Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons

From the very first season—starting in January 1990—each episode of “The Simpsons” begins with a joke that tens of millions of viewers miss despite hundreds of millions of views. When the series title drifts out from behind the clouds, you first only see the first half of the surname: “The Simps”; the second half appears a bit later.

Still don’t get it? In English, “Simps” means fools—slow-witted people—like the ones you’ll see in the show. But don’t worry: this isn’t the last joke you didn’t notice in “The Simpsons.” In this book, we’ll talk about all of them—and not only them. Marking thirty years since the first episode aired, it’s time to find out what everything started with. Whose idea was it to create a fictional town inhabited by yellow people? Who writes jokes and situations for the script that sometimes end up ahead of the future? What obstacles did the series face throughout its long 32-season television career?

These and many other questions will be answered by Mike Reiss—a screenwriter and producer who worked on “The Simpsons” since the very first episode. Learn everything about how your favorite show was created!