The Simpsons, The Most Influential TV Show In History, Turns 25 Today

Pop culture can have a tremendous impact on a person, the kind of impact one can't fully comprehend right away. That's The Simpsons for me, a show whose first episode (Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire) aired today twenty-five years ago. Yep, it's been a quarter of century since that yellow clan entered our lives, and it's truly unimaginable to think of a world without this wonderful family.

However, the show was a massive risk at it's start. An animated show in prime-time was thought to be a recipe for disaster, but the show touched a chord with audiences back then just as it does today. It managed to simultaneously show a world filled with gags and truth; the situations The Simpsons found themselves in very rarely wound up having happy, tidy endings. Death, religion, marital problems; common factors in the real world found their way into The Simpsons in incredible ways.

By having such entities enter the realm of Homer and Marge Simpson, The Simpsons manage to be more thoughtful than it's creators could have ever imagined. But writers like George Myers and John Swartzwelder also gave The Simpsons jokes and quotes that never fail to make me laugh. "Everything's coming up Milhouse!", "Hmmmm...[insert food here]", "Okily-dokily!"....what phrase from the show hasn't entered my everyday life?

Looking at how much The Simpsons has influenced my sense of humor and daily lexicon is extraordinary. My wonder over that feat is only outsized by the accomplishments The Simpsons has made as a cultural institution. I have no idea if the show will ever end (I kinda don't want it to, since recent seasons manage to come up with a surprisingly large amount of quality episodes), but even when it inevitably concludes, the kind of perfection The Simpsons has crafted as a show will never wither away.