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There is one show that bucks all of the trends, though, by speeding past every exit ramp that it sees. In fact, 2025 marks its 36th year on the air, which is no small feat in the modern TV landscape. While it has one advantage that most other sitcoms don’t, that hasn’t stopped it from lapping the competition time and time again with its unique stories and great humor.
It’s Been Almost Four Decades Since TV Changed Forever
Variety shows used to be all the rage back in the day because they entertained their audiences in a multitude of ways. The Tracey Ullman Show was among the best, and it owed a lot of its success to producer James L. Brooks, who was never afraid to take risks. In 1987, Brooks reached out to cartoonist Matt Groening, best known at the time for his comic strip Life in Hell, wanting to see if he would be interested in creating animated shorts for his show. Groening jumped at the oppurtunity and created the Simpson family, which made its TV debut on April 19, 1987. It took a couple of years for the rest of the industry to wise up, but eventually the good people over at Fox agreed to take Groening’s idea and turn it into a series called The Simpsons.
“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” which aired on December 17, 1989, follows the titular family as they go shopping at Christmastime. Unfortunately, Homer Simpson can’t buy as many presents as he would like for his wife and kids because he’s not getting his annual bonus. To try to make money quickly, he takes his son, Bart, to a dog racing track and bets big on a dog named Santa’s Little Helper. In typical sitcom fashion, the animal loses, leaving Homer between a rock and a hard place. However, Bart informs his father that bringing Santa’s Little Helper home would be the best gift of all, which cheers the patriarch up. The Simpsons‘ first episode doesn’t have too many bells or whistles, but it doubles down on the series’ core theme: family, which continues to keep the ship afloat to this day.
