Longest running scripted primetime TV show, The Simpsons renewed for two more seasons.

Remember Quantum Leap with Scott Bakula & Dean Stockwell? Doesn’t it seem like an eon since that show was on the air? That sci-fi-drama series debuted on NBC in 1989.  And, three decades is actually a very long time in TV land.

The Simpsons also premiered in ’89. However, unlike Quantum Leap, Matt Groening’s animated sitcom is still running strong and it seems like only yesterday that I tuned in on the Monday before Christmas to watch the first episode—Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire on Fox.

Fox announced The Simpsons‘ renewal today during the Television Critics Association winter press tour. When the show wraps Season 32, the consistently-relevant sitcom will have produced a catalog of 713 episodes.

The Simpsons is the longest-running primetime scripted show in television history, having surpassed “Gunsmoke” during its 29th season.

Need additional context for the length of The Simpsons’ run? Think about this. In 1989, the year of The Simpsons premiere:

  • Nintendo began selling the Game Boy.
  • The 7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Francisco-Oakland area.
  • Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil off Alaska.
  • War of the Roses, Steel Magnolias, Field of Dreams, and Driving Miss Daisy opened, as did Weekend at Bernie’s.

Thanks to Gracie Films who in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television—and executive producers James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, and Al Jean—for the smart, insightful, and sometimes brilliantly sarcastic educational laughs.

Here’s to many, many more years of great fun. Cheers!

 

 

By Stephen Brockelman

As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services. _____________________________________________ A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back. In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.

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