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."
Dogtown (The Simpsons) Dogtown (The Simpsons) "Dogtown" is the twenty-second episode and season finale of the twenty-eighth season of the animated television series "The Simpsons", and the 618th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on May 21, 2017. This was the last of "The Simpsons" to be scored by composer Alf Clausen, who had scored the show since 1990 before being fired in August 2017. Homer is driving in his usual manner and style (ineptly and recklessly) when he carelessly drives into an alleyway, with no room to maneuver and faulty brakes, where Santa's Little Helper