Santa's Little Helper the dog was a "sympathetic" character. Welker has been praised by staff members for his performances on the show. David Mirkin has noted that "he can do anything, and it fits perfectly. You forget you're listening to a guy, and he's a pleasure to work with." Groening has commented that he was "unbelievably good" at doing animal noises. After 1995, Castellaneta voiced Santa's Little Helper on his own while Welker performed other animal noises until his full departure in 2002, when he was denied a pay raise. In the "questions and answers" section on his website, Welker revealed that the
The Simpsons longest-running sitcom (animated or live action) in the United States. In 2009, "The Simpsons" surpassed "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"s record of 435 episodes and is now recognized by "Guinness World Records" as the world's longest running sitcom (in terms of episode count). In October 2004, "Scooby-Doo" briefly overtook "The Simpsons" as the American animated show with the highest number of episodes (albeit under several different iterations). However, network executives in April 2005 again cancelled "Scooby-Doo", which finished with 371 episodes, and "The Simpsons" reclaimed the title with 378 episodes at the end of their seventeenth season. In May