The Evolution of The Simpsons

It was just released yesterday that negotiations between the voice actors and studio of Fox's longest running, prime-time comedy, The Simpsons, had come to an end after a week of major discrepancies that led the public to believe the hit show was abruptly going to end. The actors were asked to take a 45% pay-cut and in response, claimed they could take a smaller pay-cut if they could have a share of the show's considerable profits. However, a deal was made and everyone's favorite dysfunctional family will be back for not one, but two more seasons.

This news got me thinking, if The Simpsons has been on the air for 23 seasons (and I don't watch the show enough to really take notice), the quality of Matt Groening's original animation must have changed drastically over the years. It wasn't until I looked up The Simpsons 1987 until I realized just how much the show has improved since its creation:



I also found this chart, that not only shows the improvement in the design, but also outlines the character development everyone but Maggie has gone through since the shows beginning.

Finally, I found this video that is seemingly unrelated, however I found it to be pretty interesting, not only because it offers an insight into Homer's life before his family (that we very rarely get a glimpse of on the show) but because I think it would be fun to make in after effects. I couldn't embed it without it telling me I had to download Adobe Flash, so I just put it up as a link.