The show debuted after al-Iftar on October 4, 2005, the first night of Ramadan. The show overall had a poor reception. Fattouh said, "The show was not a big success. Otherwise, of course, we would have continued to do another season. I would say it was fairly received, but average. This made us reconsider". Poplak said, "That’s putting it mildly. MBC’s core viewers were baffled. From most accounts, the show was incoherent". The MBC show had a poor reception in the Saudi Arabian market, described by Poplak as "all-important". Cartoons in Saudi Arabia are perceived as being for children, and adults, puzzled at why cartoons were airing during the post-Iftar time, chose to watch other channels. Arabs who were fans of "The Simpsons" also had a negative reaction. As'ad AbuKhalil, a professor at California State University, Stanislaus and a blogger who operates the "Angry Arab News Service," () said that after he saw a promotional segment, "This is just beyond the pale[.]" and "It was just painful. ... The guy who played Homer Simpson was one of the most unfunny people I ever watched. Just drop the project, and air reruns of Tony Danza's show instead." Fattouh added "You see, culturally, it didn’t cross very well. Maybe the sense of humour is too North American. Comedy is especially a culturally sensitive matter. What you can define as funny is an outcome of learnings, habits, doings, local behaviour—it is the sum of so many factors. Drama is one thing, but with comedy, it is black and white. Deep inside, either you laugh or you say, ‘No, this is not funny.’ They did not think this was funny". As a result, only 34 of the 52 adapted episodes aired.