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134-417: " Realm of Kings " is a crossover comic book storyline published in 2010 by Marvel Comics . Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning , it is a follow-up to the 2009 storyline " War of Kings " and introduced the setting known as the Cancerverse . The series started with a Realm of Kings one-shot that establishes the setting and is followed by a number of separate series or storylines which focus on how

268-459: A dysfunctional family and named the characters after his own family members, substituting Bart for his own name; he thought Simpson was a funny name in that it sounded similar to " simpleton ". The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After three seasons, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show and became Fox's first series to land in the Top 30 ratings in

402-533: A greyhound , Santa's Little Helper , (who first appeared in the episode " Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire ") and a cat, Snowball II , who is replaced by a cat also called Snowball II in the fifteenth-season episode " I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot ". Extended members of the Simpson and Bouvier family in the main cast include Homer's father Abe and Marge's sisters Patty and Selma . Marge's mother Jacqueline and Homer's mother Mona appear less frequently. The show includes

536-553: A perceived decline in quality . Time named it the 20th century's best television series, and Erik Adams of The A.V. Club named it "television's crowning achievement regardless of format". On January 14, 2000, the Simpson family was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . It has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 37 Primetime Emmy Awards , 34 Annie Awards , and 2 Peabody Awards . Homer's exclamatory catchphrase of " D'oh! " has been adopted into

670-468: A sketch comedy show or as a humorous interlude on an award telecast. Such crossovers may sometimes involve the real actors—for example, a sketch on Royal Canadian Air Farce saw Yasir and Sarah from Little Mosque on the Prairie buying the gas station from Corner Gas , with many of the characters in the sketch being portrayed by the shows' real actors—although they may also feature one genuine star from

804-571: A video game meet and interact with each other. These can range from a character simply appearing as a playable character or boss in the game, as a special guest character, or a major crossover where two or more franchises encounter. Konami made the first crossover video game featuring Simon Belmont from Castlevania , Universal Pictures ' King Kong and Mikey from the Warner Bros. movie The Goonies in Konami Wai Wai World for

938-399: A January 2014 episode of Republic of Doyle as Bill Murdoch, a 21st-century descendant of his regular character William Murdoch. The earliest example of a crossover in children's television was PBS ' 1971 program The Electric Company . Crossovers can take the form of a promotional cameo appearance , used to draw attention to another work of fiction, with little rational explanation in

1072-451: A brand new sequence when the show switched to high-definition in 2009). Each has the same basic sequence of events: the camera zooms through cumulus clouds , through the show's title towards the town of Springfield . The camera then follows the members of the family on their way home. Upon entering their house, the Simpsons settle down on their couch to watch television. The original opening

1206-447: A cameo to a full comedy sketch or episode—is an extremely popular way of circumventing this problem. By various means, such crossovers typically avoid outcry from fans by being obvious parody or homage . However, on rare occasion, the humor of such crossovers can be used by one show make a narrative point by capitalizing on the audience's experience of the other program. Parodic crossovers can be directly established as being outside

1340-667: A cancer. It is described as a Cancerverse, where "Life has won, Death has lost." He is captured by that universe's Avengers (called the Revengers), who plan on imposing their Earth on his, to enable their gods, the Many-Angled Ones , to continue to spread. Both the Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy series were put on hiatus following the conclusion of "Realm of Kings" and the events in the storyline lead directly into " The Thanos Imperative ". Also

1474-525: A case in the turmoil of the time after the fall of the Berlin Wall . The episode was produced during the short transition period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany . The Simpsons The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company . Developed by Groening, James L. Brooks , and Sam Simon ,

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1608-481: A combined total of 51 episodes. Seven of these episodes are season 34 holdovers, while the other 44 will be produced in the production cycle of the upcoming seasons, bringing the show's overall episode total up to 801. Season 35 premiered on October 1, 2023. Season 36 premiered on September 29, 2024. The Simpsons received widespread acclaim throughout its early seasons in the 1990s, which are generally considered its "golden age". Since then, it has been criticized for

1742-605: A cow, man!" and "Eat my shorts!" appeared on T-shirts in the show's early days. However, Bart rarely used the latter two phrases until after they became popular through the merchandising . The use of many of these catchphrases has declined in recent seasons. The episode " Bart Gets Famous " mocks catchphrase-based humor, as Bart achieves fame on the Krusty the Clown Show solely for saying "I didn't do it". The Simpsons has gained notoriety for jokes that appeared to become reality. Perhaps

1876-450: A crossover "event". In one case, a New York City blackout caused by Paul Reiser 's character on Mad About You was experienced by the characters on Friends and Madman of the People . Such "event nights" can also be linked by a single character's quest across multiple shows on the same evening. ABC attempted this kind of "event night" crossover with its Friday night programming during

2010-577: A device in establishing continuity in a shared fictional universe. This crossover is common in the Star Trek universe , where minor guest stars from one series have appeared as featured guest stars later ones. A good example of this crossover is that of the Klingons Kor , Koloth , and Kang . After the passage of about a century of narrative time, the three onetime adversaries of Captain Kirk appeared together in

2144-458: A division of The Walt Disney Company . Nineteen years later, Disney purchased Fox . Other examples purported as The Simpsons predicting the future include the introduction of the smartwatch , video chat services, Richard Branson 's spaceflight and Lady Gaga 's acrobatic performance at the Super Bowl LI halftime show . Al Jean has commented on the show's purported ability to predict

2278-470: A major Valiant hero. Cartoon crossovers are not uncommon, and most of them – like comics or live-action TV shows – will often feature characters owned by the same company or network. One example is Cartoon Network 's The Grim Adventures of the KND . It features five crossovers – Ed, Edd n Eddy , Codename: Kids Next Door , The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy , a reference to The Powerpuff Girls , and

2412-443: A new opening sequence. Matt Groening called it a complicated change because it affected the timing and composition of animation. The Simpsons uses the standard setup of a situational comedy, or sitcom, as its premise. The series centers on a family and their life in a typical American town, serving as a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle . However, because of its animated nature, The Simpsons ' scope

2546-619: A number of different works. Illustrator Howard Pyle conceived his work Twilight Land as one such crossover. In it, a nameless narrator is transported to "Twilight Land" and meets famous fairy tale characters for a soirée in an inn: Mother Goose , Cinderella , Fortunatus , Sinbad the Sailor , Aladdin , Boots , the Valiant Little Tailor , and others gather in the framing device and tell each other adventurous tales featuring other literary personages. French author Jules Lemaître wrote

2680-521: 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 called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching. The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with " Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire ". " Some Enchanted Evening " was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1990, as

2814-543: A quote from Scooby-Doo , which are all licensed Cartoon Network series. During the 1970s and 1980s, crossovers were particularly common among the Hanna-Barbera properties. Some of the earliest examples happened on The New Scooby-Doo Movies which featured appearances by characters from Harlem Globetrotters , Josie and the Pussycats , Jeannie , Speed Buggy , Batman and Robin , and The Addams Family . Later,

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2948-399: A recurring theme. In times of crisis, the family often turns to God, and the show has dealt with most of the major religions. Sexuality is often a source of jokes in the series or serves as the theme of certain episodes. Even though homosexuals are sometimes sources of gags, the series often comments on how American society treats them, with " Homer's Phobia " devoting an entire episode to

3082-655: A rich family history by speculating familial connections between them (such as a blood-relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan ). Roger Zelazny 's novel A Night in the Lonesome October combines Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper, and the Cthulhu Mythos, although he never specifically identifies them as such ("The Count", "The Good Doctor", "Jack", etc.). Occasionally, authors will include into crossovers classic fictional characters whose copyright

3216-453: A season (1989–1990). Since its debut on December 17, 1989, 775 episodes of the show have been broadcast. It is the longest-running American animated series , longest-running American sitcom , and the longest-running American scripted primetime television series , both in seasons and individual episodes. A feature-length film, The Simpsons Movie , was released in theaters worldwide on July 27, 2007, to critical and commercial success, with

3350-429: A sequel in development as of 2018. The series has also spawned numerous comic book series , video games , books , and other related media, as well as a billion-dollar merchandising industry . The Simpsons is a joint production by Gracie Films and 20th Television . On January 26, 2023, the series was renewed for its 35th and 36th seasons, taking the show through the 2024–25 television season. Both seasons contain

3484-594: A share of the profits every year, and an executive producer credit despite not having worked on the show since 1993, at least until his passing in 2015. A more involved position on the show is the showrunner , who acts as head writer and manages the show's production for an entire season. The first team of writers, assembled by Sam Simon, consisted of John Swartzwelder , Jon Vitti , George Meyer , Jeff Martin , Al Jean , Mike Reiss , Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky . Newer Simpsons ' writing teams typically consist of sixteen writers who propose episode ideas at

3618-413: A single holder, but they can, more rarely, involve properties from different holders, provided that the inherent legal obstacles can be overcome. They may also involve using characters that have passed into the public domain with those concurrently under copyright protection . A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, such as characters being neighbors (notable examples being

3752-472: A single viewing. Some are so fleeting that they become apparent only by pausing a video recording of the show or viewing it in slow motion. Kristin Thompson argues that The Simpsons uses a "flurry of cultural references, intentionally inconsistent characterization, and considerable self-reflexivity about television conventions and the status of the programme as a television show." One of Bart's early hallmarks

3886-418: A sort of sequel to Cinderella , named Princess Mimi , where Cinderella's daughter is courted by Polyphemus and Charles Perrault 's Hop-o'-My-Thumb . It is also common for authors to 'crossover' characters who have passed into the public domain, and thus do not require copyright or royalty payments for their use in other works. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill

4020-467: A stereotypical American housewife and mother. They have three children: Bart , a ten-year-old troublemaker and prankster; Lisa , a precocious eight-year-old activist; and Maggie (named by Bart), the baby of the family who rarely speaks, but communicates by sucking on a pacifier. Although the family is dysfunctional, many episodes examine their relationships and bonds with each other and they are often shown to care about one another. The family also owns

4154-533: A vast array of quirky supporting characters, which include Homer's friends Barney Gumble , Lenny Leonard and Carl Carlson ; the school principal Seymour Skinner and staff members such as Edna Krabappel and Groundskeeper Willie ; students such as Milhouse Van Houten , Nelson Muntz and Ralph Wiggum ; shopkeepers such as Apu Nahasapeemapetilon , Comic Book Guy and Moe Szyslak ; government figures Mayor "Diamond" Joe Quimby and Clancy Wiggum ; next-door neighbor Ned Flanders ; local celebrities such as Krusty

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4288-406: A vast array of television channels, which enables the producers to make jokes about the entertainment industry and the press. Some commentators say the show is political in nature and susceptible to a left-wing bias. Al Jean acknowledged in an interview that "We [the show] are of liberal bent." The writers often evince an appreciation for progressive leanings , but the show makes jokes across

4422-411: A wide spectrum of society so that viewers from all generations can enjoy the show. Such references, for example, come from movies, television, music, literature, science, and history. The animators also regularly add jokes or sight gags into the show's background via humorous or incongruous bits of text in signs, newspapers, billboards , and elsewhere. The audience may often not notice the visual jokes in

4556-499: Is also one of the few programs dubbed in both standard French and Quebec French . The show has been broadcast in Arabic, but due to Islamic customs, numerous aspects of the show have been changed. For example, Homer drinks soda instead of beer and eats Egyptian beef sausages instead of hot dogs. Because of such changes, the Arabized version of the series met with a negative reaction from

4690-493: Is another example of this, as all of the main characters and most of the secondary / background characters are fictional characters whose copyright has expired, and all are characters of different authors and creators brought together within one massive extended universe. Many of the works of Philip José Farmer 's Wold Newton family sequences (which has also been explored and developed by other authors) also utilize and interweave numerous otherwise unrelated fictional characters into

4824-767: Is called a team-up . A crossover in comic book terms only occurs when a story spans more than one title. This has led to "crossover events" in which major occurrences are shown as affecting most or all of the stories in the shared universe; see Category:Crossover comics . The earliest such crossover event was Gardner Fox 's Zatanna's Search which took place in Hawkman #4 (October/November 1964), Detective Comics #336 (February 1965), The Atom #19 (June/July 1965), Green Lantern #42 (January 1966), Detective Comics #355 (September 1966), and Justice League of America #51 (February 1967). This story dealt with Zatanna attempting to reconnect with her father, Zatara , and seeking

4958-474: Is clearly intended in appearance and description by other characters to be Dr. Fu Manchu appears as a significant villain; however, as this character was not in the public domain at the time of writing and the rights still held by the estate of his creator Sax Rohmer , he is not directly named as such in the work and is only referred to as 'the Devil Doctor'. Crossovers involving principals can also occur when

5092-503: Is consistently portrayed that he is Jewish , that his father was a rabbi , and that his career began in the 1960s. The latter point introduces another snag in the floating timeline: historical periods that are a core part of a character's backstory remain so even when their age makes it unlikely or impossible, such as Grampa Simpson and Principal Skinner 's respective service in World War II and Vietnam . The only episodes not part of

5226-745: Is especially true of comic book publishers , as different characters in various Marvel , DC , or Valiant comic books frequently interact with one another since they live in a " shared universe ". For example, in the Marvel Comics universe, Spider-Man has frequent dealings with another Marvel hero, Daredevil , just as in the DC Comics Universe, the Flash and Green Lantern often collaborate. In comic book terminology, these "guest star" roles are common enough that they are generally not considered crossovers; rather, this short-term collaboration to fight crime

5360-439: Is inconsistent: from one episode to another, it may have coastlines, deserts, vast farmland, mountains, or whatever the story or joke requires. Groening has said that Springfield has much in common with Portland, Oregon , the city where he grew up. Groening has said that he named it after Springfield, Oregon , and the fictitious Springfield which was the setting of the series Father Knows Best . He "figured out that Springfield

5494-437: Is larger than that of a regular sitcom. The town of Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. By having Homer work in a nuclear power plant , the show can comment on the state of the environment. Through Bart and Lisa's days at Springfield Elementary School , the show's writers illustrate pressing or controversial issues in the field of education. The town features

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5628-444: Is more common on animated programs, such as when Bender found and ate Bart Simpson 's shorts on Futurama , or Milhouse had a talking Bender doll on The Simpsons . This would seem to be another case when a popular franchise is acknowledged as fiction and not a crossover of the stories. Perhaps the most obvious parodic crossover is found when characters from two series interact outside either series. This occurs most commonly on

5762-458: Is still held by the original authors (or at least their estates), but who are nevertheless considered iconic or 'mythic' enough to be recognised from a few character traits or descriptions without being directly named (thus not requiring royalties payments to be made to the copyright holder). A prominent example occurs within The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One , wherein a character who

5896-483: Is that of Mad About You and Friends , which share the character of Ursula Buffay . Neither show shares any production or distribution commonality, but rather an actress ( Lisa Kudrow ), a setting ( New York City ) and a schedule ( Friends initially followed Mad About You on NBC 's Thursday night schedule ). Mad About You and Friends share another type of "network crossover". On rare occasions, networks have chosen to theme an entire night's programming around

6030-566: Is when the characters from all three shows split into groups, where the members all share the same clichéd character archetypes, such the main characters Goku, Luffy, and Toriko falling into the dumb, good-natured, strong character archetype. Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto has been known to cross over the characters of his various stories and characters such as Captain Harlock , Galaxy Express 999 , and Queen Millennia , all of which were originally written as separate, self-contained stories. In

6164-903: The Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 set of movies involved several crossovers, including such combinations as The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones . This was taken to an extreme in the 1977–79 series Laff-A-Lympics , which was essentially a gathering of the Hanna-Barbera characters for a regular series. Crossovers are not necessarily composed of characters under common ownership. Two of the most notable cartoon crossovers consisted of characters from different companies. Disney's movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit had characters from various companies, most notably Disney and Warner Bros. The film also includes cameos of characters from MGM . Another cartoon crossover would occur in 1990, Cartoon All-Stars to

6298-519: The Maetel Legend , Queen Promethium is revealed to be having been Yukino Yaoi, the protagonist from Queen Millennia . Matsumoto has also created various crossovers with Space Battleship Yamato , an anime on which he served as director, although the rights to Yamato are actually owned by Yoshinobu Nishizaki. The first film crossover in a series of Universal Studios monster films was Frankenstein Meets

6432-538: The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, " Blood Oath " – as the Klingons and Federation had become allies in the century between, the former villains are now portrayed as heroes. The distinction between "spin-off" and "crossover" is sometimes narrow. The two terms can become especially conflated if two shows are linked by a guest star with a single appearance. There is debate, for instance over whether Out of

6566-612: The Linguistic Data Consortium , remarked, " The Simpsons has apparently taken over from Shakespeare and the Bible as our culture's greatest source of idioms, catchphrases and sundry other textual allusions." The most famous catchphrase is Homer's annoyed grunt: " D'oh! " So ubiquitous is the expression that it is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary , but without the apostrophe. Dan Castellaneta says he borrowed

6700-655: The Shi'ar leader Vulcan . The Fault becomes an immediate concern for both the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Nova Corps . They sent Wendell Vaughn , the first Quasar , into the Fault to scout it, given that his energy form would be able to survive its treacherous storms. Quasar soon finds that the Fault is actually a tunnel, leading to another universe which reeked of corruption, ruled by evil organic masses that had consumed their universe like

6834-402: The intellectual property rights holders to reap the financial reward of combining two or more popular, established properties. In other cases, the crossover can serve to introduce a new concept derivative of an older one. Another intention is to give fictional characters more emotional credibility and thus increase immersion for the fans. Crossovers generally occur between properties owned by

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6968-476: The twentieth season was put on hold due to new contract negotiations with the voice actors, who wanted a "healthy bump" in salary to an amount close to $ 500,000 per episode. The negotiations were soon completed, and the actors' salary was raised to $ 400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, the cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut, down to just over $ 300,000 per episode. In addition to

7102-557: The 1970s. During most of the 1980s, US pundits considered animated shows as appropriate only for children, and animating a show was too expensive to achieve a quality suitable for prime-time television. The Simpsons changed this perception, initially leading to a short period where networks attempted to recreate prime-time cartoon success with shows like Capitol Critters , Fish Police , and Family Dog , which were expensive and unsuccessful. The Simpsons ' use of Korean animation studios for tweening , coloring, and filming made

7236-521: The 1997 season. There, they proposed that the title character of Sabrina the Teenage Witch should chase her cat, Salem , through Boy Meets World , You Wish and Teen Angel because it had run away with a "time ball" that was displacing each show through time. In 2013, the Canadian crime drama series Republic of Doyle and Murdoch Mysteries produced a crossover, which was complicated by

7370-467: The Blue is a spin-off of Happy Days , or whether the star of Out of the Blue merely crossed over into Happy Days . Often, the problems of bringing together two shows with different narrative ambitions make the writing of a crossover burdensome. Such difficulties are encountered by situation comedies that wish to crossover with dramatic television programs. The satirical crossover—ranging in length from

7504-645: The Chipmunks , the Smurfs , ALF (from his short-lived cartoon spinoff ), Garfield , and the trio of Baby Kermit , Baby Piggy , and Baby Gonzo (from Jim Henson's Muppet Babies ). Animation companies granted unlimited, royalty-free use of their cartoon characters for this project, a feat that has been unequalled before or since. This cartoon was also introduced by then- President George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush , and would be distributed to schools and video stores free of charge nationwide. Webtoons (animated shows from

7638-454: The Clown and news reporter Kent Brockman ; nuclear tycoon Montgomery Burns and his devoted assistant Waylon Smithers ; and dozens more . The creators originally intended many of these characters as one-time jokes or for fulfilling needed functions in the town. A number of them have gained expanded roles and subsequently starred in their own episodes. According to Matt Groening, the show adopted

7772-433: The Clown , Groundskeeper Willie , Mayor Quimby , Barney Gumble , and other adult male characters. Julie Kavner voices Marge Simpson and Patty and Selma , as well as several minor characters. Castellaneta and Kavner had been a part of The Tracey Ullman Show cast and were given the parts so that new actors would not be needed. Cartwright voices Bart Simpson , Nelson Muntz , Ralph Wiggum and other children. Smith,

7906-608: The English language, while The Simpsons has influenced many other later adult-oriented animated sitcom television series. The main characters are the Simpson family , who live in the fictional " Middle America " town of Springfield. Homer , the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant , a position at odds with his careless, buffoonish personality. He is married to Marge ( née Bouvier),

8040-569: The Famicom in 1988. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games , released in Japan two months before Super Smash Bros. Brawl , was the first time that Mario and Sonic (as well as their associated characters) appeared in a game together. In literature , some authors also engage in crossovers by including characters from different novels they have written in one. The first popular crossover in literature

8174-617: The Rescue . This cartoon featured popular characters from children's Saturday morning cartoons, banding together to promote an anti-drug message. ABC , CBS , Fox , and NBC aired this half-hour special one Saturday morning with characters from all their networks, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie (from Disney's DuckTales ), Winnie the Pooh , Tigger , Slimer (from The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters ), Michelangelo (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ), Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Alvin and

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8308-558: The Wolf Man , in 1943. After the comics publishing house Marvel Comics ventured into movie production , they set off to produce solitary films with popular superheroes from the Avengers team, with characters from upcoming films making cameo appearances in films starring another superhero, leading up to the crossover film The Avengers (2012). Inspired by Marvel's success, Warner Bros. , who hold movie rights for DC Comics ' heroes, announced

8442-683: The aid of Hawkman, Batman, Robin , the Atom, Green Lantern, and the Elongated Man along the way. The first major crossover event was spearheaded by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter . As a way to further toy sales he devised the Secret Wars crossover which brought all the major Marvel heroes into a 12-issue miniseries to battle a common threat. After the threat was dealt with, they all returned to their regular titles. Secret Wars

8576-437: The animators and assumed that the figures would be cleaned up in production. However, the animators merely re-traced his drawings, which led to the crude appearance of the characters in the initial shorts. The animation was produced domestically at Klasky Csupo , with Wes Archer , David Silverman , and Bill Kopp being animators for the first season. The colorist, "Georgie" Gyorgyi Kovacs Peluce (Kovács Györgyike) made

8710-424: The beginning of each December. The main writer of each episode writes the first draft. Group rewriting sessions develop final scripts by adding or removing jokes, inserting scenes, and calling for re-readings of lines by the show's vocal performers. Until 2004, George Meyer, who had developed the show since the first season, was active in these sessions. According to long-time writer Jon Vitti, Meyer usually invented

8844-436: The best lines in a given episode, even though other writers may receive script credits. Each episode takes six months to produce so the show rarely comments on current events. Credited with sixty episodes, John Swartzwelder is the most prolific writer on The Simpsons . One of the best-known former writers is Conan O'Brien , who contributed to several episodes in the early 1990s before replacing David Letterman as host of

8978-480: The cast appeared in an episode of Inside the Actors Studio , doing live performances of their characters' voices. The six main actors were paid $ 30,000 per episode, until 1998, when they were involved in a pay dispute with Fox. The company threatened to replace them with new actors, even going as far as preparing for casting of new voices, but series creator Groening supported the actors in their action. The issue

9112-401: The casts from The Golden Girls and Empty Nest ) or meeting via dimensional rift or similar phenomenon (a common explanation for science fiction properties that have different owners). Some crossovers are not explained at all. Others are absurd or simply impossible within the fictional setting, and have to be ignored by the series' respective continuities . Still others intentionally make

9246-452: The characters have no prior relationship, but are related by time period, locale or profession. The Law and Order series, for example, afford a commonality of setting and profession which lends itself to crossovers, both within the franchise and in a wider universe. Following the cancellation of the ABC soap opera One Life to Live and its high-rated finale, several characters crossed over into

9380-497: The characters he voiced ( Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz ) were retired; Wallace's character of Edna Krabappel was retired as well after her death in 2013. Following Taylor's death in 2019, her characters (including Sherri, Terri , and Martin Prince ) are now voiced by Grey Griffin . Episodes will quite often feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, athletes, authors, bands, musicians and scientists. In

9514-485: The characters yellow; as Bart, Lisa and Maggie have no hairlines, she felt they would look strange if they were flesh-colored. Groening supported the decision, saying: "Marge is yellow with blue hair? That's hilarious — let's do it!" In 1989, a team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company . The team included the Klasky Csupo animation house. Brooks negotiated

9648-626: The characters, unofficial crossovers are unfettered by such concerns, so long as property holders do not exercise their right to enjoin the distribution of such material. A good example would be the unauthorised live action fan film Batman: Dead End which brings together the properties of Batman , Alien and Predator in one setting. Unofficial crossovers can also occur in a "what-if" scenario. Roger makes frequent cameo appearances in Family Guy , while Brian makes cameos on American Dad! . Roger, Rallo Tubbs , and Klaus Heissler were seen in

9782-616: The claimed prophecies, explaining that the show's extensive run means "a lot of jokes, and a lot of opportunities for coincidences to appear" and "most of these 'predictions' have rather simple and mundane explanations". For example, the device shown on The Simpsons with autocorrection is an Apple Newton , a real 1993 device notorious for its poor handwriting recognition . Technologically advanced watches have appeared in numerous works of fiction, decades before The Simpsons . A number of neologisms that originated on The Simpsons have entered popular vernacular. Mark Liberman , director of

9916-500: The commercial breaks. Having seen one of cartoonist Matt Groening 's Life in Hell comic strips, Brooks asked Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts. Groening initially intended to present an animated version of his Life in Hell series. However, Groening later realized that animating Life in Hell would require the rescinding of publication rights for his life's work. He therefore chose another approach while waiting in

10050-467: The concept of a large supporting cast from the comedy show SCTV . Despite the depiction of yearly milestones such as holidays or birthdays passing, the characters never age. The series uses a floating timeline in which episodes generally take place in the year the episode is produced. Flashbacks and flashforwards do occasionally depict the characters at other points in their lives, with the timeline of these depictions also generally floating relative to

10184-505: The conclusion of Son of Hulk intersects with the end of the back-to-back Hulk storylines " Fall of the Hulks " and " World War Hulks " in the story arc " Dark Son ", partly written by Scott Reed. Fictional crossover This is different from a spoof , where one discrete character, setting, or universe, copies another character, setting, or universe, often in a comedic manner. Crossovers often occur in an official capacity in order for

10318-435: The context of the hosting show's narrative. When not clearly presented as parody, this is frequently scorned by fans as blatant commercialism. A notable example of this is The Simpsons episode " A Star Is Burns ", in which the character of Jay Sherman (from The Critic ) appeared. It originally aired on March 5, 1995, on FOX right before The Critic began its second season, its first season having aired on ABC. This episode

10452-444: The continuity of one or all of the properties being crossed over. A good example is the crossover between The Simpsons and The X-Files , which was largely accepted as being outside standard X-Files continuity. They can occur by virtue of a dream sequence , in which the characters of one show will appear as part of a dream had by a character on another show. This method was perhaps used most famously to explain to audiences that

10586-499: The dictionary in August 2007. Many quotes/scenes have become popular Internet memes , including Jasper Beardley's quote "That's a paddlin ' " from " The PTA Disbands " ( season 6 , 1995) and "Steamed Hams" from " 22 Short Films About Springfield " ( season 7 , 1996). The Simpsons was the first successful animated program in American prime time since Wait Till Your Father Gets Home in

10720-474: The different characters, Imperial Guard , Inhumans , Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova , deal with this situation. The storyline also includes the limited series Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk by Scott Reed , with art by Miguel Munera . This focuses on Hiro-Kala and his journey into the Microverse . A giant time-space tear called the Fault had been created by Black Bolt 's T-Bomb, killing both himself and

10854-533: The divorce of Milhouse van Houten 's parents, and the marriage and subsequent parenthood of Apu and Manjula . The Simpsons takes place in a fictional American town called Springfield . Although there are many real settlements in America named Springfield, the town the show is set in is fictional. The state it is in is not established. In fact, the show is intentionally evasive with regard to Springfield's location. Springfield's geography and that of its surroundings

10988-468: The earlier seasons, most of the guest stars voiced characters, but eventually more started appearing as themselves. Tony Bennett was the first guest star to appear as himself, appearing briefly in the season two episode " Dancin' Homer ". The Simpsons holds the world record for "Most Guest Stars Featured in a Television Series". The Simpsons has been dubbed into several other languages , including Japanese, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. It

11122-504: The entirety of Newhart had been the dream of Bob Newhart 's character on The Bob Newhart Show . It has more recently been used to demonstrate that cast members of The Young and the Restless appeared in a dream of a character on The King of Queens . Parodic crossovers can take the form of " gag " cameos by characters of one property appearing on another. Crossovers of this type can also be completely wordless. This type of crossover

11256-470: The episodes cheaper. The success of The Simpsons and the lower production cost prompted US television networks to take chances on other adult animated series. This development led US producers to a 1990s boom in new, animated prime-time shows for adults, such as Beavis and Butt-Head , South Park , Family Guy , King of the Hill , Futurama (which was created by Matt Groening), and The Critic (which

11390-713: The family in some horror, science fiction, or supernatural setting and often parody or pay homage to a famous piece of work in those genres. They always take place outside the normal continuity of the show. Although the Treehouse series is meant to be seen on Halloween, this changed by the 2000s (and again in 2020), when new installments have premiered after Halloween due to Fox 's current contract with Major League Baseball 's World Series . Prior to 2020 (between 2011 and 2019), every Treehouse of Horror episode had aired in October. The show's humor turns on cultural references that cover

11524-411: The family making a gay friend and Homer's initial hostility to him. In 1990, The Simpsons became the first animated early evening show to depict a kiss between two men in " Simpson and Delilah ". The Simpsons ' opening sequence is one of the show's most memorable hallmarks. The standard opening has gone through three iterations (a replacement of some shots at the start of the second season, and

11658-457: The final Family Guy Star Wars spoof, " It's A Trap! ", as Moff Jerjerrod , Nien Nunb , and Admiral Ackbar , respectively. Stewie also appears as an interactive hallucination of Booth on Bones when the agent has issues over possibly becoming a sperm donor, with David Boreanaz (who plays Booth) repaying the favor in " Road to the North Pole ". An appearance by Elmo , from Sesame Street ,

11792-541: The first three seasons, Klasky Csupo animated The Simpsons in the United States. In 1992, the show's production company, Gracie Films, switched domestic production to Film Roman , who continued to animate the show until 2016 when they were replaced by Fox Television Animation , which allowed the show to be made more in-house. In Season 14 , production switched from traditional cel animation to digital ink and paint . The first episode to experiment with digital coloring

11926-404: The future, explaining that they are really just "educated guesses" and stating that "if you throw enough darts, you're going to get some bullseyes." Producer Bill Oakley stated, "There are very few cases where The Simpsons predicted something. It's mainly just coincidence because the episodes are so old that history repeats itself." Fact-checking sources such as Snopes have debunked many of

12060-553: The internet) can also have crossovers with different webtoons, franchises, YouTubers and more. Some examples are when Kate from TomSka 's Crash Zoom series makes an appearance in Eddsworld as a trick or treater who possesses Matt and Edd in the episode, "Trick or Threat". In addition to this a couple of characters from Eddsworld make appearances in some Crash Zoom episodes such as "Orcs and Dorks". Anime has also participated in many crossover events featuring characters or shows from

12194-460: The job on the spot. Cartwright is the only one of the six main Simpsons cast members who had been professionally trained in voice acting prior to working on the show. Azaria and Shearer do not voice members of the title family, but play a majority of the male townspeople. Azaria, who has been a part of the main voice cast since the second season in one episode " Old Money " and then perpetually part of

12328-423: The last episode of the first season, because of animation problems. In 1992, Tracey Ullman filed a lawsuit against Fox, claiming that her show was the source of the series' success. The suit said she should receive a share of the profits of The Simpsons —a claim rejected by the courts. List of showrunners throughout the series' run: Matt Groening and James L. Brooks have served as executive producers during

12462-488: The lifelong Simpsons fans in the area. Several different U.S. and international studios animate The Simpsons . Throughout the run of the animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show , the animation was produced domestically at Klasky Csupo . With the debut of the series, because of an increased workload, Fox subcontracted production to several local and foreign studios. These are AKOM , Anivision , Rough Draft Studios , USAnimation , and Toonzone Entertainment. For

12596-476: The lobby of Brooks's office for the pitch meeting, hurriedly formulating his version of a dysfunctional family that became the Simpsons. He named the characters after his own family members, substituting "Bart" for his own name, adopting an anagram of the word brat . The Simpson family first appeared as shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. Groening submitted only basic sketches to

12730-613: The main cast, Pamela Hayden , Tress MacNeille , Marcia Wallace , Maggie Roswell , and Russi Taylor voice supporting characters. From 1999 to 2002, Roswell's characters were voiced by Marcia Mitzman Gaven . Karl Wiedergott has also appeared in minor roles, but does not voice any recurring characters. Wiedergott left the show in 2010, and since then Chris Edgerly has appeared regularly to voice minor characters. Repeat "special guest" cast members include Albert Brooks , Phil Hartman , Jon Lovitz , Joe Mantegna , Maurice LaMarche , and Kelsey Grammer . Following Hartman's death in 1998,

12864-785: The monsters forming teams in numerous movies, much like the Marvel movie franchise. Godzilla , Mothra and Rodan (Radon) each first appeared in standalone films before being set against each other or even teaming up against stronger enemies. Their first encounter was in 1964, first in Mothra vs. Godzilla and a few months later of all three in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster . In 1962, Toho released King Kong vs. Godzilla . Crossovers in video games occur when otherwise separated fictional characters, stories , settings , universes , or media in

12998-454: The most famous example comes from the episode " Bart to the Future ", which mentions billionaire Donald Trump having been president of the United States at one time and leaving the nation broke. The episode first aired in 2000, sixteen years before Trump (who at the time was exploring a presidential run ) was elected. Another episode, " When You Dish Upon a Star ", lampooned 20th Century Fox as

13132-526: The network's remaining soap opera General Hospital , remaining in the same timeline as their former show. Though most common on shows of the same production company (see, for example, " Hurricane Saturday "), crossovers have also occurred because shows share the same distributor or television network . A notable example of this kind of link is that between Murder, She Wrote and Magnum, P.I. These shows were made by different companies, but owned by Universal Studios and broadcast on CBS . Another case

13266-517: The other members of the Writers Guild of America, East . The show's writers had joined the guild in 1998. In May 2023, the writers of The Simpsons went on strike together with the other members of the Writers Guild of America, East . The Simpsons has six main cast members: Dan Castellaneta , Julie Kavner , Nancy Cartwright , Yeardley Smith , Hank Azaria , and Harry Shearer . Castellaneta voices Homer Simpson , Grampa Simpson , Krusty

13400-521: The phrase from James Finlayson , an actor in many Laurel and Hardy comedies, who pronounced it in a more elongated and whining tone. The staff of The Simpsons told Castellaneta to shorten the noise, and it went on to become the well-known exclamation in the television series. Groundskeeper Willie 's description of the French as " cheese-eating surrender monkeys " was used by National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg in 2003, after France's opposition to

13534-405: The political spectrum. The show portrays government and large corporations as evil entities that take advantage of the common worker. Thus, the writers often portray authority figures in an unflattering or negative light. In The Simpsons , politicians are corrupt, ministers such as Reverend Lovejoy are dismissive to churchgoers, and the local police force is incompetent. Religion also figures as

13668-518: The production of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and further plans to develop the cinematic DC Extended Universe , while Paramount Pictures and Entertainment One announced plans to create a cinematic universe on the Transformers film series . There have been numerous crossovers in Japanese cinema. The boom of kaiju films saw a lot of crossovers produced at Toho Studios , with some of

13802-658: The proposed invasion of Iraq . The phrase quickly spread to other journalists. " Cromulent " and "embiggen", words used in " Lisa the Iconoclast ", have since appeared in the Dictionary.com 's 21st Century Lexicon, and scientific journals respectively. "Kwyjibo", a fake Scrabble word invented by Bart in " Bart the Genius ", was used as one of the aliases of the creator of the Melissa worm . "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords",

13936-456: The regular main voice cast since the third season, voices recurring characters such as Moe Szyslak , Chief Wiggum , Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and Professor Frink . Shearer provides voices for Mr. Burns , Mr. Smithers , Principal Skinner , Ned Flanders , Reverend Lovejoy and formerly Dr. Hibbert . Every main cast member has won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance . With one exception, episode credits list only

14070-579: The relations between two or more fictional universes confusing, as with The Simpsons and Futurama , where each show is fiction in the other. In contrast with legal crossovers, unofficial crossovers are created solely because of the artistic pleasure derived by their creators. Unofficial crossovers often take the form of fan-written fiction and fan art , but the trope is increasingly prevalent in amateur films and audio . Whereas official crossovers are frequently stymied by such concerns as copyright, royalties payments, quality of writing and ownership of

14204-444: The same company or network. One of the biggest projects down would be Dream 9 Toriko x One Piece x Dragon Ball Z Super Special Collaboration as it includes three Shonen Jump franchises, being Dragon Ball Z , One Piece , and Toriko , crossed over into an hour long special-like most crossovers, this special is filler, a fan-service episode that follows the common plot line in most crossovers. What makes this crossover unique

14338-479: The same period. The 1995 episode " Lisa's Wedding " takes place during Lisa's college years in the then-future year of 2010, the same year the show began airing its 22nd season , in which Lisa was still 8. Regarding the contradictory flashbacks, Selman stated that "they all kind of happened in their imaginary world." The show follows a loose and inconsistent continuity. For example, Krusty the Clown may be able to read in one episode, but not in another . However, it

14472-468: The school chalkboard, Lisa plays different solos on her saxophone (or occasionally a different instrument), and different gags accompany the family as they enter their living room to sit on the couch. The special Halloween episode has become an annual tradition. " Treehouse of Horror " first broadcast in 1990 as part of season two and established the pattern of three separate, self-contained stories in each Halloween episode. These pieces usually involve

14606-417: The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family , which consists of Homer , Marge , Bart , Lisa , and Maggie . Set in the fictional town of Springfield , it caricatures society, Western culture, television, and the human condition . The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a solicitation for a series of animated shorts with producer Brooks. He created

14740-431: The series progressed, it became more difficult for the writers to come up with a fake name and to write Moe's angry response, and the pranks were dropped as a regular joke during the fourth season. The Simpsons also often includes self-referential humor . The most common form is jokes about Fox Broadcasting. For example, the episode " She Used to Be My Girl " included a scene in which a Fox News Channel van drove down

14874-454: The series' main canon are the Treehouse of Horror episodes, which often feature the deaths of main characters. Characters who die in "regular" episodes, such as Maude Flanders , Mona Simpson and Edna Krabappel , however, stay dead. Most episodes end with the status quo being restored, though occasionally major changes will stick, such as Lisa's conversions to vegetarianism and Buddhism ,

15008-510: The show amid a cast comprised otherwise of the sketch show's own stable of actors. Parodic crossovers can be used to lend verisimilitude to the fictional world of a program. Characters from a fictional television series may appear on a stylized version of an established non-fictional television series, such as game shows or reality shows . These crossovers between celebrity hosts and fictional characters are quite common on situation comedies . Mama's Family once appeared on Family Feud and

15142-402: The show's entire history, and also function as creative consultants. Sam Simon , described by former Simpsons director Brad Bird as "the unsung hero" of the show, served as creative supervisor for the first four seasons. He was constantly at odds with Groening, Brooks and the show's production company Gracie Films and left in 1993. Before leaving, he negotiated a deal that sees him receive

15276-457: The show. As well as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys", Homer's lines, "Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try", from " Burns' Heir " ( season five , 1994) as well as "Kids are the best, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the Internet and all", from " Eight Misbehavin' " ( season 11 , 1999), entered

15410-499: The shows' incompatible historical settings; Murdoch Mysteries is a historical series set in the 1890s, while Republic of Doyle is set in the present day. The problem was solved by having the actors cross over as relatives of their primary characters; Allan Hawco appeared on the November 25, 2013 episode of Murdoch Mysteries as Jacob Doyle, a 19th-century ancestor of his regular character Jake Doyle, while Yannick Bisson appeared on

15544-607: The street while displaying a large "Bush Cheney 2004" banner and playing Queen 's " We Are the Champions ", in reference to the 2004 U.S. presidential election and claims of conservative bias in Fox News . The show uses catchphrases , and most of the primary and secondary characters have at least one each. Notable expressions include Homer's annoyed grunt " D'oh! ", Mr. Burns' "Excellent" and Nelson Muntz 's " Ha -ha!" Some of Bart's catchphrases, such as " ¡Ay, caramba! ", "Don't have

15678-481: The talk show Late Night . English comedian Ricky Gervais wrote the episode " Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife ", becoming the first celebrity both to write and guest star in the same episode. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg , writers of the film Superbad , wrote the episode " Homer the Whopper ", with Rogen voicing a character in it. At the end of 2007, the writers of The Simpsons went on strike together with

15812-702: The townsfolk of The Vicar of Dibley have had their heirlooms valuated on Antiques Roadshow , for instance. One of the earlier instances of crossovers in TV productions outside the US is the episode Unter Brüdern  [ de ] (1990), which was produced by WDR and DFF as a crossover between the West German crime series Tatort and the East German crime series Polizeiruf 110 . Their respective popular heroes Horst Schimanski and Peter Fuchs join forces to solve

15946-459: The voice actors, and not the characters they voice. Both Fox and the production crew wanted to keep their identities secret during the early seasons and, therefore, closed most of the recording sessions while refusing to publish photos of the recording artists. However, the network eventually revealed which roles each actor performed in the episode " Old Money ", because the producers said the voice actors should receive credit for their work. In 2003,

16080-415: The voice of Lisa Simpson , is the only cast member who regularly voices only one character, although she occasionally plays other episodic characters. The producers decided to hold casting for the roles of Bart and Lisa. Smith had initially been asked to audition for the role of Bart, but casting director Bonita Pietila believed her voice was too high, so she was given the role of Lisa instead. Cartwright

16214-445: The writers at Gracie Films for any changes to be made before the work is shipped overseas. The overseas studios then draw the inbetweens , ink and paint, and render the animation to tape before it is shipped back to the United States to be delivered to Fox three to four months later. The series began high-definition production in season 20; the first episode, " Take My Life, Please ", aired February 15, 2009. The move to HDTV included

16348-423: The year the episode is produced. For example, the 1991 episodes " The Way We Was " and " I Married Marge " depict Homer and Marge as high schoolers in the 1970s who had Bart (who is always 10 years old) in the early '80s, while the 2008 episode " That '90s Show " depicts Homer and Marge as a childless couple in the '90s, and the 2021 episode " Do Pizza Bots Dream of Electric Guitars " portrays Homer as an adolescent in

16482-568: Was " Radioactive Man " in 1995. Animators used digital ink and paint during production of the season 12 episode " Tennis the Menace ", but Gracie Films delayed the regular use of digital ink and paint until two seasons later. The already completed "Tennis the Menace" was broadcast as made. The production staff at the U.S. animation studio, Film Roman, draws storyboards , designs new characters, backgrounds, props and draws character and background layouts, which in turn become animatics to be screened for

16616-468: Was created by David Silverman , and was the first task he did when production began on the show. The series' distinctive theme song was composed by musician Danny Elfman in 1989, after Groening approached him requesting a retro-style piece. This piece has been noted by Elfman as the most popular of his career. One of the most distinctive aspects of the opening is that three of its elements change from episode to episode: Bart writes different things on

16750-557: Was hailed as both a critical and commercial success, largely because the events of the crossover had lasting effects on the characters (such as the introduction of Spider-Man 's black suit which would later become the villain Venom ). Jim Shooter later perfected his crossover technique at Valiant Comics with the Unity event. Unity brought all the Valiant characters together to defeat Mothergod , but

16884-519: Was his prank calls to Moe's Tavern owner Moe Szyslak where he asks for a gag name . Moe tries to find that person in the bar, but soon realizes it is a prank call and angrily threatens Bart. These calls were apparently based on a series of prank calls known as the Tube Bar recordings , though Groening has denied any causal connection. Moe was based partly on Tube Bar owner Louis "Red" Deutsch , whose often profane responses inspired Moe's violent side. As

17018-721: Was largely condemned by fans of The Simpsons as existing to promote The Critic , an animated series considered inferior by comparison. Even Simpsons creator Matt Groening objected, preferring to remove his name from the credits of that particular episode in protest. In its simplest and most common form, a television crossover involves a starring character on a parent show appearing on a spin-off or vice versa because of established character relationships. An obvious example of this type of crossover occurred when Cliff Huxtable of The Cosby Show visited his daughter, Denise , on A Different World . More complex multi-production franchises can utilize crossovers of characters to serve as

17152-620: Was made, in a hallucination of Connie Ray 's, on TV sitcom The Torkelsons . Fan fiction fusions between different science fiction movies and series are often created, such as Star Wars and Star Trek or Babylon 5 and Stargate . M.U.G.E.N. is a fighting game engine that features many fan-created and fictional characters and stages from various television series, movies, as well as other video games. Crossovers of multiple characters, owned by one company or published by one publisher , have been used to set an established continuity, where characters can frequently meet within one setting. This

17286-429: Was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, 'This will be cool; everyone will think it's their Springfield.' And they do." Many landmarks, including street names, have connections to Portland. When producer James L. Brooks was working on the television variety show The Tracey Ullman Show , he decided to include small animated sketches before and after

17420-413: Was originally brought in to voice Lisa, but upon arriving at the audition, she found that Lisa was simply described as the "middle child" and at the time did not have much personality. Cartwright became more interested in the role of Bart, who was described as "devious, underachieving, school-hating, irreverent, [and] clever". Groening let her try out for the part instead, and upon hearing her read, gave her

17554-471: Was soon resolved and, from 1998 to 2004, they were paid $ 125,000 per episode. The show's revenue continued to rise through syndication and DVD sales, and in April 2004 the main cast stopped appearing for script readings, demanding they be paid $ 360,000 per episode. The strike was resolved a month later and their salaries were increased to something between $ 250,000 and $ 360,000 per episode. In 2008, production for

17688-1150: Was the 1885 Mark Twain novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , which had an important guest appearance by Tom Sawyer . Similarly, Lady Glencora Palliser from the Pallisers series of Anthony Trollope appears towards the end of Miss Mackenzie , a novel published between the first and second Palliser novels in 1865, a character first introduced in the novel, Can You Forgive Her? (1864). Andrew Lang 's 1890 collection, Old Friends: Essays in Epistolary Parody , contains letters combining characters from different sources, including one based on Jane Austen 's Northanger Abbey and Charlotte Brontë 's Jane Eyre . Kim Newman frequently uses this device, as does Stephen King . The works of James Branch Cabell , J.D. Salinger , William Faulkner , Margaret Laurence , Thomas Pynchon , Kurt Vonnegut , Mordecai Richler , Sir H. Rider Haggard , Edgar Rice Burroughs , Robert Heinlein , and Isaac Asimov also cross over with each other, linking different characters and settings together over

17822-458: Was told within the existing Valiant Comics titles (and two bookend special issues). Readers were not obliged to buy all 18 chapters as the story was coherent when reading just one title, but far more layered when all were read. Like Secret Wars , the Unity crossover had lasting effects on the Valiant universe; most notably the introduction of Turok , the birth of Magnus, Robot Fighter and the death of

17956-577: Was used by Kent Brockman in " Deep Space Homer " and has become a snowclone , with variants of the utterance used to express obsequious submission. It has been used in media, such as New Scientist magazine. The dismissive term " Meh ", believed to have been popularized by the show, entered the Collins English Dictionary in 2008. Other words credited as stemming from the show include "yoink" and "craptacular". The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations includes several quotations from

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