Today marks the 25th anniversary of The Simpsons. The family first premiered on April 19, 1987 in a series of animated shorts on “The Tracy Ullman Show.” After a three-season run, The Simpsons would later debut on December 17, 1989 with their own animated primetime show.
ABC News has compiled a list from IMDB of the most prolific Simpsons Characters. Here’s the top 10. Assuming the math is correct (they don’t include the 4 most recent episodes), are there any surprises?
1. Homer Simpson – 500 Episodes
2. Bart Simpsons – 500 Episodes
3. Marge Simpson – 500 Episodes
4. Lisa Simpson – 500 Episodes
5. Moe Syzlack – 334 Episodes
6. Milhouse VanHouten – 298 Episodes
7. Principal Skinner – 274 Episodes
8. Ned Flanders – 271 Episodes
9. Mr. Burns – 237 Episodes
10. Abe “Grandpa” Simpson – 204 Episodes
Any surprises? Where’s Maggie?
Since the list only goes up to 10… they presumably left Maggie off the list to emphasize which of the supporting characters made the way onto the list. Surprising to some may be that Krusty (184 episodes) or Apu (190 episodes) didn’t make the list.
“After a three-season run, The Simpsons would later debut on December 17, 1987” I think you mean december 17 1990 ? Right ?
“After a three-season run, The Simpsons would later debut on December 17, 1987 with their own animated primetime show.”
1989, not 1987 🙂
Thanks for noticing the typo!
Hey, we made a gift for your 25th, your Open Theme in Minor! Take a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-47v7rfpuU
Typo: December 17, 1987 should be 1989.
Also, didn’t “four great women and a manicure” not feature Bart? So technically there are only 499 episodes with him.
I was just thinking about that…
Glad someone mentioned it.
D’oh! Thanks all for noticing 🙂
Also, people seem to forget that in “Krusty Gets Kancelled”, Marge appears in a few scenes but she has no lines.
In “Chief of Hearts”, Lisa is shown at the beginning of the episode but she never speaks.
So technically, Homer is the only character that was in every episode.
Does Homer appear in “Das Bus”? He may have, but I can’t remember him in it.
yes there was a subplot in that where he was trying to set up an internet company
bart not present in the episode
Four Great Women and a Manicure
Hmmm… this list seems flawed.
Surely Smithers has appeared as many times as Mr.Burns?.. or close to it?
well Burns didn’t appear in Three Gays of a Condo, right?