Entertainment
The Simpsons Got Away With One Thing No Other Show Could
By Robert Scucci
| Published
The Simpsons is undeniably one of the greatest and most well-known cartoon sitcoms of all time, but the series we celebrate today was almost entirely scrapped by its producers before it even got off the ground. These days, when an animated series launches, it’s fully developed. Character quirks are established right out of the gate, the animation style is locked in, and the entire creative process is a well-oiled machine before a premiere hits the airwaves. The Simpsons, on the other hand, got off to a very rough start when it transitioned from a series of crude shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show to a full-blown animated sitcom.
Rife with continuity errors and wildly inconsistent animation, Season 1 of The Simpsons is a rough showcase of raw potential. It was so raw that the series was nearly canned due to a failure to launch on time, thanks to a disproportionate amount of behind-the-scenes chaos. Character design was all over the place. Barney had blonde hair, Moe and Milhouse had black hair, Smithers was a Black man, Mr. Burns’ office at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant looked completely different, and, most insane to think about, the episode that was supposed to kick off the entire series, “Some Enchanted Evening,” ended up airing as the season finale because the animation studio they outsourced to botched the job so badly that 70 percent of the episode had to be overhauled.
While the show seemed doomed from the start, we’re fortunate that Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, and Sam Simon stuck to their guns and stuck their necks out for the show that would eventually become the master template for adult animated series for decades to come.
Animation And Continuity Was Tragically Bad
Most long-running animated series go through some growing pains on the animation front, and that’s expected. As more efficient ways to produce a show materialize, animation becomes sharper, smoother, and more fluid.
The same can be said for live-action shows, as better shooting and lighting methods are implemented and budgets are opened up to allow for more sophisticated productions, making later seasons look far superior to earlier ones.
South Park is an excellent example of animation evolving over time. The show was originally produced in a stop-motion style with construction paper sets and characters. Once Trey Parker and Matt Stone figured out how to produce episodes using computers and editing software, the show’s aesthetic gradually improved into the style we’re familiar with today. That’s just show business, and every animated series, no matter how well-developed before premiering, will evolve visually to some degree.
For The Simpsons, though, it’s comical how inconsistent the animation is in Season 1. The original Simpsons shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show were animated by Klasky Csupo, with the process handled in-house. When The Simpsons was picked up as a series, animation duties were split across multiple studios as a cost-cutting measure because the show was the first of its kind and a massive creative risk for Fox at the time. As a result, character and background layouts were produced in Los Angeles, while coloring and filming were handled by AKOM, a South Korean animation studio.
When “Some Enchanted Evening” came back for test screenings at Gracie Films, James L. Brooks reportedly said, “This is sh*t,” the room cleared out, and the show’s future was suddenly in question. The premiere was delayed by months while the animation was reworked, and had the next completed episode been just as bad, the entire project may have been scrapped. Fortunately, “Bart the Genius” came back looking more refined, with only minor tweaks needed to get it ready for air.
The Christmas special, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” which was originally intended to air later in the run, ended up becoming the series premiere, creating a major continuity issue with the family dynamic. In this episode, Homer, down on his luck after losing his Christmas bonus, takes a side gig as a mall Santa and loses his meager paycheck at the dog track. He then adopts the losing greyhound, Santa’s Little Helper, presenting the dog to his family as both a new pet and a Christmas gift.
With the episode order scrambled and most of the season already in the can, we’re asked to ignore the fact that The Simpsons technically begins with the family adopting a dog, only for that dog to barely appear again until Episode 11, “The Crepes of Wrath,” and even then mostly in the background. Had the episodes been completed properly from the start and aired in their intended order, there would have been a clear progression. The Simpson family would have no dog, we’d spend most of a season with them, and then they’d adopt one who would become a regular presence.
Homer Wasn’t Always A Total Idiot
These days, it’s easy to forget that “Jerkass Homer” wasn’t always the default. Back in The Tracey Ullman Show days, Dan Castellaneta’s performance had more of a Walter Matthau influence. Homer came across as a wholesome father figure. He was dimwitted at times, but he could also serve as the voice of reason when in his element.
He wasn’t outright stupid. He was a lower-middle-class guy trying to do right by his family, but with clear blind spots. He didn’t know what he didn’t know. He wasn’t willfully ignorant, but he could be selfish in the way a lot of working-class dads are when they try to carve out a little peace for themselves in a chaotic household.
By Season 2, Homer was fatter, louder, and far less self-aware. The version of Homer we recognize today was starting to take shape, but he was still in an active stage of development as Castellaneta refined his vocal delivery, and the writers worked to shape him into a more complex character. Most of Homer’s early characterization came from The Tracey Ullman Show, which made sense in short bursts, but needed to be expanded once The Simpsons became a full sitcom.
What Could Have Been
If you own The Simpsons DVDs, you can find original footage from “Some Enchanted Evening,” and it’s clear that delaying its release was the right call. Roughly 70 percent of the episode was rewritten and reanimated, and if you look closely, you can still spot traces of the original version in what ultimately aired to over 14 million viewers. It’s a rough demo and a final master, all in one episode, and it’s jarring.
The finished episode plays like a confident introduction to the Simpson family. After heavy revisions, each character feels distinct enough to carry forward into future seasons. The strange reality, though, is that we only got that version because the original was bad enough to force a complete overhaul.
But show business is still a business. To keep the show alive, episodes had to air, intended order or not. Because of that, Season 1 doesn’t make much sense from a continuity, and sometimes, even a characterization standpoint. When you consider the alternative, it had to happen this way, or we probably wouldn’t still be talking about The Simpsons in 2026.
The Simpsons had a chaotic start, and Season 1 still holds up as a diamond in the rough. What’s more frustrating to think about is how many creators today will never get the same level of leeway. There are likely countless shows that never made it past a rough first pass because studios decided they weren’t worth the trouble.
There’s no denying that The Simpsons helped pave the way for shows like South Park and Family Guy to become household names, but it’s wild to think about how many missteps happened behind the scenes before the show truly hit its stride.
Entertainment
Instagram will stop recommending accounts that dont post original content
Serial Instagram reuploaders are about to be hit hard in the algorithm, as the platform announces new content ranking guidelines intended to boost original content creators.
Accounts that primarily aggregate content or repost others’ content without meaningful alterations or additions won’t be recommended to other users, Instagram explained in a recent Creators blog post. The platform announced the same algorithmic guidelines for Reels uploads in 2024. Now they’ll apply to photos and carousel posts, too.
“Original content” is defined as “work that you wholly created or reflects your unique perspective,” Instagram explains. That includes original photos and designs, as well as third-party content that is materially edited by the user. “Some examples include adding unique text on the content itself that provides more context than just describing what’s happening, adding creative graphics that offer new information, or using our remix feature to transform the original,” the blog post reads.
Mashable Light Speed
The platform recommends that accounts that frequently reshare content share other users’ posts to their stories, use the repost button, or enable collab posts to avoid being marked ineligible.
Aggregator accounts that are marked ineligible for recommendations under the new guidelines can regain their place in the feed by pivoting to original posts. Instagram says “most” of an account’s posts, carousels, and reels need to feature original content over a 30-day period to have the decision reversed. Users can also remove unoriginal content and appeal the decision.
Entertainment
Apple discontinues cheaper Mac Mini, now $799
Apple just axed its cheapest Mac Mini option, a compact 256GB desktop brain that previously cost Apple shoppers just $599.
First reported by MacRumors, the tech giant’s new lineup starts with the Mac Mini at the company’s $799, 512GB option. The more expensive model runs on Apple’s M4 chip and offers 16GB of RAM, just like the $599 model, but with twice the storage.
Mashable Light Speed
Last week, Apple paused orders of the then sold-out 256GB Mac Mini, hinting at a lineup change. Apple CEO Tim Cook — who recently announced his departure from the company after 14 years — said on a recent earnings call that Mac Mini supply was currently constrained under global manufacturing squeezes and that meeting existing demand may be difficult. Tech companies and AI enthusiasts are weathering a global memory chip shortage, which is expected to worsen over the next year.
Cook himself attributed an increase in Mac Mini orders to the device’s AI capabilities, with the Mac Mini now advertised for its Apple Intelligence processing power. Users have flocked to the portable computer amid a surge in interest in agentic AI after the launch of the open-source AI agent framework OpenClaw (previously known as both Moltbot and Clawdebot).
Entertainment
Iconic Star Trek Character Was Written So Badly, The Showrunner Intervened
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Here’s a story that dates me (hey, it’s not like anyone else was dating me at the time): I was a high school student when Star Trek: Voyager was on the air. I watched the show with the rest of my geeky friends, and we generally enjoyed the wacky adventures of Captain Janeway and her misfit crew. We also spent hours (and I mean hours) making fun of Neelix. He was the ship’s cook, but he might as well have been its mascot because he was always written as the broadest form of comic relief. Why, we wondered, did Star Trek go out of its way to make a new character such a butt-of-the-joke oaf?
As it turns out, Voyager showrunner Michael Piller shared those same concerns. When reading the script for the Season 2 episode “Twisted,” he began to worry that the writers were transforming Neelix into nothing more than “the buffoon of the ship.” That’s when Piller decided to take definitive action. He didn’t make Neelix into a deadly serious character, but he decided to do the next best thing. In the very next episode, he removed the character’s growing jealous streak that he rightly assumed viewers would absolutely hate.
Orange Man Bad
This all goes back to the most problematic thing about Neelix: his extremely underage girlfriend. In the Voyager premiere episode “Caretaker,” Neelix goes out of his way to save Kes, his Ocampan mate, and they both join Captain Janeway’s crew. Kes presents as an attractive young woman in her early ‘20s, but her species ages at a different rate than those of us here on Earth. She’s only one year old when she joins the crew (no, really!), and the writers had to take care not to present Neelix as the dirtiest old man in the Delta Quadrant.
That’s actually how Michael Piller’s concerns about Neelix began. The previous episode, “Elogium,” dealt with Kes’s mating drive activating years ahead of time, forcing her and Neelix to consider whether they were ready for children. While it’s bizarre enough to watch the weird orange alien try to figure out if he is ready to breed his one-year-old girlfriend, “Elogium” also made Neelix into a jealous figure. Specifically, he started thinking Tom Paris was being too friendly towards her and that the pilot was secretly trying to put the moves on Kes.
Jealousy, That Orange-Skinned Monster
When Piller read the script for “Twisted,” he became concerned about an early plot point in which the crew was celebrating Kes’s birthday (she had finally turned two). Neelix made her a cake, but Tom Paris gave her a locket. Once more, Neelix felt jealous of the hotshot human pilot. According to Captains’ Logs Supplemental – The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, Piller was “terribly concerned about Neelix.” He was “afraid we were going to destroy this character if we made him the buffoon of the ship. If all he is is comic relief, we’re in trouble.”
For better or for worse, Piller decided to focus on only one of the ways the writers had transformed Neelix into the comic relief: his jealousy. “The jealousy he was showing toward Kes was becoming irritating, so we wanted to put that to bed quickly,” he said. Accordingly, Piller made sure that “Parturition” (the episode that came directly after “Twisted”) killed this particular character conflict. That episode begins with Neelix and Paris having a fight over Kes, but then they are sent on a mission where they crash land on a hellish planet. They must fight for their survival and take care of a baby alien, ultimately becoming friends who never fight over Kes again.
It’s a heavy-handed fix, admittedly, but Michael Piller’s decision is one that Gene Roddenberry would have agreed with. The Star Trek creator never wanted his main characters to constantly bicker with one another, but Paris and Neelix were constantly fighting over Kes. Thanks to “Parturition,” Piller effectively killed the conflict that was driving these two characters apart. If you think that kept Neelix from being written as bad comic relief, though, I’ve got a whole shipload full of leola roots to sell you!
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