The Simpsons started in 1987 as a series of shorts and continued through 1989. As this was their birth, the characters are delightfully cruder than the more recent shows with pointier hair and features, etc.

Also, the introduction of characters such as Krusty the Clown happened only at the end of the last season of the Tracey Ullman Show.

The Simpsons segments proved so popular that in 1990, the Simpsons as we know them sprang into being. As most collectors know, the Simpsons recently celebrated their 200th episode and have recently surpassed the record-holding Flintstones in terms of number of episodes.

Did you know?
One episode costs about 1.5 million dollars.

The how is still done with traditional cel painting and it's one of the last shows to still do it that way.

One episode takes about 9 months to do it. They are working 7-8 episodes different episodes at same time.

The Simpsons is famous for current world issues. They are able to change jokes up to about week before the show airs even if actual episode is created 9 months ago. In terms of blackboard gags at the beginning of the show, those are usually done right before air time. They can write that day before it airs. It takes one day to record voices for the characters.

In Los Angeles about 100 animators work on the show. There are also about 120 animators who work for the show in South Korea.
Every episode contains over 25,000 drawings except early episodes which contain about half. It takes six months to animate it.