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"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" was viewed by approximately 13.4 million people in its original airing, and was nominated for two Emmy Awards in 1990. Since its release on home video, the episode has received positive reviews from critics.
The Simpsons has won 36 Primetime Emmy Awards in four categories, but has been nominated for 79 awards in nine different categories. Two of these nominations were for " Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire ", which was nominated in 1990 as a separate cartoon because officially it is considered a TV special and not a part of the series, however it ...
YearCategoryNomineeResult2022Best Mature Audience Animated ...Nominated2017Directing in an Animated ...Timothy Bailey for "Treehouse of Horror ...Nominated2016Writing in an Animated Television or ...Rob LaZebnik for "The Burns Cage"Nominated2016Writing in an Animated Television or ...Dan Greaney for "Barthood"Nominated- Overview
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―Bart Simpson
"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special") is the first episode of Season 1 of The Simpsons, as well as the series premiere/pilot episode of the series. It is the show's only episode to be aired in the 1980s. (Minus the original shorts.)
When Mr. Burns announces that none of the workers will be getting Christmas bonuses and Marge reveals that she spent the extra Christmas gift money on getting Bart's "Mother" tattoo removed, Homer keeps his lack of funds for the holidays a secret and gets a job as a mall Santa.
Homer hastily drives the Family Sedan with Marge and Maggie through a snow-covered street. They are late for Bart and Lisa's Christmas pageant at Springfield Elementary School. After crashing into a pile of snow at the front of Springfield Elementary School park, Homer and Marge stumble through a full audience to find their seats. Homer and Marge sit down just in time to see Principal Skinner introduce the second grade. The children do a presentation of different Santa Clauses from around the world such as Ralph Wiggum as Hotei Oshō. Dewey Largo introduces Lisa, playing Tawanga, the Santa Claus of the South Seas. Lisa’s dance causes awe throughout the crowd. Lisa performs a skilled dance with lit torches, performing tricks such as throwing it around herself – Lisa also wears see-through clothing, effectively ‘revealing' Lisa completely at the end of her act. Skinner eventually introduces the fourth grade singing Christmas carols. Jingle Bells is sung first and after the first verse, Bart picks up his voice volume during the chorus and sings a Batman-themed parody, causing an irate Skinner to withdraw Bart from the performance. Homer gives a disappointed look for Bart's actions, but as the pageant continues, he grows bored and wonders aloud how long the pageant will last.
At the Simpson family home, Marge writes a letter for the Simpson family Christmas cards, as Homer gets out Christmas decorations, and Bart and Lisa write their Christmas wish lists. In the letter, Marge describes family life. As she reads the letter, Marge's narration describes her writing, the camera pans around to the different family members as she mentions their names and stories. Marge soon stops writing, due to Homer's grumpy demeanor. Bart and Lisa show Marge their wish lists; Marge is uncomfortable when Lisa once again asks for a pony for Christmas, but Lisa remains optimistic about her present request. Marge plans to read Bart's letter to Santa, hoping he would be a bit more reasonable. However, he proves to be the same as Lisa when he asks for a tattoo, which escalates into a debate among Homer, Marge, and Bart. Homer and Marge quickly refuse to let Bart have one regardless. They are interrupted by a phone call; Homer answers to Patty who refuses to speak with him, requesting Marge; a grumbling Homer hands the phone over to Marge and the two sisters discuss their plans, Christmas Eve—the sisters also find time to criticize Marge's choice in a husband.
Homer is outside adding the finishing touches to the Christmas lights on the roof, while the three children watch. Homer falls from the roof, lands in the snow, and calls out to Marge to power the lights. Only a few of the lights actually light up, and Homer admires his handy work, while the kids are less than impressed. Ned Flanders is also outside, along with Todd Flanders, and ready to plug in his lights for the first time; he calls out to Homer and tells him to admire his superiority. As he plugs the lights in, the entire Flanders house lights up, including a talking Santa Claus on the roof. The lights illuminate everyone's faces and much to Homer's dismay; his kids are very impressed at Ned's display of lights, yet Homer still manages to criticize Ned's work obviously jealous over the fact Ned's display is better than his own.
Marge tells the kids to grab their money so they can go Christmas shopping at the Springfield Mall. As the excited kids run off to get their money, Homer asks Marge where she has been keeping the Christmas savings. She makes him turn around and she pulls a jar out of her hair. It is a very large jar full of money, impressing Homer. Later at the mall, Marge, Lisa, and Maggie look at gifts together; Bart is off by himself and comes across The Happy Sailor Tattoo Parlor. In the window, he sees a tattoo of a heart with the word “mother” written across it. He imagines that Marge will have a positive reaction to him getting a tattoo, so he runs inside the parlor, gives false information to the tattoo artist Mervin Monroe about his age, and gets into the chair.
At the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Mr. Burns, the plant's owner, and rightful boss announces over the loudspeaker that there will not be any Christmas bonuses this year for unskilled workers, including Homer. Homer sighs as he remembers they still have the big jar full of money for Christmas presents. Back at the mall, Marge hears Bart's yells of pain coming from inside the tattoo parlor and she quickly runs inside to see Bart with the heart tattoo practically finished on his arm. She quickly pulls him out of the chair and takes him to Dr. Zitsofsky's Dermatology Clinic, Bart insists that he actually thought she'd like it. The tattoo removal is expensive but doable and requires a full cash payment up front. Marge decides to use all the Christmas money for Bart's tattoo removal; although unhappy, she assumes Homer's Christmas bonus will cover future costs. Bart then undergoes a “James Bond”-style operation. Back at home, Lisa tells Homer what has happened and Homer freaks out. Marge tells him to calm down, and that they will just have to stretch his Christmas bonus further for the year. Homer fakes relief when Marge mentions his bonus; he tells everyone that this will be the best Christmas ever and steps outside for a walk, choosing to conceal the truth. Once outside, he looks at his poorly decorated house and then at Flanders' masterpiece. A depressed Homer hangs his head in despair on the sidewalk.
Marge senses something is amiss with Homer and asks if there is something wrong. Homer almost tells her the truth about his Christmas bonus, but quickly backpedals and instead offers to do the Christmas shopping so she doesn't have to. Marge agrees and is content with Homer's answer; the two sleep. The next day, Homer does the Christmas shopping alone at Circus of Values. He purchases pantyhose for Marge, pads of paper for Bart and a squeaky chew toy for Maggie. While purchasing such dismal presents, Homer uses empty optimism to assure his own self. On his way out the door with his bag of presents, Homer accidentally crashes into Ned and Todd, while he carries an armful of fancily wrapped packages. All the presents are spilled onto the ground, and as Homer picks the few he purchased and sees how many Ned bought, Ned attempts to sort the presents, unintentionally gloating his wealth. At Moe's Tavern, Homer drinks a beer alone, when a cheerful Barney arrives wearing a Santa Claus costume. Barney explains that he is in a good mood because he has extra money from working a part-time job acting as a department store Santa at the mall. Homer suddenly has an idea, so he goes to the personnel office in the mall, where he fills out an application and is interviewed to be a mall Santa. After he finishes reviewing Homer's application, as well as interviewing him, the personnel director welcomes Homer aboard and sends him to mall Santa training. A montage of Homer enduring Santa training ensues, with the Hypnotist as the teacher.
•The Simpsons Theme (Christmas Version) - ?
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire/Transcript
creator Matt Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Brooks, the producer of the sketch comedy program The Tracey Ullman Show, wanted to use a series of animated shorts as bumpers between sketches. He had asked Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts, which Groening initially intended to present as his Life in Hell series. However, when Groening realized that animating Life in Hell would require the rescinding of publication rights for his life's work, he chose another approach and formulated his version of a dysfunctional family.
The Simpson family first appeared as shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. Groening submitted only basic sketches to the animators and assumed that the figures would be cleaned up in production. However, the animators merely retraced his drawings, which led to the crude appearance of the characters in the initial short episodes. In 1989, a team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he had called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching. The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".
Production
Fox was very nervous about the show because they were unsure if it could sustain the audience's attention for the duration of the episode. In the end, they gambled by asking for 13 full-length episodes. The series was originally planned to premiere in the fall of 1989, but due to major problems with the animation of "Some Enchanted Evening" (the first Simpsons episode produced), the series instead began on December 17, 1989, with "Some Enchanted Evening" instead aired as the season finale. The episode, being the first to air, lacked the now famous opening sequence, which was later added in the second episode when Groening thought of the idea of a longer opening sequence resulting in less animation. The "Santas of many lands" portion of the Christmas pageant is based on Matt Groening's experience in the second grade when he did a report on Christmas in Russia. Groening also used that reference in his strip "Life in Hell" when he spoofed himself as a young man, being told that it is too bad his grandmother is from Russia because Christmas is against the law there. Also, Matt Groening claims that this episode has been incorrectly credited with creating the "alternate version" of Jingle Bells. The episode was written by Mimi Pond. David Silverman directed this episode, although Rich Moore storyboarded it and designed Flanders. Several of the scenes were laid out by Eric Stefani, brother of Gwen Stefani. In this episode, Barney had yellow hair which was the same color as his skin, but that was later dropped because of the belief that only the Simpson family should have such hair. There are also many other major differences in appearances throughout the episode, including Moe, Moe's Tavern and Ralph Wiggum.
First Appearances
The episode also marks the first appearances of Moe, Barney, Patty and Selma, Abe Simpson, Ned and Todd Flanders, Milhouse Van Houten, Lewis, Seymour Skinner, Sherri and Terri, Wendell Borton, Mr. Burns, Dewey Largo, Ralph Wiggum, Santa's Little Helper, Snowball II and Santa's Little Helper's original owner. Snowball I is mentioned for the first time and Waylon Smithers is heard for the first time.
Reception
The episode was nominated for two Emmy Awards in 1990: "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour)" and "Outstanding Editing for a Miniseries or Special". Because "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" is considered to be a separate special, The Simpsons was nominated twice in the Animated Program category; the episode lost to the fellow episode "Life on the Fast Lane". Since the first airing, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire has received mostly positive criticism. The authors of "I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide" commented positively of the episode: "pretty standard early fare, with the series not quite hitting its stride". "The Realism of the first season is much apparent, with only the laser used to remove Bart's tattoo hinting at what the series will become." In its original broadcast, the episode finished thirtieth in the week of December 11–17, 1989. It concluded with a Nielsen rating of 14.5 and was viewed in approximately 13.4 million homes.
"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards. However, it lost to " Life on the Fast Lane ". [3] It was also nominated for an award in "Outstanding Editing for a Miniseries or Special", but lost to Caroline?
- December 17, 1989
- S1 E1
- 7G08
- James L. BrooksMatt GroeningSam Simon
Outstanding Animated Program - 2024. Nominee: The Simpsons. "Night Of The Living Wage". FOX. A Gracie Films Production in association with 20th Television Animation. James L. Brooks, Executive Producer.
It was nominated for, but did not win, a Primetime Emmy Award in the categories of "Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or Less)" (which it lost to, oddly enough, another first-season Simpsons episode, "Life on the Fast Lane") and "Outstanding Editing for a Miniseries or a Special."
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Dec 17, 1989 · "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (production code 7G08), also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special", is the first full-length episode of The Simpsons to be aired, and the only one to air in The '80s, although it was originally produced as the eighth episode.
