Question: When did the simpsons first air on television?
Disambiguated questions and answers: question: When did the Simpsons first air on television as an animated short on the Tracey Ullman Show?
When did the Simpsons first air as a half-hour prime time show?
answer: April 19, 1987
December 17, 1989
Natural Questions answer: December 17 , 1989 (from the Wikipedia article "The Simpsons")