Thirty-plus years after its prime-time premiere on December 17, 1989, the American animated sitcom The Simpsons represents a pop-cultural institution: on the one hand, a globally recognized icon of American popular culture, on the other, a media text whose major subject is popular culture itself.

Today, most people in the Western world will know of The Simpsons. Many adult TV viewers, including myself, consider the series and its characters a part of their media socialization—a part of their media culture. Looking back to the show's phenomenal success in the 1990s and 2000s, the Simpsons brand appears quite dated; for younger generations, the media franchise holds far from the same attraction that it originally did for Gen Xers and millennials. But why, then, is The Simpsons still in production and being broadcast all over the world? And how have the Simpsons characters preserved their recognizability and meaning as popular cartoon icons?

This book traces the cultural phenomenon of The Simpsons. This refers not only to the eponymous television show itself but to the associated media franchise at large, as well as to various forms through which we encounter The Simpsons beyond The Simpsons. To approach this nexus, my study will reflect how media production has undergone tremendous changes over the past three decades: the television industries have shifted from broadcasting to narrowcasting; storytelling strategies have moved away from illusionist approaches toward self-referential and self-deprecating forms of representation; and traditional models of mass-communication have been reshaped by media convergence in the digital age.