The Simpsons: The Whole Truth and a Little Untruth from the Show's Longest-Running Writer

From the very first season, starting January 1990, each episode of “The Simpsons” begins with a joke that dozens of millions of viewers don’t notice despite hundreds of millions of views. When the show’s title emerges from the clouds, you first see only the first half of the surname—“The Simps”; the second part appears a bit later. Still not getting it? In English, “Simps” means simpletons—dull, not very bright citizens—like the ones you’ll see in the series. But don’t worry—it’s not the last joke you might miss in “The Simpsons.” We’ll talk about all of them and more in this book. Marking thirty years since the first episode aired on screen, it’s high time to find out how it all began. Whose idea was it to create a fictional city populated by yellow people? Who invents jokes and situations for the scripts that sometimes get ahead of the future? What obstacles did the show overcome in its long television career spanning 32 seasons? These and many other questions will be answered by Mike Reiss—a screenwriter and producer who worked on “The Simpsons” from the very first episode. Find out everything about the creation of your favorite show!