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 Spin-Off Showcase The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" is the twenty-fourth episode of the eighth season of "The Simpsons". It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 11, 1997. The episode centers on fictional pilot episodes of non-existent television series derived from "The Simpsons", and is a parody of the tendency of networks to spin off characters from a hit series. As such it includes references to many different TV series. The first fictional spin-off is "Chief Wiggum P.I.", a cop-dramedy featuring Chief Wiggum and Seymour Skinner. The second is "The Love-matic Grampa", a sitcom