‘The Simpsons’ Milestones: 20 Years and 450 Episodes

‘The Simpsons’ 20 years ago

Matt Groening, "The Simpsons" creator. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

To some people, 20 years isn’t a long time. However, to 20- and 30-somethings, it is a long time indeed. And for sitcoms, it’s an incredibly long time. Sunday, “The Simpsons” will air its 450th episode, and last month marked its 20th year on the air. “The Simpsons” has been around longer than online payday loans. In fact, it has been around longer than the Internet.

I was just approaching 8 years old when “The Simpsons” first came out. Because my siblings and I were young and impressionable — and I think mostly because several of our neighbors did it — we were banned from watching “The Simpsons” when it first hit the airwaves. Back in 1989, “The Simpsons” was considered by many, especially religious types, to be risque.

Childhood memories of ‘The Simpsons’

The household “Simpsons” ban didn’t last long. Dad really liked the show, and there were no DVRs back then. We couldn’t even program our VCR to record something. Hence, my dad couldn’t watch the show without the possibility of his four kids watching it with him or at least catching him watching it.

My mom never cared what the neighbors thought in the first place, and it didn’t take long for my dad to decide the same thing. Long story short, my dad liked “The Simpsons” so much that he lifted the ban, knowing that this could lead to one of his kids saying “Don’t have a cow, man” to him or another authority figure. But that was a risk he was willing to take.

Coming up for “The Simpsons” 450th episode

Of course, the creators of “The Simpsons” couldn’t just glaze past 20 years and 450 episodes, and many others felt the same way. The 450th episode airs Sunday, and afterward Fox will play an hourlong documentary called “The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special in 3-D on Ice.”

Morgan Spurlock, the guy from “Super Size Me,” created the documentary. It seems appropriate that TV’s longest-running scripted nighttime series should get its own documentary.