Couch Gag

The opening sequence of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' is among the most popular opening sequences in television. It is accompanied by " ''The Simpsons'' Theme", one of television's most recognizable theme songs. The first episode to use this introduction was the series' second episode "Bart the Genius".

Each episode 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 Simpson family on their way home. Upon entering their house, the Simpsons settle down on their couch to watch television. One of the most distinctive aspects of the opening is that three of its elements change from episode to episode: Bart writes different phrases on the school chalkboard, Lisa plays different solos on her saxophone (or occasionally a different instrument), and different visual gags accompany the family as they enter their living room to sit on the couch.

The standard opening has had two major revisions. The first was at the start of the second season when the entire sequence was reanimated to improve the quality and certain shots were changed generally to add characters who had been established in the first season. The second was a brand-new opening sequence produced in high-definition for the show's transition to that format beginning with "Take My Life, Please" in season 20. The new opening generally followed the sequence of the original opening with improved graphics, even more characters, and new jokes.

Sequence

1990

This sequence opens with the show's title in yellow approaching the camera through misty cumulus clouds in a dark blue sky. The shot cuts through the counter in the letter "P" to an establishing shot of the town of Springfield.

The camera zooms in through the town, toward a lavender Springfield Elementary and then through a window to a lavender classroom, where Bart is writing lines on the chalkboard as a punishment, and three drawings are seen on the wall. When the school bell rings, Bart leaves in a hurry and skateboards out of the school doors.

The shot cuts to Homer working at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant wearing a safety mask while handling a glowing green rod of uranium with a pair of silver tongs. An unknown co-worker in the background eats a sandwich with another pair of tongs. The end-of-shift whistle blows, and Homer immediately takes off his mask and drops his tongs to leave work. As he does so, the uranium rod bounces into the air and falls down the back of his radiation suit.

The next shot shows Marge and Maggie checking out at a supermarket. Maggie, who is sitting on the conveyor belt, is inadvertently scanned along with the groceries as Marge reads a magazine. Maggie is rung up at a price of $847.63 (representing the monthly cost of raising a child at the time) and bagged. Marge frantically looks around for Maggie as the bag is dropped into her shopping cart which startles her and makes her turn around, then breathes a sigh of relief when she pops up from the bag.

Lisa is shown next at band practice. The opening theme coordinates with this shot, and is orchestrated as if it were played by the school band. Mr. Largo stops the rest of the band to order Lisa out of the rehearsal for her unorthodox playing of her saxophone, which is light blue in this sequence, but gold in the episode. She continues to improvize on her way out of the room.

Shots of the family on their way home to 742 Evergreen Terrace are then shown. As Homer drives through Springfield, he fumbles behind his neck, pulls the uranium rod out of his shirt collar, and throws it out the car window. As it bounces off the curb near Moe's Tavern, Bart skateboards past, noticing a bank of televisions in a store window he passes showing Krusty the Clown; he then passes a bus stop and unwittingly steals its sign. The five unknown characters waiting at the stop then chase after a bus that fails to stop for them.

As soon as Bart crosses the road, a car drives past and Maggie is seen inside at the steering wheel. The camera alternates between close-ups of her jerking the wheel back and forth and the car veering wildly, it then zooms out to reveal that her wheel is only a toy. Marge is actually driving the car, and Maggie imitates her horn-honking. Lisa then rides her bicycle down the street, her books and saxophone case strapped into the front basket and the back of her seat, respectively; when she hits a bump, the books are briefly jolted upward but held down by the straps.

Lisa is the first to arrive at home as the garage door opens, jumping off her bike with her things, letting it roll into the garage, and running for the front door. Homer pulls into the driveway and parks, after which Bart bounces his skateboard off the car roof and follows Lisa toward the door. When Homer steps out of the car, he screams at the sight of Marge's car approaching and runs into the garage; the shot switches briefly to Marge's perspective as he escapes through a door into the house and she stops just short of crashing into the wall. The family members then enter the living room from different directions, creating a segue into the couch gag and finally the creator and developers' credits, shown on the television screen.

Notably in "Bart the Genius", the famous high-pitched scream of Homer's when he runs from Marge's car into the house is cut. The scream is added in the third episode, "Homer's Odyssey".

1990–2009

For the second season, the original opening was reanimated. Most shots were very closely copied, with some shots (such as Homer's first shot) appearing to be traced. The coloring was changed on most shots, and the characters and animation were cleaned up.

Some scenes were replaced or modified: In Bart's chalkboard gag, the school is now orange with purple accents instead of lavender, the classroom is now olive green instead of lavender, there are desks, a red wastebasket and a bookshelf in the background, and a photo of Homer as George Washington and a clock are seen on walls. In Homer's first shot at the power plant, Homer's tongs are now orange instead of silver, and Mr. Burns and Smithers study certain plans in the background in place of the unknown co-worker. When the end-of-shift whistle blows, Mr. Burns checks his wristwatch to see if it is working, he then starts shaking it suggesting that it isn't working.

When Bart skateboards down the sidewalk, the scenery is different, the bank of televisions is changed and shorter, and Bart no longer notices them. Instead, he weaves in between a series of secondary characters who crowd the sidewalk and then crosses the road near Moe's Tavern, earning the ire of Chief Wiggum. This segment is notably shorter than the original bus-stop segment.

Lisa's bike ride is cut, and instead, upon Marge and Maggie honking their horns, there is a "whip-pan" across the town, featuring a significant number of secondary characters, towards the Simpsons' house. Homer reaches the house first instead of Lisa, and Bart bounces his skateboard off the car and rolls toward the front door. Homer leaves his car and has to dodge Lisa as she pedals up the driveway, following Bart without dismounting from her bike. The difference in the driveway scene is that Lisa's saxophone is no longer in the case, but on the back of her bike. Finally, the family television has been redesigned to give it a more retro style than in season 1.

Since this season, there have been some episodes that had the opening sequence start from the driveway scene. After the first half of season 2, a yell of " D'oh" of Homer's when he dodges Lisa on her bike was added. Starting with season 3, the new arrangement of the opening theme is used throughout the intro.

2009–present

The new opening sequence was animated for the show's transition to the High Definition format, premiering with the season 20 episode "Take My Life, Please". This sequence is similar to the previous one, but features many visual changes that take advantage of the wider format.

The sequence opens as usual with movement through cumulus clouds, while a 3-eyed crow flies by. The crow is sometimes replaced by Shary Bobbins flying by using her umbrella, a stork carrying Maggie in a bag, Homer on a chair on balloons, Santa's Little Helper catching a frisbee or on his flying doghouse (a reference to Snoopy's flying ace story in ''The Peanuts Movie''), the Planet Express Ship from '' Futurama'', Maggie and Grampa bringing down the old and up the new year ribbons respectively, and others. In some HD episodes, the beginning just shows the title and cuts through the counter in the "P" (similar to the past sequences). The camera then zooms past the nuclear power plant and into the town square where Jimbo and Kearney saw off the head of the statue of Jebediah Springfield (a callback to " The Telltale Head") which falls onto the head of Ralph, who is holding an ice cream cone. As it falls on him, he inadvertently tosses the cone into the statue's eye. Then, in selected episodes from "How the Test Was Won" to "Moe Letter Blues", he says a few words after the head falls on him. The camera then weaves through several buildings and structures, featuring a "billboard gag" towards Springfield Elementary and zooms through the familiar window where Bart writes lines as punishment on the chalkboard. In the background, the wastebasket is now dark green instead of red. And the picture on the wall is Homer as an astronaut instead of George Washington. When the bell rings and Bart skateboards out of the school doors, plowing into a pile of leaves raked up by Groundskeeper Willie while landing on and exposing Barney who is buried underneath which also causes him to belch.

Homer is shown at the power plant, and in the background, Lenny Leonard is standing on a ladder changing the number of "days without an accident" on the sign from 2 to 3. When the end-at-shift whistle blows, Lenny falls off the ladder onto Carl Carlson who is securing the bottom of the ladder, and as in the previous opening sequences, the green uranium rod falls into Homer's clothing as he leaves. The scene changes to Marge at the supermarket checkout with her older twin sisters, Patty and Selma. Among the products Marge is buying is Tomacco juice, Mr. Sparkle detergent and Krusty-O's cereal. Maggie is scanned, and the price doubles from $243.26 to $486.52, before she is put in the shopping cart. When Maggie pops her head out of the paper bag, Marge looks relatively calm and does not panic, unlike in the previous sequences. Maggie shakes her fist at Baby Gerald, who is beside her in another shopping cart, and Baby Gerald shakes his fist too. At band practice, Mr. Largo dismisses Lisa, who plays a solo as she leaves and then pokes her head back in the door to finish it. One notable difference from the previous opening sequences is Sherri and Terri, who are texting messages instead of playing their flutes. Another one is that Bart's classmates Martin and Wendell appear in the background. Also, Lisa's saxophone is now gold like during almost every episode instead of light blue, and she is occasionally depicted playing a different instrument (trumpet, harp, etc.).

Homer is then shown driving home and discards the stuck uranium rod out the window; it lands in Otto's lap and he eats it. Bart skateboards past Otto before weaving through several townspeople: a machete-swinging Sideshow Bob, Helen Lovejoy, Apu and his octuplets, Moe, Comic Book Guy, Disco Stu, the Crazy Cat Lady, the Rich Texan and Chief Wiggum, who shakes his baton at Bart as Bart crosses the road. Hans Moleman pokes his head out from a manhole, which slams down on him when Marge drives over it in her car. Marge is now driving an orange station wagon instead of a red sedan, reflecting the change in the show. Maggie is shown in a booster seat in the middle while Grampa sleeps next to her. When Marge and Maggie honk their respective horns, Grampa is startled awake and his dentures fall out.

The camera then pans across Springfield and then cuts to the driveway scene. Unlike the other two opening sequences, Marge's car now hits Homer and carries him on the hood until it stops short, flinging him ahead to smash a Homer-shaped hole through the door. The couch gag is shown before the credits are displayed on a new, wall-mounted widescreen plasma television, which sometimes falls off and breaks or (in some episodes) the credits are presented in another way.

Notably, in "Take My Life, Please", the loud belch of Barney's when Bart plows into him is cut. The belch was added in the sixth HD episode, " Wedding for Disaster".

In the 500th episode, the opening sequence was a montage of all previous couch gags.

Some episodes since season 22 do not feature an opening sequence at all, instead it cuts from the clouds to the start of the episode.

Season 30 was the first season to not include shots of the family on their way home. Season 32 was the first season to only include chalkboard gags, the driveway scene and couch gags, and Season 33 was the first season to exclude the chalkboard gags at the beginning of each episode.

Development and variations

Creator Matt Groening developed a lengthy opening sequence for the first season of ''The Simpsons'', in order to cut down on the animation necessary for each episode, but devised the two gags as compensation for the repeated material each week. In the first of the original gags, the camera zooms in on Springfield Elementary School, where Bart can be seen writing a message on the chalkboard. This message, which changes from episode to episode, has become known as the "chalkboard gag". The other gag is known as a "couch gag", in which a twist of events occur when the family meets to sit on their couch and watch television. Groening, who had not paid much attention to television since his own childhood, was unaware that title sequences of such length were uncommon by that time. The episode "Bart the Genius" was the first to feature the series' full title sequence. The theme, which plays over the sequence, was composed by Danny Elfman in 1989, after Groening approached him requesting a retro-style theme. The piece, which took two days to create, has been noted by Elfman as the most popular of his career.

The season two episode " Bart Gets an 'F" featured a revised opening sequence and a rearranged version of the theme, which was shortened by fifteen seconds from its original length of roughly 90 seconds. The opening sequence for the first season showed Bart stealing a "Bus Stop" sign; whilst the new sequence featured him skateboarding past several characters who had been introduced during the previous season. Starting with this season, there were three versions of the opening: a full roughly 1-minute-15-second-long version, a 45-second-long version and a 25-second-long version. This gave the show's editors more leeway. The current arrangement of the theme by Alf Clausen was introduced in season 3.

"Take My Life, Please" was the first episode of ''The Simpsons'' to air in 720p high-definition television, though not the first time ''The Simpsons'' appeared in high-definition, as ''The Simpsons Movie'' was rendered in HD. This episode was the first to feature the new opening sequence. It was the first major permanent change to the show's introduction since the opening added in season two; previous changes have included variations in the duration of the intro, and special one-shot introductions for the ''Treehouse of Horror'' Halloween episodes, as well as a handful of others. This new intro also includes some 3D animation when the camera pans over Springfield. ''The Simpsons'' creator Matt Groening told the ''New York Post'': "The clouds at the very beginning of the main title were always unsatisfying to me. My original direction to the animators was to make the clouds as realistic as possible, and as we go through the clouds we enter this cartoon universe of ''The Simpsons''. Finally, after a couple of decades, they've gotten closer to what I had in my mind. Not perfect, but better."

The two original variations were further expanded to these variations:
* Something different flies past the show's logo in the clouds at the start of the intro (since 2009).
* The billboard in front of the elementary school changes (since 2009).
* Bart writes something different on the chalkboard in every episode.
* Lisa may play a different solo on her saxophone (or on a different instrument entirely).
* Homer's scream changes as he dodges Marge (first two seasons only).
* The Simpsons attempt to sit on the couch as something goes awry in an often surreal manner.
* In the 2009 intro, Ralph says something different when the head of Jebediah Springfield falls on him (selected episodes in season 20 and season 21).
* At the end of the sequence, the TV set sometimes comes loose from its wall mount and smashes on the floor (since 2009).

Billboard gag

The billboard gag is a running visual joke added to the opening sequence with the updated 2009 high-definition opening. In the gag, a billboard is seen on the roof of the building across the street from the elementary school as the camera pans through the town. The billboard changes every episode. The first episode with a billboard gag was "Take My Life, Please" where the billboard says "Krusty: Now Doing Funerals".

Chalkboard gag

The chalkboard gag is a running visual joke that occurs during the opening credits of many episodes. In this gag, Bart Simpson is writing lines on the chalkboard as a punishment; when the school bell rings, he immediately stops writing and runs out of the classroom. The phrase he writes on the chalkboard changes from episode to episode. Chalkboard messages may involve political humor such as "The First Amendment does not cover burping", pop culture references such as "I can't see dead people" (''The Sixth Sense'') and "I was not the sixth Beatle", and meta-references such as "I am not a 32-year-old woman" (in reference to Bart's voice actress Nancy Cartwright) and "Nobody reads these anymore". When possible, Bart is shown deliberately disobeying the line that he is writing on the chalkboard (e.g. squeaking chalk when asked to write "I will not squeak chalk", putting in ditto marks for "I will not cut corners", showing dis-coordination with "coffee is not for kids", or putting "I will finish what I sta" for a single line). In ''The Simpsons Movie'', the gag, "I will not illegally download this movie", is a reference to piracy. In MyPods and Boomsticks, the couch gag was the family finding Bart writing "I will not bring the chalkboard home" on a chalkboard in front of the couch. The animators are able to produce the chalkboard gags quickly and in some cases have changed them to fit current events. For example, the chalkboard gag for "Homer the Heretic" reads, "I will not defame New Orleans