The Simpsons was created by Matt Groening, who conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office. He named the characters after his own family members, substituting "Bart" for his own name.The family debuted as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. In 1989, the shorts were spun off into the series The Simpsons which debuted on December 17, 1989. Since then, the series has aired over 500 episodes, 27 seasons and a film was released in 2007.