TRAMvay 17
How Did It Start?
It might be very hard to believe but Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, started as a cartoonist drawing weekly comics to a newspaper called “Life in Hell”. When Matt Groening got a call from James Brooks it all changed. He wanted to do a short animation show of the comics. Groening changed and added some characters and got it ready.
An interesting fact is that the main character of the show Homer Simpson is actually Matt Groening’s fathers name. Margaret was his mothers name also but he thought Marge would fit better.
In the beginning Bart Simpson was the main character. However, after a few seasons Homer got more popular and became the new main character.
Nowadays, The Simpsons episodes are not only about the small family. There are many episodes featuring other characters. The Simpsons may have changed some little details but will remain on TV for a long time.
The Voices 
We got used to those Simpson voices so much. But do we know who are the people behind?
Dan Castelleneta is one of the actors who voices lots of characters on The Simpsons. He has won four Emmys for his voice over performance. He’s taking for characters like Homer Simpson, Grampa Abraham Simpson, Krusty the Clown and many others.
Nancy Cartwright voiced lots of characters in tv shows that we know like Rugrats but her only Emmy came from The Simpsons. It might sound weird when you know that the person who’s talking for Bart is actually a woman. Nancy Cartwright is the voice of Bart Simpson, Nelson Munts, Ralph Wiggum and a few others.
The other main characters are Julie Kavner: Marge Simpson, Yeardley Smith: Lisa Simpson, Harry Shearer: C. Montgomery Burns, Ned Flanders
Politics in The Simpsons
Politics is a very common theme in The Simpsons. The show made several criticisms on U.S Presidents, homophobia, drug and alcohol abuse, gun rights, environmental issues, election campaigns and other issues. These critics are sometimes very obvious but sometimes hard to see. You can see this from these quotes;
“Lisa, if you don’t like your job, you don’t strike: you just go in every day and do it really half assed. That’s the American way.” –Homer Simpson
Todd Flanders: “Daddy, what do taxes pay for?”
Ned Flanders: “Oh, why, everything! Policemen, trees, sunshine! And let’s not forget the folks who just don’t feel like working, God bless ’em!”
Bart Simpson: “Didn’t you wonder why you were getting checks for doing absolutely nothing?”
Grampa Simpson: “I figured because the democrats were in power again.”
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