page_title: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
section_title: Origin of The Simpsons
hierarchical_section_title: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire / Development / Origin of The Simpsons
caption_attribution_description: Matt Groening at the 2009 Comic Con in San Diego.
context_page_description: "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", titled onscreen as "The Simpsons Christmas Special", is the first syndicated episode of the American animated TV series The Simpsons. The TV special “The Simpsons Christmas Special” originally aired on December 17, 1989. Commercials for the series premiere ran during breaks for “The Simpsons Christmas Special”.
  In the episode, Bart gets a tattoo and Marge spends all the family's holiday budget having it removed. When Homer learns his mean boss is not giving employees Christmas bonuses, he takes a job as a shopping mall Santa, but fails to earn enough money for presents. After losing all his Santa earnings at a dog-racing track on Christmas Eve, Homer lets Bart keep Santa's Little Helper when the dog finishes last and is abandoned by its owner.
  The episode was written by Mimi Pond and directed by David Silverman. "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" was nominated for two Emmy Awards in 1990, and has received positive reviews from television critics. It was viewed by approximately 13.4 million viewers in its original airing.
context_section_description: The Simpsons creator Matt Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office. Brooks, the producer of the sketch comedy program The Tracey Ullman Show, wanted to use a series of animated shorts as bumpers between sketches. He 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.
  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. In 1989, a team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. 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" they were watching. The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".
caption: The Simpsons creator Matt Groening
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