101 Best Written TV Series

Aired: FOX, 1989-Present

The Simpsons is as ineffable as American humor gets. Among the show's landmarks (hitting 100 episodes, then 200, then 500) was the inclusion of Homer's exclamation, "Doh!" in the Oxford English Dictionary ("used to comment on a foolish or stupid action, especially one's own"). As the story of The Simpsons' development goes, producer Polly Platt passed Matt Groening's popular alt-comic strip Life in Hell to Tracey Ullman Show producer James L. Brooks, who wanted to use the strip as brief animated segments for the Ullman sketch show. Instead, Groening created the characters of The Simpsons or what would become The Simpsons as developed by Groening, Brooks, and Sam Simon. The show's history is also the history of alumni from The Harvard Lampoon flocking to Hollywood to work in TV comedy, George Meyer, Richard Appel Jr., and Mike Reiss (a longtime executive producer with writing partner Al Jean) among them.

Credited Writers

Richard Appel
Gary Apple
Jack Barth
Bob Bendetson
Richard P. Blasucci
Neal Boushell
James L. Brooks
J. Stewart Burns
Bill Canterbury
Michael Carrington
Donick Cary
Dan Castellaneta
David Chambers
Julie Chambers
Thomas Chastain
Jeremy Chilnick
Daniel Chun
Chris Cluess
David X. Cohen
Joel H. Cohen
Robert Cohen
Jonathan Collier
Jennifer Crittenden
Keith Curran
Kevin Curran
Gregory M. Daniels
Larry Doyle
Spike Feresten
Brent Forrester
Bill Freiberger
John Frink
Peter Gaffney
Tom Gammill
Valentina L. Garza
Ricky Gervais
Howard Gewirtz
Stephanie Gillis
Mitchell H. Glazer
Allen Glazier
Evan Goldberg
Ned Goldreyer
Dana Gould
Dan Greaney
Matt Groening
Reid Harrison
Ron Hauge
Brendan Hay
Justin Hurwitz
David A. Isaacs
Al Jean
Ben Joseph
Eric Kaplan
Ken Keeler
Brian Kelley
Mick Kelly
Billy Kimball
Jay Kogen
Andrew Kreisberg
Robert R. Kushell
Deb Lacusta
Adam Lapidus
Rob LaZebnik
Ken N. Levine
Josh Lieb
Tim Long
David Mandel
Matt Marshall
Jeff S. Martin
Tom Martin
Ian H. Maxtone-Graham
Dan McGrath
George A. Meyer
Brian McConnachie
Dave Mirkin
Frank C. Mula
Michael Nobori
Bill Oakley
Conan O'Brien
Bill Odenkirk
Steve O'Donnell
Carolyn Omine
Sam O'Neal
Don Payne
Steve Pepoon
Brian Pollack
Mimi Pond
Michael Price
Max Pross
Rachel Pulido
Mike Reiss
Mert Rich
David W. Richardson
Jace Richdale
Brian Roberts
Seth Rogen
David Sacks
Nell Scovell
Brian Scully
Mike Scully
Matt Selman
Sam Simon
Dennis Snee
Morgan Spurlock
Robin J. Stein
David M. Stern
Joshua Sternin
John J. Swartzwelder
Julie Thacker
Steven R. Tompkins
Dan Vebber
Jeffrey M. Ventimilia
Patric M. Verrone
Steve Viksten
Jon M. Vitti
Matt Warburton
Josh Weinstein
Jeff Westbrook
Marc Wilmore
Penny Wise
Wallace Wolodoursky
William Wright
Steven E. Young