive aspects of the opening is that three of the segments change from episode to episode: Bart writes different things on the school chalkboard, Lisa plays different solos on her saxophone, and different gags accompany the family as they enter their living room to sit on the couch. On February 15, 2009, a new opening credit sequence was introduced to accompany the switch to HDTV. The sequence had all of the features of the original opening, but added numerous details and characters.

   Halloween episodes
   The special Halloween episode has become an annual tradition. "Treehouse of Horror" first broadcast in 1990 as part of season two and established the pattern of three separate, self-contained stories in each Halloween episode. These pieces usually involve the family in some horror, science fiction, or supernatural setting and often parody or pay homage to a famous piece of work in those genres. They always take place outside the normal continuity of the show. Although the Treehouse series is meant to be seen on Halloween, in recent years, new installments have premiered after Halloween due to Fox's current contract with Major League Baseball's World Series.

    Humor
    The show's humor turns on cultural references that cover a wide spectrum of society so that viewers from all generations can enjoy the show. Such references, for example, come from movies, television, music, literature, science, and history. The animators also regularly add jokes or sight gags into the show's background via humorous or incongruous bits of text in signs, newspapers, and elsewhere. The audience may often not notice the visual jokes in a single viewing. Some are so fleeting that they become apparent only by pausing a video recording of the show. Kristin Thompson argues that The Simpsons uses a "...flurry of cultural references, intentionally inconsistent characterization, and considerable self-reflexivity about television conventions and the status of the programme as a television show."
   The show uses catchphrases, and most of the primary and secondary characters have at least one each. Notable expressions include Homer's annoyed grunt "D'oh!", Mr. Burns' "Excellent..." and Nelson Muntz's "Ha-ha!". Some of Bart's catchphrases, such as "¡Ay, caramba!", "Don't have a cow, man!" and "Eat my shorts!" appeared on t-shirts in the show's early days. However, Bart rarely used the latter two phrases until after they became popular through the merchandising. The use of many of these catchphrases has declined in recent seasons. The episode "Bart Gets Famous" mocks catchphrase-based humor, as Bart achieves fame on the Krusty the Clown Show solely for saying "I didn't do it."


Influences on culture
   Television
   The Simpsons was the first successful animated program in American prime time since Wait Till Your Father Gets Home in the 1970s. During most of the 1980s, US pundits considered animated shows as appropriate only for children, and animating a show was too expensive to achieve a quality suitable for prime-time television. The Simpsons changed this perception. The use of Korean animation studios for tweening, coloring, and filming made the episodes cheaper. The success of The Simpsons and the lower production cost prompted US television networks to take chances on other animated series. This development led US producers to a 1990s boom in new, animated prime-time shows, such as South Park, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Futurama, and The Critic. "The Simpsons created an audience for prime-time animation that had not been there for many, many years", said Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. South Park later paid homage to The Simpsons with the episode "Simpsons Already Did It". In Georgia, the animated television sitcom The Samsonadzes, launched in November 2009, has been noted for its very strong resemblance with The Simpsons, which its creator Shalva Ramishvili has acknowledged.


Success
   Awards
    The Simpsons has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 27 Primetime Emmy Awards, 27 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award. In a 1998 issue celebrating the 20th century's greatest achievements in arts and entertainment, Time magazine named The Simpsons the century's best television series. In that same issue, Time included Bart Simpson in the Time 100, the publication's list of the century's 100 most influential people. Bart was the only fictional character on the list. On January 14, 2000, the Simpsons were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Also in 2000, Entertainment Weekly magazine TV critic Ken Tucker named The Simpsons the greatest television show of the 1990s. Furthermore, viewers of the UK television channel Channel 4 have voted The Simpsons at the top of two polls: 2001's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows, and 2005's 100 Greatest Cartoons, with Homer Simpson voted into first place in 2001's 100 Greatest TV Characters. Homer would also place ninth on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "50 Greatest TV icons". In 2002, The Simpsons ranked #8 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time; in 2007 it was included in TIME's list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time"; in 2008 the show was placed in first on Entertainment Weekly's "Top 100 Shows of the Past 25 Years"; and Empire named it the greatest TV show of all time. In 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Homer "the greatest character of the last 20 years."

         
   Criticism and controversy
    Various episodes of the show have generated controversy. The Simpsons visited Australia in "Bart vs. Australia" (season six, 1995) and Brazil in "Blame it on Lisa" (season 13, 2002) and both episodes generated controversy and negative reaction in the visited countries. In the latter case, Rio de Janeiro's tourist board – who claimed that the city was portrayed as having rampant street crime, kidnappings, slums, and monkey and rat infestations – went so far as to threaten Fox with legal action. Matt Groening was a fierce and vocal critic of the episode "A Star Is Burns" (season six, 1995) which featured a crossover with The Critic. He felt that it was just an advertisement for The Critic, and that people would incorrectly associate the show with him. When he was unsuccessful in getting the episode pulled, he had his name removed from the credits and went public with his concerns, openly criticizing James L. Brooks and saying the episode "violates the Simpsons' universe." In response, Brooks said "I am furious with Matt, [...] he's allowed his opinion, but airing this publicly in the press is going too far. [...] his behavior right now is rotten." "The Principal and the Pauper" (season nine, 1997) is one of the most controversial episodes of The Simpsons. Many fans and critics reacted negatively to the revelation that Principal Seymour Skinner, a recurring character since the first season, was an impostor. The episode has been criticized by Matt Groening and by Harry Shearer, who provides the voice of Principal Skinner. In a 2001 interview, Shearer recalled that after reading the script, he told the writers, "That's so wrong. You're taking something that an audience has built eight years or nine years of investment in and just tossed it in the trash can for no good reason, for a story we've done before with other characters. It's so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it's disrespectful to the audience." 

    Criticism of declining quality
    Critics' reviews of early Simpsons episodes praised the show for its wit, realism, and intelligence. In the late 1990s, around the airing of season ten, the tone and emphasis of the show began to change. Some critics started calling the show "tired". By 2000, some long-term fans had become disillusioned with the show and pointed to its shift from character-driven plots to what they perceived as an overemphasis on zany antics. The BBC noted "the common consensus is that The Simpsons' golden era ended after season nine", while Todd Leopold of CNN, in an article looking at its perceived decline, stated "for many fans [...] the glory days are long past." Author Douglas Coupland described claims of declining quality in the series as "hogwash", saying "The Simpsons hasn't fumbled the ball in fourteen years, it's hardly likely to fumble it now." Mike Scully, who was show runner during seasons nine through twelve, has been the subject of criticism. Chris Suellentrop of Slate wrote "under Scully's tenure, The Simpsons became, well, a cartoon. [...] Episodes that once would have ended with Homer and Marge bicycling into the sunset now end with Homer blowing a tranquilizer dart into Marge's neck. The show's still funny, but it hasn't been touching in years."
   The Simpsons managed to maintain a large viewership and attract new fans. While the first season enjoyed an average of 13.4 million viewers per episode in the U.S., the twenty-first season had an average of 7.2 million viewers. In an April 2006 interview, Matt Groening said, "I honestly don't see any end in sight. I think it's possible that the show will become too financially cumbersome... but right now, the show is creatively, I think, as good or better than it's ever been. The animation is incredibly detailed and imaginative, and the stories do things that we haven't done before. So creatively there's no reason to quit."


Other media
   Comic books   
   Numerous Simpson-related comic books have been released over the years. So far, nine comic book series have been published by Bongo Comics since 1993. The first comic strips based on The Simpsons appeared in 1991 in the magazine Simpsons Illustrated, which was a companion magazine to the show. The comic strips were popular and a one-shot comic book titled Simpsons Comics and Stories, containing four different stories, was released in 1993 for the fans. The book was a success and due to this, the creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening, and his companions Bill Morrison, Mike Rote, Steve Vance and Cindy Vance created the publishing company Bongo Comics. Issues of Simpsons Comics, Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror and Bart Simpson have been collected and reprinted in trade paperbacks in the United States by HarperCollins.       

    Film
    20th Century Fox, Gracie Films, and Film Roman produced The Simpsons Movie, an animated film that was released on July 27, 2007. The film was directed by long-time Simpsons producer David Silverman and written by a team of Simpsons writers comprising Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, George Meyer, Mike Reiss, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, David Mirkin, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, and Ian Maxtone-Graham. Production of the film occurred alongside continued writing of the series despite long-time claims by those involved in the show that a film would enter production only after the series had concluded. There had been talk of a possible feature-length Simpsons film ever since the early seasons of the series. James L. Brooks originally thought that the story of the episode "Kamp Krusty" was suitable for a film, but he encountered difficulties in trying to expand the script to feature-length. For a long time, difficulties such as lack of a suitable story and an already fully engaged crew of writers delayed the project.

   
    Music
    Collections of original music featured in the series have been released on the albums Songs in the Key of Springfield, Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons and The Simpsons: Testify. Several songs have been recorded with the purpose of a single or album release and have not been featured on the show. The album The Simpsons Sing the Blues was released in September 1990 and was a success, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200 and becoming certified 2x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The first single from the album was the pop rap song "Do the Bartman", performed by Nancy Cartwright and released on November 20, 1990. The song was written by Michael Jackson, although he did not receive any credit.


Conclusion    I chose the simpsons because is an interestant theme and is one of my favourites television series. I learned that the simpsons is the longest-run program in the USA and many contries because it has a lot of influence in people because they critice the problems and the culpture of society, from the point of view of a middle-class dysfuntional family in Springfield, in a funny way.
   My favourite character is homer: he is the father of the family, who works in a nuclear plant and, despite sometimes have problems with his wife and children, he always try to solutionate the problem and take care about the other member of the family.

Glosary

Animated- made by a computer to dive the appearance of moving in an animallike fashion.

Anniversary- the yearly recurrence of the date of a past event.

Broadcast- to transmit (programs) from a radio or television station.

Comic- magazine with comic strips, funny and laughable.

D’oh- action perceived as foolish or stupid.

Debut- the first appearance of something, as a new product.

Episode- any one of the separate productions that constitute a serial.

Issue- something that is printed or published and distributed, officially offered for sale or put into circulation.

Premiere- a first public performance or showing of a play, opera, film, etc.

Program- a radio or television performance or production.

Rating- a percentage indicating the number of listeners to or viewers of a specific program.

Season- a period of the year marked by certain conditions, activities; for example a televison serie.

Simpsons Time Line

15thof February 1954 – Matt Groening was born in Portland, Oregon.

1985 – His comic Life in Hell was added to the program Tracey Ullman Show.

1987 – Groening created The Simpsons for Tracey Ullman Show.

19th of April 1987 – Appeared for first time in television with “Good Night”.

1980 – The Simpson family changed physically as we know the nowadays.

17th December 1989 – It was issued the first Christmas Episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”.

1990 – The Simpsons made their debut, and passed to be a serie of half of hour.

1991 – Since the second season, every season begins with the Halloween Episode.

1993 – Groening created Bongo Comics (The Simpsons, Bartman, Itchy & Scratchy)

2000 – Groening created Futurama.

14th of January 2000 – The Simpsons was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

20th of May 2006 – It was put on the episode 400 “You Kent Always Say What You Want”.

26th and 27th of June 2007 – It was the premiere of The Simpsons Movie in the entire world.

27th of September 2009 – It begins the twenty-first season of The Simpsons.

26th of September 2010 – The twenty-second season started with the episode 467

Summary "the Simpsons"

   I choose this theme because The Simpsons is my favorite TV animated series and also because it has a strong influence among people, as far as it is the series which had been on air, (22 seasons): it criticize social problems as politics, religion, gay marriage, dugs, economic crisis and all thing people are interested in.

   The Simpsons were created by Matt Groening in1989, the series is about an American working-class lifestyle integrated by: Homer Simpson, the family guy who works to maintain his family and almost all the time he is drinking, eating, sleeping or wasting the time; Marge Simpson, the typical housewife who tries to have a perfect balance between housework, love to the family and free time; Bart Simpson, a ten years old child who is always looking for troubles and make fool in everyone he can; Lisa Simpson, the copy girl who always is searching to be the first in everything; and Maggie Simpson, the baby of the family.

   Some of the episodes are specials as Halloween, that present the beginning of each season, are a parody of the traditional Halloween stories, and Christmas episodes that shows us how the family and all Springfield pass Christmas, sometimes with some difficulties but always overcoming to the happiness. 

  The shows is so famous that it had achieved many prices including 27 Emmy Awards, the best television series in the twenty century, and maybe the most important its own star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  

   Furthermore, The Simpsons hasn’t stuck on television, since 1993 Matt Groening created Bongo Comics the characters live their adventures in paper, in 2007 it was the premiere of The Simpsons Movie, and in the whole world they have merchandise which promote the series.



Dialogue in simple past

JP- When did you come back to Mexico?
D- I arrived last weekend
JP- Did you go with someone?
D- Yes. I went with my friend Lorena.
JP- And how did you do in the United States?
L- Fine, fine. Actually we bought a lot of things.
JP- Really? Like that new jacket you were wearing yesterday?
L- Yes. Clothes in USA are cheaper than here.
JP- So you always buy your clothes in USA?
D- No.
L- We used to buy our clothes here in Mexico.
JP- What else did you buy?
D- I bought this new cell phone.
JP- Oh! Let me see it…