The Simpsons shorts The Simpsons shorts The Simpsons shorts are an American animated TV series of 48 one-minute shorts that ran on the variety television program "The Tracey Ullman Show" for three seasons, before the characters spun off into "The Simpsons", their own half-hour prime-time show. It features Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The series was created by Matt Groening, who designed the Simpson family and wrote many of the shorts. The shorts first aired on April 19, 1987 starting with "Good Night". The final short to air was "TV Simpsons", originally airing on May 14, 1989. "The Simpsons" later debuted on
The Simpsons (season 10) it "is not the last great 'Simpsons' season ever. The last great season was the eighth. The last really good season was the ninth. But the tenth is just pretty good, nothing more, nothing less." Mike Scully, who was show runner during seasons nine through twelve, is held responsible by many critics and fans for the decline. An op-ed in "Slate" by Chris Suellentrop argued that "The Simpsons" changed from a realistic show about family life into a typical cartoon when Scully was the show runner: "under Scully's tenure, "The Simpsons" became, well, a cartoon. Episodes that once would have