The Simpsons’ pilot episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, wasn’t the series’ original first episode – here’s what happened. Created by Matt Groening, The Simpsons began as a series of animated shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show, and after three seasons, it was developed into a half-hour prime time show, making its official debut on Fox in 1989. Since then, The Simpsons has become the longest-running American sitcom and has expanded to other media as well, and shows no signs of stopping soon.
The Simpsons follows the daily lives of the title family and their closest friends (and enemies) in the fictional town of Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, a Christmas episode that served as the audience’s introduction to this peculiar family, though that wasn’t the original plan.
“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” (also known as “The Simpsons Christmas Special”, as it’s the onscreen title of the episode), follows the family as they prepare for Christmas, but things don’t go as they hope: The Simpsons had another episode planned as the pilot one, but due to production issues, it had to be pushed back.
Season 1’s finale, “Some Enchanted Evening”, was going to be The Simpsons’ pilot episode, but the crew encountered a lot of obstacles during production, as due to budget restrictions, the background layout of the episodes was done in Los Angeles, while coloring and filming were done by AKOM, a South Korean animation studio. This resulted in poor animation quality and lots of mistakes, which didn’t fit the style the production team had envisioned for the show. The producers then asked Fox to delay The Simpsons’ premiere for a couple of months, and by the time the show was supposed to debut (for real this time), it was late December and so having a Christmas-themed episode as pilot felt more appropriate. As “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” was the eighth episode produced, its animation, the personalities of the characters, and overall quality are a lot more developed and polished than in subsequent episodes, especially “Some Enchanted Evening”.
Everything worked out perfectly for The Simpsons, as “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” is now a fan-favorite and did a great job in introducing its characters precisely because it was the eighth episode produced. While “Some Enchanted Evening” is not bad, it didn’t receive the same praise as “The Simpsons Christmas Special”, and it might have hurt the show in its early stages had it been used as a pilot episode, though it surely would have won the audience over anyway with its subsequent episodes.