"The Simpsons" is an animated television series produced by Gracie Films for Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Network. It began as a series of interstitals (also called bumpers or shorts) for "The Tracey Ullman Show" on April 19, 1987, and premiered as a series on December 17, 1989 in the 8PM time slot. Regular broadcasts began on Sundays beginning January 14, 1990. Seasons Two, Three, Four, and Five were broadcast by Fox on Thursday nights in the 8PM slot, before returning to Sunday nights beginning with Season Six.

Seasons One, Two, and Three were animated by Klasky-Csupo (pronounced "CLASS-key CHOOP-oh"), who also worked on "The Tracey Ullman Show" bumpers. Subsequent seasons have been animated by Film Roman, with in-between work being done for both animation houses by Akom Production Company, Anivision, and Rough Draft Studios in Korea.

The Simpson family was created in ~15 minutes while Matt Groening waited in the foyer to James L. Brooks' office, a long-standing legend confirmed in the Oprah Winfrey Interview by Groening himself.