The Simpsons shorts

Television broadcast
German title	The Simpsons shorts
Original title	The Simpsons shorts
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Year (s)	1987-1989
Production company	20th Century Fox Gracie Films
length	about 2 minutes
Episodes	48 in 3 seasons ( list )
genre	Comedy, satire
Director	David Silverman
idea	Matt Groening
script	Matt Groening
First broadcast	April 19, 1987 on Fox
German-language first broadcast	March 9, 1992 on RTL plus
synchronization

The Simpsons Shorts ( English original title: The Simpsons shorts ) is a series of about one to two minute films that ran for three seasons from 1987 to 1989 on The Tracey Ullman Show , before its main characters, the Simpson family , a half-hour prime time -Series entitled The Simpsons (Eng. Title: The Simpsons ) was developed. It was developed by Matt Groening , who wrote many of the short films.

Five of these short films were later shown in the episode The 138th Episode, a special screening (season 7) in the half-hour series. These five were Goodnight , which was shown in its entirety, and parts of The Perfect Crime , In Space , World War 3 and Bath Time . In the 400th episode of the half-hour series, Das böse Wort (Season 18), the short film Family Portrait replaces the opening sequence , in the 616th episode In Search of Mr. Goodbart (Season 28) an excerpt from Gute Nacht is used at the point .

development

Matt Groening

The draftsman Matt Groening came up with the idea for the Simpsons in the vestibule of James L. Brooks' office . In 1985 he asked Groening to present him with one of his ideas in order to create a series of animated short films. Groening originally decided to show him his comic strip Life in Hell . But when he learned that he would lose the rights to this, he changed his mind and designed his own version of a dysfunctional family. So he drew the main characters within 15 minutes and named them after his own family members. Bart Simpson was modeled after his older brother Mark Groening, but with a different name that was an anagram of "Brat". The scripts and storyboards were mainly created by Groening. The characters were still very roughly drawn, as Groening gave the animators sketches in the hope that they would improve them. However, they merely paused them, which gave rise to the simple appearance of the characters in the short films. The animation was produced by Klasky Csupo ; Wesley Archer , David Silverman and Bill Kopp were the animators for the first season. After that, only Archer and Silverman were the authors. Colorist Gyorgyi Peluce was the person who decided to color the figures yellow.

The original speakers who dubbed the characters in the short films also did so later in the half-hour series. Dan Castellaneta dubbed Homer Simpson , Abraham Simpson and Krusty the clown's voices . Homer's voice sounds different in the short films than in most of the episodes of the later series. She was an exact imitation of the actor Walter Matthau , while she later appears more robust and humorous, which gives the character a wider range of emotions. Castellaneta was part of the cast of The Tracey Ullman Show and had done several dubbing with his wife Deb Lacusta. Since voiceovers were needed for the short films, producers asked Castellaneta and Julie Kavner to speak to Homer and Marge instead of hiring more actors. Nancy Cartwright and Yeardley Smith voiced Bart Simpson and Lisa Simpson . According to Cartwright, the recordings of the short films were often "primitive"; the dialogue was recorded on a portable tape recorder in an improvised studio that consisted of the video technician's room above the stands of The Tracey Ullman Show . While most of the characters in the short films have a similar personality compared to the later episodes, Lisa has changed a lot, as she is similar to Bart in the short films and later more intelligent than him. However, in the episode Punching Bag , Homer turns out to be quite a family tyrant who also pushes Marge around.

The short films were shown in her for the first three seasons of The Tracey Ullman Show . During its fourth and final season, the first season of the half-hour series The Simpsons was already on the air. In the first two seasons of the short films, they were usually divided into three or four parts; in the third season they were mostly a single part. In Germany , the short films were broadcast for the first time on the private broadcaster RTL in 1992 and featured Norbert Gastell as Homer, Elisabeth Volkmann as Marge, Sandra Schwittau as Bart, Sabine Bohlmann as Lisa, Walter Reichelt as Abraham and Hans-Rainer Müller as Krusty synchronized. Like the original speakers, they continued this later in the half-hour episodes.

synchronization

As with The Simpsons , the German-language dubbing was done by the Munich-based company Elan-Film under the direction of Siegfried Rabe . The voice actors of the main series were again obliged to speak their characters.

figure	Original speaker	Voice actor
Homer Simpson	Dan Castellaneta	Norbert Gastell
Marge Simpson	Julie Kavner	Elisabeth Volkmann
Bart Simpson	Nancy Cartwright	Sandra Schwittau
Lisa Simpson	Yeardley Smith	Sabine Bohlmann
Abraham "Grandpa" Simpson	Dan Castellaneta	Walter Reichelt

Episodes

season 1

No. ( total )	No. ( St. )	German title	Original title	First broadcast (USA)	German language first broadcast (DE)	Prod. Code
1	1	Good night	Goodnight* ***	Apr 19, 1987	17th Mar 1992	MG01
When Homer and Marge put their children to bed, their stories frighten them. Shortly thereafter, Homer and Marge are also lying in their bed and are disturbed by their children complaining about not being able to sleep, whereupon they go to their parents' bed and they all fall asleep.
2	2	watch TV	Watching TV	May 3, 1987	March 12 1992	MG02
Bart and Lisa argue on the sofa which channel to watch, but finally agree to keep their sister Maggie from switching.
3	3	Spring beard	Jumping beard	May 10, 1987	31 Mar 1992	MG03
Homer tells Bart to try jumping off a table into his arms. However, on several attempts, Homer is distracted by something each time, causing Bart to fall to the floor.
4th	4th	Maggie babysitting	Babysitting Maggie	May 31, 1987	10 Mar 1992	MG04
Bart and Lisa are supposed to play babysitting for Maggie while Marge is away. They ignore her, which is why she climbs to the roof, but is back when Marge comes back from shopping.
5	5	The pacifier	The Pacifier	June 21, 1987	19 Mar 1992	MG05
Bart and Lisa take Maggie's pacifier away to help her get rid of her addiction. But Maggie refuses to give up this habit and takes a new one from a drawer full of pacifiers. Finally Maggie gives her siblings a pacifier and they suck it.
6th	6th	Burp competition	Burping contest	June 28, 1987	9 Mar 1992	MG06
Bart and Lisa burp each other in a competition to see who can make the loudest ones. Marge forbids them several times until Homer comes home and lets the loudest go.
7th	7th	dinner	Dinner time	July 12, 1987	27 Mar 1992	MG07
Marge sits down with the family over dinner and tells them to behave. But when the family doesn't stick to it, Bart brings the TV to the table for some entertainment.

season 2

No. ( total )	No. ( St. )	German title	Original title	First broadcast (USA)	German language first broadcast (DE)
8th	1	Pull faces	Making faces	22 Sep 1987	27 Mar 1992
Marge warns the children that if they kept making faces, their face would stay that way forever. Still, the children kept making faces.
9	2	The funeral	The funeral	Oct. 4, 1987	June 10, 1993
The children behave improperly at Uncle Hubert's funeral. As a punishment, their parents threaten that they took them to a funeral for the last time.
10	3	What Maggie thinks	Maggie's Brain	Oct 11, 1987	31 Mar 1992
Bart and Lisa imagine what their little sister thinks while they gaze at her and play with her feet: the exact opposite of what the older siblings think, of course.
11	4th	football	football	Oct 18, 1987	13 Mar 1992
Bart is supposed to catch passes thrown by Homer with a football so that everyone can get a milkshake "as a reward". After several unsuccessful attempts, Bart catches the ball in his mouth, making drinking the shake difficult for him.
12	5	The house of cards	House of Cards	Oct 25, 1987	March 12 1992
Bart builds ever taller houses of cards, but they always collapse because he is disturbed by Lisa and Maggie.
13	6th	father and son	Bart and Homer's Dinner	Nov 1, 1987	9 Mar 1992
While Marge goes to the ballet with her daughters, Bart has to endure the mixture of fish nuggets and pork macaroni that his father serves him.
14th	7th	In space	Space Patrol *	Nov 8, 1987	9 Mar 1992
The children play like they're in space. Bart puts on a vase as a "helmet" and sticks in it. Lisa and Maggie are making fun of it.
15th	8th	The new haircut	Bart's haircut	Nov 15, 1987	July 10, 1993
Bart hides his long hair under a sombrero, Homer sends him to the hairdresser, who cuts him bald and gives him a lolly. (An allusion to Kojak .) Bart's attempt to glue the hair back on fails and the family laughs at him.
16	9	The 3rd world war	World War III *	Nov 22, 1987	June 10, 1993
Homer has set up a nuclear shelter in the basement and annoys the family with nightly evacuation exercises. Finally, Homer is roused from his sleep by Bart with a nuclear war alarm and locked in the bunker by the family.
17th	10	The perfect crime	The Perfect Crime *	Dec 13, 1987	June 10, 1993
Bart and Maggie are sitting in front of a tray of freshly baked cookies they are not allowed to eat. While Bart burns his hand, is caught several times by Marge and finally has to admit, lying on the floor with a stomachache, that the perfect crime doesn't exist, Maggie gets two cookies without being punished for it.
18th	11	Ghost stories	Scary Stories	Dec. 20, 1987	May 31, 1993
Bart tells his sisters scary stories in the dark. First he scares himself because he can't find the light switch, then Maggie chokes him in the dark and makes her sucking noises that Bart and Lisa think she is a vampire. Finally, all children are frightened by their parents entering.
19th	12	Grandpa and the kids	Grampa and the Kids	Jan. 10, 1988	Dec 17, 1992
Homer brings the children to his father, who tells them stories. Bart shoots a target with a ball and Grandpa fakes his death when the children's attention decreases.
20th	13	to go fishing	Gone Fishin '(Sort of)	Jan. 24, 1988	Dec 16, 1992
Bart forgot to wrap sandwiches for the fishing trip with Homer. That's why he improvises and hands his father two empty slices of bread with bait worms, which he also likes. Rapids and a waterfall also make for a less leisurely excursion.
21st	14th	go skateboarding	Skateboarding	Feb. 7, 1988	26th Mar 1992
Bart sees skateboarding as a purely men's business. Lisa and Maggie prove to him that they can do better than him.
22nd	15th	The heathen	The Pagans	Feb. 14, 1988	11th Mar 1992
The Simpsons drive to Sunday Mass. Bart and Lisa don't want that, they refer to their paganism, thank mother nature for a blown tire, organize a (successful) rain dance while Homer changes the wheel and finally flee to church before him.
23	16	The cupboard	Closeted	Feb 21, 1988	11th Mar 1992
Bart thinks Homer wants to drag him off to Sunday school and hides in the closet. The family goes to a café to drink chocolate milkshakes.
24	17th	In the aquarium	The aquarium	Feb 28, 1988	16. Mar. 1992
Homer goes to the aquarium with the kids. While he tries to explain everything to them, Bart prefers to go swimming - in the shark tank.
25th	18th	Family portrait	Family Portrait **	6th Mar 1988	July 11, 1993
Homer wants to take a family picture with the self-timer. But at first there is too little time, he obstructs Marge's picture, then everyone tenses up as they get closer. On the third attempt, Bart finally sabotages the recording by making faces.
26th	19th	Bart's hiccups	Bart's hiccups	13 Mar 1988	4th Sep 1993
Lisa wants to cure Bart of his hiccups with the help of Maggie, first with a horrible mixture, then with a dizzying treatment on the swivel chair, finally with a combination of these and by frightening him with a picture of Homer. It still doesn't work out that well, but Bart refuses to show it to them.
27	20th	Money, money, money	The Money Jar	20 Mar 1988	Apr 6, 1992
Bart and Lisa ask Marge for a pocket money advance. The mother refuses them and asks them not to plunder the jug with the change while she goes shopping. After Lisa has been disturbed by Maggie and Maggie by Bart in the theft, Bart finds out that the jug is practically empty anyway.
28	21st	In the museum	The Art Museum	May 1, 1988	30th Mar 1992
Marge is dragging her family to the art museum. After initial rejection, Homer and Bart take a liking to the naked women depicted, while Lisa almost knocks over a vase.
29	22nd	Zoo stories	Zoo story	May 8, 1988	Apr 9, 1992
The Simpsons watch a family of monkeys who look like them at the zoo. Homer teases the monkeys with peanuts and gets a load of dirt thrown in his face for it. Beard is forgotten by the monkeys; instead, his monkey counterpart drives along in the car.

season 3

No. ( total )	No. ( St. )	German title	Original title	First broadcast (USA)	German language first broadcast (DE)
30th	1	Family quarrel	Shut Up, Simpsons	Nov 6, 1988	Apr 2, 1992
While visiting Grandpa Simpson, this homer rebukes not being mad at the children. Then Lisa whines about Maggie, Bart works it for it, Homer attacks Bart about it, Grandpa hits Homer. Bart breaks the ice, everyone forgives each other, but in the end he provokes another argument with Homer and Grandpa.
31	2	Shell games	Shell Game	Nov 13, 1988	Apr 9, 1992
Lisa tells Bart that he ate cookies. He hides you under a bowl and distracts his parents with a shell game, but is finally defeated inside by Maggie, who eats the biscuit.
32	3	His own show	The Bart Simpson Show	Nov 20, 1988	Apr 30, 1992
The kids see Itchy & Scratchy . Homer doesn't want them to watch a violent show, so Bart does puppet shows instead. Since he's dismantling the television for this, Homer doesn't like that either.
33	4th	All just game	Punching bag	Nov 27, 1988	Apr 10, 1992
Since Bart works the sandbag a bit laxly while playing, Lisa paints Homer's head on it to motivate him. The noise of the sandbag gets on his nerves, he commands Marge, she should order the children to stop. She goes up there disgruntled, but prefers to use the sandbag herself.
34	5	Christmas	Simpson Christmas	Dec 18, 1988	Dec 2, 1992
Loosely based on A Visit from St. Nicholas ( Twas the Night Before Christmas ), Bart tells of his Christmas in rhymes.
35	6th	Krusty the clown	The Krusty the Clown Show	Jan. 15, 1989	Apr 3, 1992
The children are invited to the TV show by Krusty as a live audience. But reality disaffects Bart when he realizes that Krusty is an actor. He pulls off his clown nose and creates a commotion that Homer and Marge see on TV.
36	7th	hero of the day	Bart the Hero	Jan. 29, 1989	Apr 13, 1992
Bart happens to be involved in the arrest of a robber who raids candy shops. Homer is thrilled when he sees him live on TV and horrified when Bart tries to get the reward in candy.
37	8th	A beard story	Bart's Little Fantasy	Feb. 5, 1989	Apr 2, 1992
Have the children tidy up their room. Bart avoids it by preferring to tell a story to the others. For this he is sent by Homer to mow the lawn.
38	9	Fear and Loathing	Scary Movie	Feb 12, 1989	Apr 13, 1992
Bart, Lisa and Maggie go to the cinema together. Bart prevails in the choice of film, then is most frightened about the "space mutants" themselves.
39	10	hypnosis	Homer Hypnotism	Feb. 19, 1989	25 Sep 1993
Homer and Marge want to hypnotize their hyperactive children. Bart, Lisa and Maggie pretend to jump on it and turn into zombies. In this way they heal their parents from this plan for the future.
40	11	A shoplifting	Shoplifting	Feb. 26, 1989	Apr 15, 1992
Bart is caught shoplifting chocolate bars. He's plastering the evidence in the department store office. When he was not remorseful on the drive home with his parents and still bragged that he was being brought home for free, they abandoned him on the street.
41	12	The echo	Echo Canyon	March 12 1989	Apr 15, 1992
On an excursion, the comic reading children should get out of the car because of a lookout point. They are not interested in it, even if there is supposed to be an echo there. A dispute ensues between Homer and Bart, which is intensified by the echo. Marge is initially enthusiastic about it, when Lisa is unimpressed, Lisa, Maggie and also Marge begin to immerse themselves in comic books.
42	13	Bath time	Bathtime *	19 Mar 1989	Apr 7, 1992
Homer drags Bart into the bathtub against his will. The water is initially cold, but after Bart turns on the warm water, he likes the bathtub, but causes a flooding.
43	14th	His nightmare	Bart's Nightmare	26th Mar 1989	Apr 10, 1992
The whole family seems angry that Bart ate a whole can of cookies. His stomach is aching and he has nightmares about it. He is woken up by the family, who don't seem to be angry at all. Homer offers him a cookie and Bart is shocked about it.
44	15th	Wild children	Bart of the Jungle	Apr 16, 1989	Aug 14, 1993
Homer asks the kids who are frolicking around the house to play in the garden. They build a snare trap there, which Homer then climbs into.
45	16	Family therapy	Family Therapy	Apr 23, 1989	July 11, 1993
Homer lures the family to see a psychiatrist for family therapy. At first everyone is hostile to each other, but when the psychiatrist insults Bart, they begin to show solidarity with him, so that the family is thrown out by him and in the end everyone laughs together.
46	17th	Maggie in danger (part 1)	Maggie In Peril (Chapter One)	Apr 30, 1989	Dec 8, 1992
Bart and Lisa are supposed to take care of Maggie, but are absorbed in their comics. Bart kicks a ball from Maggie over the fence, she breaks out of her crawl space, pursues the ball on a skateboard, ends up in a sewer and finally falls down a waterfall.
47	18th	Maggie in danger (part 2)	Maggie In Peril (The Thrilling Conclusion)	May 7, 1989	Apr 8, 1992
Maggie comes out of the water on her skateboard, grabs a couple of helium balloons at the fair and ends up back in her crawl space with them unnoticed.
48	19th	The television family	TV Simpsons	May 14, 1989	Apr 8, 1992
The children fly a kite, it gets caught in the antenna and disturbs Homer while watching TV. He climbs on the roof, tears the kite apart and falls down.

* aired in the 138th episode The 138th episode, a special screening ( season 7 ).
** aired in the 400th episode The Bad Word ( season 18 ).
*** aired in the 616th episode In Search of Mr. Goodbart ( season 28 ).

See also

• Characters from The Simpsons
• The Simpsons (family)
• List of Simpsons episodes

Web links

• Entry Simpsons Shorts on Simpsonspedia.net
• Detailed episode guide on Die-Simpsons.org
• The Simpsons Shorts on Fernsehserien.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Yellow rules the world. In: Spiegel Online . Retrieved June 5, 2012 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} The Simpsons - Background. In: ProSieben .de. Retrieved June 9, 2012 . 
3. ^ David Bianculli: Simpson's Creator Matt Groening. In: National Public Radio. February 14, 2003, accessed August 9, 2011 (English, audio interview with Matt Groening). 
4. ^ Alan Paul: Matt Groening (interview), Flux Magazine Issue # 6. September 30, 1987. 
5. ^ ^{A b c} Cagle, Daryl: The David Silverman Interview . MSNBC. Archived from the original on June 7, 2008. Retrieved December 29, 2006.
6. ↑ Harvey Deneroff: Matt Groening's Baby Turns 10 , Animation Magazine, Vol. 14, # 1. January 2000, pp. 10, 12. 
7. ^ ^{A b} Ray Richmond, Antonia Coffman: The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family . Harper Collins Publishers, 1997, ISBN 0-00-638898-1 , p. 178.
8. ↑ Luaine Lee: D'oh, you're the voices , The Age. February 27, 2003. Retrieved August 18, 2007. 
9. ↑ Lynn Elber: D'oh !: The Voice of Homer Is Deceivingly Deadpan , Associated Press . August 18, 2007. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 29, 2007.  
10. ^ Nancy Cartwright: My Life as a Ten Year Old Boy . Bloomsbury, 2000, ISBN 0-7475-4748-3 , pp. 43-46.
11. ^ ^{A b} Ray Richmond, Antonia Coffman: The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family . Harper Collins Publishers, 1997, ISBN 0-00-638898-1 , pp. 14-15.
12. ↑ The Tracey Ullman Show: About the TV series. In: fernsehserien.de. Retrieved June 5, 2012 . 
13. ↑ The Simpsons. In: German synchronous card index . Archived from the original on August 25, 2012 ; Retrieved September 9, 2012 . 
14. ↑ Production code : Shortsguide. In: simpsonspedia.net. Retrieved April 18, 2012 .