The Simpsons

• All the Simpson family names come from creator Matt Groening's family except Bart, which is an anagram of Brat.
• Groening was originally going to pitch his Life in Hell comic strip as a show but he realised as he was sitting in the waiting room that if the show failed Fox would still have the rights, so he quickly scribbled the Simpson family characters onto a notepad, which explains the lack of creativity with the names.
• Abraham Simpson's name was decided by the writers without Groening, but coincidentally Abraham is Groening's grandfather's name.
• Many other names come from street names around Groening's hometown of Portland.
• Homer weighs about 230 pounds.
• Maggie's first and only word was guest voiced by Elizabeth Taylor.
• Marge and Homer have been married for 11 years.
• Marge's hair is modeled after how Groening saw his mother's hair when he was young.
• Bart's spiky hair cut is from a similar hair cut Groening had as a boy.
• Maggie's pacifier sucking noises were originally made by Groening.
• It takes 9 months to fully complete an episode.
• Twice a year all the writers go to a hotel and come up with ideas for the show.
• The episodes are drawn by about 100 animators in L.A. and about 100 in South Korea.
• The animation is drawn to fit the voices, rather than the more common tailoring the voices for the animation.
• 21 Simpsons staff members (past and present) graduated from Harvard.
• It takes 1 million dollars to produce an episode (not including the 350 thousand dollar pay check for six of the voice actors).
• 70% of episodes have religious content and 11% of the shows have a religous storyline.
• There have been so many guest stars on The Simpsons there are more guest stars than episodes.
• The Simpsons has provoked anger in Brazil, Australia, New Orleans, and even Bush Sr. and his wife (and that's before they ran an episode about the Bushes).
• Micheal Jackson voiced an insane character who thought he was Jacko in The Simpsons, but did not do the singing for the character.
• The Simpsons began life as a series of 30-second cartoons on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987.
• It is America's longest running prime time show and is also seen in another 60 countries, including most of Europe, Latin America and Asia.
• President George Bush blamed them for society's ills, famously claiming that American families should be less like The Simpsons and more like The Waltons, while First Lady Barbara Bush described the show as the "dumbest thing" she ever saw.
• Homer's middle name is Jay.
• Bart's middle name is Jo-Jo and his head was inspired by a paper bag. Bart is voiced by woman, Nancy Cartwright. The show was really going to be based 100% on Bart at first. Matt Groening picked the name Bart by rearranging the letters in the word brat. Bart is an anagram for "brat."
• Bumblebee guy's real name is Pedro.
• There are 121 Springfields in the US. Matt Groening picked the name for the city because it was so common and well-known. They are a blue collar family living in the average town of Springfield.
• The president of 20th Century Fox's licensing and merchandising arm, Al Ovadia, has said he believes most people in the US own a Bart Simpson T-shirt. In 1991, Bart topped the British charts with Do the Bartman which was written by Michael Jackson.
• On the opening of every episode Maggie is listed to cost $847.63 at the cash register. It's the same amount that raising a baby costs in a year in US.
• One episode takes about 9 months to do it. They are working 7-8 episodes different episodes at same time. One episode costs about 1.5 million dollars.
• In Los Angeles about 100 animators work on the show. Animator of The Simpsons uses soft pen to sketch the scenes. There are also about 120 animators who work for the show in South Korea.
• The "couch gag" sequence is frequently used to help show staff make the show longer or shorter, depending on the length of the episode itself. Most couch gags last only about five seconds, but the longest one on record lasted 46 seconds.
• An Adelaide brewery got into big trouble when it started manufacturing Duff beer, Homer's brew of choice. Fox, owners of The Simpsons, took the brewery to court in 1996 and forced them to stop making it.
• Around 2,000 people took part in the survey which decided that rather than having an incompetent in charge of the USA, they would like Homer Simpson to take the role.
• The Simpsons currently holds the Guinness Book of World Records titles for "Longest-running Primetime Animated Series" and "Most Celebrities Featured in an Animation Series."

The Simpsons do not age. Instead they are trapped in a hellish existence where they are perpetually the same age for all eternity. Bart will never graduate from the fourth grade, Lisa will never escape the confines of Springfield, and Maggie will forever remain mute. They will never die, but they will never truly live either.