Ay, Caramba! 167 ‘Simpsons’

The modern Stone Age family has been dethroned by Fox’s Nuclear Age fivesome. Tonight, “The Simpsons” will surpass “The Flintstones” as TV’s longest-running animated prime-time series, and it was no easy task. The ABC series’ record stood for more than 30 years. Although Matt Groening’s dysfunctional creation has become part of contemporary pop culture, “The Simpsons” began modestly. Groening was an animation novice known for the weekly comic strip “Life in Hell” when his irreverent residents of Springfield were introduced in vignettes on Fox’s “The Tracey Ullman Show” in 1987. The Simpsons graduated to their own series on Jan. 14, 1990, and the misadventures of lazy, balding slob Homer, his high-haired wife, Marge, their obnoxious, crafty underachiever son Bart, smart daughter Lisa and baby Maggie was one of the network’s first hits. “The Simpsons” also spawned the current renaissance of TV animation that has given us such shows as “Beavis and Butt-head.” So we asked the creative minds behind a few other cartoons to take pen (or mouse) in hand and mark the milestone.

SI Susan King