Year The Simpsons Started ~repack~ May 2026

But the kids knew. The college students knew. Even some parents secretly knew: The Simpsons wasn’t mocking family—it was mocking everything. Consumerism, religion, network TV, marriage, work, school, the environment, and above all, itself. It was All in the Family drawn in canary yellow.

We did. And we’re still hungry.

Thirty-seven years later (as of 2026), The Simpsons is the longest-running primetime scripted series in history. But in that first season—1989—it was just a strange, lumpy experiment. A cartoon with a drunk dad, a blue-haired mom, a sax-playing middle child, and a baby who never talked but somehow stole every scene. year the simpsons started

But on December 17, 1989, after months of hype (“The Simpsons are coming!” read T-shirts and billboards), the Christmas special “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” aired. No one was killed. No nuclear meltdowns. Instead, Homer, desperate for Christmas cash, lost his bonus and ended up at a dog track. He bet on a losing greyhound named Santa’s Little Helper. The dog lost. Homer took him home anyway. But the kids knew

That Christmas of ’89, viewers got a present they didn’t know they wanted: a family more dysfunctional, more loving, and more human than anything else on television. And they’ve been watching ever since. And we’re still hungry

The Simpsons had arrived.

Here’s a short feature story on the year The Simpsons began—1989—and what that moment meant for television and culture. D’oh! The Year America Met Its First Family