The Simpsons

The most successful animated family in television history, the Simpsons were the brainchild of cartoonist Matt Groening, previously best known for his work on the weekly comic strip Life Is Hell. The Simpsons -- buffoonish father Homer, nervous mother Marge, juvenile delinquent son Bart, brainiac daughter Lisa, and toddler Maggie -- first appeared in brief "bumper" segments on the Fox network variety series The Tracey Ullman Show, later graduating to a 1989 Christmas special and finally, in 1990, their own weekly series. Based on Groening's own family -- ten-year-old Bart, the...