Good Night (The Simpsons)
"Good Night" is the first of the forty-eight Simpsons shorts and the second segment of the third episode of The Tracey Ullman Shows first season. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on April 19, 1987, and was the first appearance of the Simpson family – Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie – on television. After three seasons on Tracey Ullman's show, the shorts were adapted into the animated show The Simpsons. "Good Night" has since been aired on the show in the episode "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular", along with several other Ullman shorts, and is one of the few shorts to ever be released on DVD, in the Season 1 DVD set.
Plot
Homer and Marge say goodnight to their children, but all does not go according to plan. Bart tries to ask about the mind, but is left contemplating it as he does not get a proper answer. Lisa fears that bed bugs will eat her after hearing Marge say "Don't let the bed bugs bite". Maggie is terrified by the lyrics of "Rock-a-bye Baby". Ultimately, all three children decide to sleep in their parents' bed.Origins
Matt Groening first conceived of the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. He had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts, and had intended to present his Life in Hell series. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening decided to go in another direction. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, and named the characters after his own family. Bart was modeled after Groening's older brother, Mark, but given a different name that was chosen as an anagram of "brat".Production
This short was written and storyboarded by Groening. Animation on the short began March 23, 1987. The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead they just traced over his drawings. It was produced at Klasky Csupo, with Wesley Archer, David Silverman, and Bill Kopp being animators.The episode is sometimes considered to be the first episode of season 0 of The Simpsons. The show's production number is MG01. Eleven seconds of the short were cut in syndication airings. The short consists of four segments, lasting 24, 15, 33, and 33 seconds, respectively. After the short plays from start to finish in "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular", Troy McClure, who now has a look of disbelief on his face, as though he has never seen the clip before, covers his expression with an awkward laugh and insincerely comments "They haven't changed a bit, have they?", a comment on how the characters' appearance and personalities had altered from the shorts to the airing of that episode.