History of The Simpsons Simpson, Abraham Simpson, and Krusty the Clown. Homer's voice in the shorts is a loose impression of Walter Matthau, whereas it became more robust and humorous on the half-hour show, allowing Homer to cover a fuller range of emotions. Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, and Yeardley Smith performed the voices of Marge Simpson, Bart Simpson, and Lisa Simpson respectively. The crew began to string the clips together on tape to play for the show's live audience, and "The Simpsons" generated "the biggest laughs of the show" according to John Ortved, author of "". The writing staff of "Ullman" soon began to
The Simpsons shorts December 17, 1989, as an independent series with the Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". One marketing study found that only 14 percent of Americans were familiar with the shorts, compared to 85 percent in November 1990 who were familiar with the Simpsons family, 11 months after the full-length show began airing. Only a few of these shorts have been released on DVD. "Good Night" was included on "The Simpsons" Season 1 DVD. Five of these shorts were later used in the clip-show episode "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" on the half-hour show, which was released on the