Simpson family

Creation

Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office. Brooks had asked Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts, which Groening initially intended to present as his Life in Hell series. However, when Groening realized that animating Life in Hell would require the rescinding of publication rights for his life's work, he chose another approach and formulated his version of a dysfunctional family. He named the characters after his own family members — his father Homer, his mother Margaret, and his younger sisters Lisa and Maggie. He substituted "Bart", an anagram of "brat", for his own name, and modeled the character after his older brother, Mark.

The five family members were given simple designs so that their facial emotions could easily be changed with almost no effort and so that they would be recognizable in silhouette. Groening submitted only basic sketches to the animators and assumed that the figures would be cleaned-up in production. However, the animators merely re-traced his drawings, which led to the crude appearance of the characters in the initial short episodes. The Simpson family made their debut on April 19, 1987 in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night". In 1989, the shorts were adapted into The Simpsons, a half-hour series airing on the Fox Broadcasting Company. The Simpson family remained the main characters on this new show.

Casting

Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, and Yeardley Smith all began voicing their characters on The Tracey Ullman Show. Nancy Cartwright was the only one of the group who had been trained to be a voice actor while Castellaneta had done some voice over work in Chicago. Castellaneta and Kavner had been part of the regular cast of The Tracey Ullman Show and voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask them to voice Homer and Marge rather than hire more actors. The producers decided to hold casting for the roles of Bart and Lisa. Yeardley Smith had initially been asked to audition for the role of Bart, but casting director Bonita Pietila believed her voice was too high. Smith later recalled, "I always sounded too much like a girl. I read two lines as Bart and they said, 'Thanks for coming!'" Smith was given the role of Lisa instead. On March 13, 1987, Nancy Cartwright went in to audition for the role of Lisa. After arriving at the audition, she found that Lisa was simply described as the "middle child" and at the time did not have much personality. Cartwright became more interested in the role of Bart who she found more fascinating because he was described as "devious, underachieving, school-hating, irreverent, [and] clever." Matt Groening let her try out for the part instead, and upon hearing her read, gave her the job on the spot.

Earliest known ancestors of the Simpson family

The earliest known Simpsons ancestry is revealed in the episode "The Color Yellow", this episode is significant for revealing the Simpson Family to have African American ancestry starting since the times of slavery. Although the episode doesn't specify if the Simpson family descendants of Eliza or Abraham.

Grampa Simpson parents / Homer Simpson grandparents

Grampa's parents both appear briefly in "Much Apu About Nothing" when Grampa tells the story of how his family emigrated to America. Their names were given to be Orville J. Simpson and Yuma Hickman in The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album, but have never been mentioned in the series. In the Season 25 episode "The Winter of His Content", Homer thinks that his grandfather is still alive, which means that Mona's father would be the one alive since Abe's father was seen in Heaven.

Sons:

Simpson-Olsen family / Homer Simpson Parents

This family was integrated

Grampa Simpson

Abraham Jay-Jedediah "Abe" Simpson (or just Grampa), voiced by Dan Castellaneta, is the patriarch of the Simpson family, the father of Homer. He is a World War II veteran who was later sent to the Springfield Retirement Castle by Homer. He is known for his borderline senility, his long rambling (and probably apocryphal) stories and his love of Matlock. He shares his name with one of Matt Groening's relatives, in this case his grandfather. However, Groening says he refused to name him, leaving it to other writers to choose a name. By coincidence, the writers chose the name Abraham.

Ex-wifes of Grampa Simpson:

Illegitimate children of Grampa Simpson:

Mona Simpson

Mona Penelope Simpson (née Olsen), voiced by Glenn Close, is Homer's long-lost mother and Abe's estranged first wife. Her first major appearance was in "Mother Simpson" where she reveals that she was forced to abandon her family after being caught up in the hippie movement and participated in various acts of activism. The writers used this episode as an opportunity to solve several little puzzles, such as where Lisa's intelligence came from. Prior to the seventh season, Mona Simpson had only made two brief flashback appearances, the first being season two's "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and the second being season six's "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" and in both episodes she was voiced by Maggie Roswell. Mona dies in the episode "Mona Leaves-a", as Homer struggles to come to terms with her death. The character is named after writer Richard Appel's wife, whose maiden name is Mona Simpson. Mona was designed in a way so that she has little bit of Homer in her face, such as the shape of her upper lip and her nose. There were several design changes because the directors were trying to make her an attractive older and younger woman, but still be Simpson-esque. Glenn Close recorded original material for another episode, season fifteen's "My Mother the Carjacker". Mona also has a speaking appearance in season ten's "D'oh-in in the Wind", this time voiced by Tress MacNeille.

Children of the Simpson-Olsen family

Simpsons-Bouvier family (The Simpsons main characters)

The Simpsons are a family who live in at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the town of Springfield in the United States. Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, a position at odds with his careless, buffoonish personality. He is married to Marge Simpson, a stereotypical American housewife and mother. They have three children: Bart, a ten-year-old troublemaker; Lisa, a precocious intelligent eight-year-old environmental activist; and Maggie, a baby who rarely speaks, but communicates by sucking on a pacifier. The family owns a dog, Santa's Little Helper, and a cat, Snowball II. Both pets have had starring roles in several seasons. Despite the passing of yearly milestones such as holidays or birthdays, the Simpsons do not physically age and still appear just as they did at the end of the 1980s. Although the family is dysfunctional, many episodes examine their relationships and bonds with each other and they are often shown to care about one another.

Homer Simpson

Homer Jay Simpson, voiced by Dan Castellaneta, is the protagonist of the show and the father of the Simpson family. He embodies several American working class stereotypes: he is crude, overweight, incompetent, clumsy, thoughtless and a borderline alcoholic. He has occasionally displayed flashes of great intellect and fitness whenever the situation calls for it, and an integrity reflecting his own values, including a fierce devotion to and protectiveness of his family. His voice started out as an impression of Walter Matthau but eventually evolved into a more robust voice during the second and third season of the half-hour show, allowing Homer to cover a fuller range of emotions. Homer has since become one of the most influential fictional characters and has been described by the UK newspaper The Sunday Times as the greatest comedic creation of modern time. He has inspired an entire line of merchandise, and his catchphrase, the annoyed grunt "D'oh!", has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary. During the production of the episode Insane Clown Poppy the writers toyed with the idea of giving Homer a long lost legitimate biological daughter, but when the shows showrunner and writer Mike Scully, as well as Matt Groening rejected the idea, the writers changed the story so the clown Krusty would be the one who finds he has a lost daughter.

Marjorie Simpson

Marjorie "Marge" Simpson (née Bouvier), voiced by Julie Kavner, is the well-meaning and extremely patient wife of Homer and mother of Bart, Lisa and Maggie. She often acts as the voice of reason, but displays exaggerated behavior traits of stereotypical mothers and takes the blatant dysfunctionality of her family for granted, unlike the other family members, who are aware that they are eccentric. Her most notable physical feature is her blue hair, styled into an improbably high beehive. Julie Kavner received a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 for voicing Marge in the episode "I Married Marge". For her performance in The Simpsons Movie, Kavner received a nomination for "Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature" at the 2007 Annie Awards, but lost to Ian Holm in Ratatouille. Kavner's emotional performance in the movie got positive reviews and one critic said she "gave what must be the most heartfelt performance ever". Part of Kavner's contract says that she will never have to promote The Simpsons on video because she does not want to "destroy the illusion for children". In 2008, CityNews published an article entitled "Top 10 Greatest TV Moms of All Time", and placed Marge in eighth spot.

Bart Simpson

Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson, voiced by Nancy Cartwright, is the eldest child and only son in the family—at age 10. Bart's most prominent character traits are his mischievousness, rebelliousness, disrespect for authority and sharp wit. During the first two seasons of The Simpsons, Bart was the show's main character. The name "Bart" is an anagram of the word "brat". Groening conceived Bart as an extreme version of the typical misbehaving child character, merging all of the extreme traits of characters such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn into one person. Groening's older brother Mark provided most of the inspiration for Bart. Bart's catchphrase "Eat My Shorts" was an ad-lib by Cartwright in one of the original table readings, harking back to an incident when she was at college. In 1998, Time magazine selected Bart as 46th of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, and the only fictional character to make the list. He had previously appeared on the cover of the December 31, 1990 edition. Bart is rebellious and frequently escapes without punishment, which lead some parents' groups and conservative spokespeople to believe he provided a poor role model for children. This prompted George H. W. Bush to rally, "We're going to keep trying to strengthen the American family. To make them more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons." Bart, and other Simpsons characters, have appeared in numerous television commercials for Nestlé's Butterfinger candy bars from 1990–2001, with the slogan "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!"

Lisa Simpson

Lisa Marie Simpson, voiced by Yeardley Smith, is the eldest daughter and middle child of the family. She is an extremely intelligent eight-year-old girl, one of the most intelligent characters on the show. Lisa's political convictions are generally socially liberal. She is a vegetarian, and a supporter of the Free Tibet movement, and while still supportive of the Christian church in which she was raised, Lisa became a practicing Buddhist following her decision to follow the Noble Eightfold Path. She is musically proficient on the saxophone; besides the occasional riff during the opening credit sequence Carole King's Jazzman and Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street have been prominently placed during episodes. In the Tracey Ullman Show shorts, Lisa was more of a "female Bart" and was equally mischievous. As the series progressed, Lisa began to develop into a more intelligent and more emotional character with "Krusty Gets Busted" being one of the first episodes where her true intelligence is fully shown. Many episodes focusing on Lisa have an emotional nature, the first one being "Moaning Lisa". The idea for the episode was pitched by James L. Brooks, who had wanted to do an emotional episode where Lisa is sad because the show had done a lot of "jokey episodes". In 2001 Lisa received a special "Board of Directors Ongoing Commitment Award" at the Environmental Media Awards. "Lisa the Vegetarian", an episode from the seventh season, won both an Environmental Media Award for "Best Television Episodic Comedy" and a Genesis Award for "Best Television Comedy Series, Ongoing Commitment". In Japan, the broadcasters of the series found they were able to turn the apparent viewer dislike of the series around by focusing marketing attention on Lisa. Lisa's well-intended but ill-fated struggles to be a voice of reason and a force of good in her family and city struck a chord with the Japanese.

Maggie Simpson

Margaret "Maggie" Evelyn Simpson, is the youngest of the five main family members and is almost always seen as a baby. She is 2 years old. She was quite prominent in the Tracey Ullman Show shorts, often being featured alongside Bart and Lisa but has since become the least seen and heard of the five main Simpsons. It has been revealed that Maggie has outstanding artistic and academic abilities, much like her sister Lisa. Maggie rarely speaks, but has been voiced by several different actors including Jodie Foster, Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones, Harry Shearer (who used his Kang voice), Yeardley Smith, and Nancy Cartwright.

Santa's Little Helper

Santa's Little Helper, voiced by Frank Welker and Dan Castellaneta, is the Simpsons' pet greyhound. He first appeared in the series premiere (1989 19th December) as a race dog adopted by Homer and Bart and has been in the series ever since.

Laddie

Laddie was a collie owned by the Simpson family in the episode "The Canine Mutiny". He joined the family after Bart managed to get a credit card issued to Santos L. Halper (a non-existent person whose name is a corruption of "Santa's Little Helper") and purchased him from a catalogue. Described in the catalogue as the ultimate dog, Laddie was able to perform household chores and use the toilet. Laddie currently resides with the Springfield Police Department after he incidentally sniffed out marijuana at a blind man's house and Bart gave up ownership.

Snowball

Snowball, also known as Snowball I, was the Simpsons' first cat. She was first mentioned in the series premiere in a Christmas letter Marge is writing where she explains that Snowball died that year and went to "kitty heaven". Snowball was named due to her white fur. Snowball was, according to Lisa in a poem, run over by a Chrysler belonging to Mayor Quimby's brother "Clovis". She is seen in flashback in the ninth season episode "Lisa's Sax".

Snowball II

Snowball II was the Simpson family's second cat. Although Snowball I had white fur, which inspired her name, Snowball II had black fur. She first appeared in the series premiere but has received little attention in the series. Snowball II and Santa's Little Helper have always been shown as having a good relationship; usually they are seen sleeping near each other. Snowball II's largest role is in the fourteenth season episode "Old Yeller Belly", in which she saves Homer from a burning treehouse. She also has minor roles in "Bart Gets an Elephant", where she tries to get attention; in "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds", in which she is scared by the many puppies; and in "Make Room for Lisa", in which Lisa has a hallucination where she becomes Snowball II. In the episode "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", Snowball II is hit and killed by Dr. Hibbert's Mercedes-Benz G500. After numerous fleeting replacements for Snowball II, the fifth (and last surviving) cat is named Snowball II by Lisa, in order both to avoid future confusions and to save more money on a first-hand food bowl.

Snowball III

Snowball III was the third cat owned by the Simpsons. Snowball III was a ginger male Persian cat. In "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", Lisa adopts him from an animal shelter shortly after the death of Snowball II. He drowns trying to catch a goldfish in an aquarium while Lisa is preparing his cat food in the kitchen for the first time.

Coltrane/Snowball IV

Coltrane was the Simpsons' fourth cat, adopted from an animal shelter shortly after the death of Snowball III. Lisa is not certain she wants another cat, but her other one has haunted her and Coltrane's name wins her over due to its resemblance of jazz musician John Coltrane's name. Upon bringing Coltrane home, Lisa decides to play him some of John Coltrane's music on her saxophone, but the noise frightens him and he commits suicide by jumping out the window. Coltrane was the Simpsons' only cat since Snowball I to have been white, although he was the only one not to be named Snowball. However, Lisa evidently considers him as part of the Snowball lineage, as she names her next cat Snowball V, implying that Coltrane was Snowball IV.

Snowball V (Snowball II)

Snowball V, later renamed Snowball II, is the Simpsons' fifth cat and is almost identical in appearance to Snowball II. In "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", the Crazy Cat Lady gives Lisa one of her cats while she is mourning the death of her other three cats that are killed in the episode. Lisa then tells the cat to leave, as any cat that she owns is unlucky and is certain to be killed. As the cat starts to cross Evergreen Terrace, a car driven by Gil Gunderson drives past. As Gil swerves to avoid hitting the cat, his car hits a tree and bursts into flames, thereby giving him insurance compensation for his meals. Since the cat is intact and whole, Lisa takes it as a sign of good luck and adopts her. Lisa renames Snowball V "Snowball II" at the end of the episode, in her words "to save money on a new dish", also promising to act as if the whole thing did not actually happen. Snowball V also is the focus of a subplot in the sixteenth season episode "The Seven-Beer Snitch", in which she becomes overweight after abandoning the Simpsons for brief periods to visit a different family but she then goes back to live with the Simpson family.

Plopper

Harry Plopper (a spoof of Harry Potter) is Homer Simpson's pet Pig

Chirpy Boy and Bart JR

Chirpy Boy and Bart JR were Bart's pet Lizards

Stampy

Stampy was an African Elephant briefly owned by the Simpson family in the episode "Bart Gets an Elephant".

Strangles

Strangles was a green python that Bart owned during the episode "Stop or My Dog Will Shoot", during which time Santa's Little Helper was a police dog. Strangles' current owner is Groundskeeper Willie. Bart named the snake Strangles while it was strangling Homer on the dinner table.

Pokey

Pokey was a Guinea pig and Lisa's first pet of her own. It appears in "The Simpsons: Tapped Out" and in the episode "The War of Art" where it destroyed the iconic artwork over the lounge.

Princess

In the episode "Lisa's Pony" Homer bought Lisa a pony to show her that he loves her but he has to work two jobs to keep her. When Lisa discovers this she gives up the pony.

Pinchy

Pinchy was Homer's pet lobster in "Lisa Gets an "A"". Homer went to the supermarket to buy a lobster that he could cook for dinner. Homer found that the big lobsters were too expensive, so he bought a smaller lobster with the intention of fattening him up, but he grew attached to the lobster and decided to keep him as a pet instead, naming him Pinchy. At the end of the episode, Homer puts Pinchy in a hot bath, but accidentally boils and kills him. Since his body is cooked, a sobbing Homer eats Pinchy's remains, saying that "That's what he would want".

Cousins

Bouvier Gurney family / Marge Simpson's parents

Clancy Bouvier and Jacqueline Bouvier had three children: the twins Patty and Selma, and Marge who is the youngest and married Homer Simpson.

Jacqueline Bouvier

Jacqueline Ingrid Bouvier (née Gurney), voiced by Julie Kavner, is the mother of Marge, Patty and Selma and the widow of Clancy Bouvier. She was first referenced in a flashback in the episode, "Moaning Lisa" and made her first appearance in the episode "Bart vs. Thanksgiving". She had a sister named Gladys, who is now deceased. Like all Bouvier women, she is voiced by Julie Kavner, and has large, unique hair, resembling Marge's, only a light gray color due to her old age. In her younger days she smoked heavily but now has quit, although she still speaks more raspily than Patty and Selma. Mr. Burns and Abe Simpson once battled for her affections; she became engaged to Burns, but eventually decided not to marry either man. Although it seems that she disapproves of Marge's marriage to Homer, stating that he is never to address her as "Mom", she has shown that she does tolerate Homer a lot more than her elder daughters, evident in "Moe Letter Blues" when she explained to Homer that Patty and Selma were really at fault for ruining her birthday party and not him. Her name is similar to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Clancy Bouvier

Clancy Bouvier, voiced by Harry Shearer, is the deceased father of Marge, Patty and Selma and the husband of Jacqueline Bouvier. His first appearance was in the episode "The Way We Was". He was kind and complimentary to teenage Homer when he arrived to pick up Marge for the prom, but after finding out that Artie Ziff was really her date remarked that Homer "took years off my life". In "Fear of Flying" it was revealed that he was one of the earliest male flight attendants; Marge initially believed he was a heroic pilot and was traumatized when she discovered he was a flight attendant instead. According to Marge in "Bart the Lover" after Clancy got out of the Navy, he had trouble with his cursing that nearly cost him a job as a baby photographer, but Jacqueline was able to curtail that by having him donate money to the swear jar. In the episode "Puffless", it is revealed that he died of lung cancer. While Clancy does not appear with the rest of the Bouvier family in "I Married Marge", he is shown to be still alive when Bart and Lisa were toddlers in the episode "Walking Big & Tall".

Patty and Selma Bouvier

Patty and Selma Bouvier, both voiced by Julie Kavner, are Marge's older twin sisters. They work at the Springfield Department of Motor Vehicles, and possess a strong dislike for their brother-in-law, Homer. Selma is the elder by two minutes, possesses a strong desire for family, and has been married and sought to have a child on numerous occasions. Her sister, Patty, is one of the show's few openly gay recurring characters although for the most part she has avoided relationships. Kavner voices them as characters "who suck the life out of everything". Kavner makes Patty's voice more masculine and a lower register, while Selma's voice is a little sweeter. The origins of their names are unknown — Matt Groening has a sister named Patty, but unlike the other Simpson relatives, this has not been explicitly revealed.

Selma's daughter:

Selma's ex-husbands:

Gladys Gurney

Gladys Gurney, voiced by Julie Kavner, is Marge's spinster aunt and the sister of Jacqueline. Her death was noted in the episode "Selma's Choice", in which she died of a bowel obstruction. Her final words to Patty and Selma during a video will is a plea that they not end their lives old and alone like herself, prompting Selma to become more intent on having a family.

Cousin Dot

Dot is the cousin of Marge, Patty and Selma. She gave Selma a video camera at her wedding to Sideshow Bob. This is the only time she is mentioned.

Uncle Lou

Lou is the uncle of Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier and Selma Bouvier . In Children of a Lesser Clod, Marge is called to identify Lou's body, which turns out to be a very much alive Hans Moleman. While Marge is identifying the body, Homer starts a daycare centre for local children.