The 'Lost' Pilot of The Simpsons

Is there anything left to learn about The Simpsons? With more than three decades and hundreds of episodes on the air, the answer is a definitive yes. For example, how much do you know about the shorts that preceded the series? Why are the characters yellow? What was the original pilot? That last question is what brings us here. Some sites present it as the “lost pilot of The Simpsons”, but today we'll go a little deeper…

The 'Prehistory' of The Simpsons

The first episode of The Simpsons debuted on American television on December 17, 1989. However, it was not “the first in the franchise” for two reasons. On one hand, The Simpsons began their great television adventure with a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, aired by Fox between April 1987 and May 1990. The initial season of shorts ran from April to July 1987, with only seven episodes. The second increased the number to 22 episodes (September 1987 – May 1988), and in the third season the final 19 episodes (November 1988 – May 1989) were seen.

Six months later, The Simpsons definitively adopted the “half-hour format”, but the transition was not as easy as one might say. For example, Tracey Ullman sued Fox in 1992, seeking a share of the profits that the new series was generating (her expression was “I breastfed those little demons”). And before that, other details arose... which brings us to the second reason: The Simpsons pilot.

(Editor's note: The comments belong to Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, and David Silverman)

The (Not So) Lost Pilot of The Simpsons

What you just saw is a sample of the original version of Some Enchanted Evening, produced in 1987. The short lacks sound effects, and in some versions we can hear the voices of the main characters (one of them appears below). Some Enchanted Evening became the season finale (episode 13), but a not-so-popular detail is that it had been scheduled as the first episode of the series. Instead, what the public of the “new Simpsons” first saw in December 1989 was Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, also known as The Simpsons Christmas Special.

Why the change of order? The story tells us that the animation was handled by the studio Klasky-Csupo, the same one that had animated the original shorts. However, part of the production was transferred (for budget reasons) to the South Korean studio AKOM. The characters and backgrounds were made in Los Angeles, while the color and tweening were the responsibility of AKOM. Some Enchanted Evening was the first to arrive from Korea, and when James L. Brooks himself (executive producer) saw the animation of the pilot, his reaction was “This is crap”.

The Simpsons Pilot Almost Canceled the Series

The creators admitted several years later that they were willing to cancel the series if the second episode (Bart the Genius) had the same quality problems. Fortunately, that episode required minimal adjustments: The general solution was to delay the debut of the series, move Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire to the beginning, and send Some Enchanted Evening to the end, which would give enough time to fix the animation horrors. David Silverman confirmed that they had to rebuild 70 percent of the episode.

So... why do we say “not so lost”? It's simple: The Simpsons pilot is not something particularly rare in the universe of the series. It may be a novelty to many fans and sites, but the pilot was officially distributed on disc 3 of the DVD version of the first season. The most curious thing is that if we read the online comments, people seem to accept this chaotic and fluid style more than the “robotic animation” of current episodes. What do you think?