The family was first seen in the shorts on "The Tracey Ullman Show". The first short they were in was on April 19, 1987. Groening gave the animators simple sketches. He thought that the animators would make them look better. The animators only made the sketches have color. This made the family look very rough in the shorts. In 1989, a few production companies wanted to make "The Simpsons" its own 30 minute television show. The episodes would be shown on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Brooks put a statement in a contract that said Fox can not make changes to the episodes. Groening said that he wanted to give the audience something that was not "mainstream trash" (bad things that many people know). The show started on December 17, 1989 with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".