The Simpsons creator confessed that the actual first episode of the cartoon was ‘buried’ because it was so bad, leaving everyone scrambling behind the scenes.
The hit series has been on our screens for nearly 35 years and first premiered on December 17, 1989, with a timely episode about how Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie were spending their Christmas.
Although Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire has gone down as a total classic, Matt Groening revealed that another instalment was meant to serve as the pilot, but had to be swapped at the very last minute.
During an appearance at the Simpsons panel at New York Comic Con, he recalled: ‘We were supposed to debut in the fall of 1989 and we got back the animation for the first episode, and it was so horrendous.
‘We lied to Fox and we said we hadn’t gotten the animation back. We delayed the premiere of the show from a fall premiere to December 17, 1989, and we debuted with a Christmas show.
‘We took that very first episode and we buried it until we made it airable.
‘It was quite dramatic in those months before the show actually came on.’
Shedding light on the last-minute replacement, he continued: ‘In fact, when we first watched the original animation for what was supposed to be the first episode, which was about the babysitter bandit – inspired by one of my babysitters, who, in the show became Miss Botzcowski.
‘I remember one of the other writers turning to me after we watched this horrendous animation, and said to me, “Your career is over!”
‘But again, we fixed it and the show debuted in December, and it turned out great that it was a Christmas episode.’
The episode in question, Some Enchanted Evening, eventually aired on May 13, 1990, and became the season one finale.
It focused on Homer and Marge calling in a babysitter so they can enjoy a fancy evening out, with Miss Botz turning up at Evergreen Terrace to take care of Bart, Lisa and Maggie.
Things take a wild turn when the youngsters discover that she’s actually the infamous burglar dubbed the Babysitter Bandit, and call the police to capture her – however, Homer unwittingly lets her leave just moments before officers arrive at the house.
Season 36 premiered last month but had a twist for us all when it was dubbed the ‘series finale’, with an animated Conan O’Brien declaring: ‘Well, it’s true. Fox has decided to end the Simpsons’.
While that was, thankfully, not actually true, showrunner Matt Selman recently shared some of his hopes for the actual final episode – which is definitely a long time away…
‘I just hope it’s just a regular episode with no Winky Winky stuff at all,’ he said in a new interview with People Magazine.
‘Just a great family story, just like a classic story that’s just funny and involves the whole family and doesn’t feel like it needs to wrap up anything or change anything or tie anything up or be magic or talk to the audience directly.’
He also vowed that they no longer need to go all out for the finale as the recent premiere basically took care of that.
‘We did that. We just did that,’ he added. ‘We covered it. Check that off the list.’
The Simpsons airs on Fox on Sundays.
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