Santa's Little Helper event; however, their plan fails and a drunk shark that's discovered at the event becomes the new mascot instead. Santa's Little Helper gladly returns to the Simpson family. Santa's Little Helper's initial appearance on "The Simpsons" was in the first episode of the series, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which aired on Dec. 17, 1989. Since then, he has become a recurring character. "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening told "TV Guide" in 2000 that "we [the staff] painted ourselves into a corner with our Christmas episode. Once we wrote the dog into the show, we were stuck with him."
Springfield (The Simpsons) legs, presumably some sort of insect or spider (or perhaps a mutated animal from the vicinity of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant), that was driven into extinction by its production. Places based on places shown in "The Simpsons" exist at Universal Studios Florida, including one based on Krusty Burger. Lard Lad Donuts is a donut store in Springfield. Its mascot is an (estimated) tall statue of a rather chubby boy proudly holding a donut over his head. The name and the statue of the eponymous boy are likely references to Big Boy Restaurants. In "The Simpsons Game", the Lard Lad