The Simpsons Family History: Aye carumba this is awesome

The Simpsons Family History: A Celebration of Television’s Favorite Family is not what I expected but I am 100% OK with that.  I expected a blow by blow account of how each episode is made and some photos from the animators and voice over artists doing their craft.  In reality the book is soup to nuts how Marge and Homer met, fell in love, had kids and found Santa’s Little Helper. It features art that is taken from the source that reminds viewers of the art that is at the root of the longest-running American sitcom, longest-running animated series and longest- running primetime scripted series.

In case you’re keeping count it’s 25 years that The Simpsons have been on television.  That’s not including the two years that they spent on The Tracye Ullman Show.  It’s fascinating to see the growth that the series underwent from that period to where they are today.  The show is still very funny across many platforms and when I look at The Simpsons Family History it brings such a big smile to me.

The book is large, heavy and packed with great quality stills from the show.  The images are shown in the way that they happened in the lives of Homer and Marge, but out of sequential order from the show.

There are some very funny stills from a later episode that deals with Home when is a little boy and Mona, his mother has become an activist.  She says good-bye and that she’s going to chain herself to a nuclear submarine, leaving him momentarily distraught until he discovers KFC in the refrigerator.

We’re reminded of great characters like Artie Ziff, Marge’s date for the prom and how Homer saved her and eventually had the better night.   Do you remember when Homer was a grunge rock star in the group Sadgasm?  How about when he and Barney went on a talent show?

There are so many good memories brought back by this book.  I hadn’t seen all of the episodes in question, but that really wasn’t necessary because it does a great job of filling in the blanks.

Late in the book it deals with the birth of Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as, the adoption of Santa’s Little Helper.  The Simpson’s Family History, A Celebration of Television’s Favorite Family is a great book for fans of the show.  It retails for $35, but if you do a search for it Amazon you can find it for $22.  If you like The Simpsons then this book will give you a big smile, just like it does for me.  It’s funny, high quality and is dizzying in how thoroughly it documents the life of Springfield’s favorite family.