The Simpsons At 500 Episodes

The Atlantic:

In 1987, half of Europe was controlled by the Soviet Union. Then Matt Groening, mostly known at the time for being creator of the syndicated comic strip "Life in Hell," started working on a series of animated shorts. They would air on the Tracey Ullman Show, on a then-fledgling FOX network.
James L. Brooks and Sam Simon, writers, producers, and veterans of sitcoms including Taxi and Cheers, took note of Groening's work and assembled a writing staff. By December 17, 1989, when The Simpsons premiered as a half-hour series, the Berlin Wall had fallen. The Warsaw Pact's last Stalinist, Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu, was under siege. Two years later, when FOX moved the show to Thursday nights to compete against The Cosby Show on NBC, the USSR was in ruins.
Coincidence? Well, yeah. Obviously. But the time-frame gives you some idea of just how long the show has been on the air. In the 499 episodes and 23 seasons since that fateful December day, we have had a Clinton, an Obama, and two Bushes in the White House. We've seen Keaton, Clooney, Kilmer, and Bale as Batman. We've been through a pair of Internet bubbles, three wars, and at least a dozen Brett Favre retirements and comebacks. Along the way, the population of these United States has jumping from 248 million to 312 million, meaning more than 64 million Americans alive today have never known a world without Maggie, Lisa, Bart, Marge, and Homer in it.

I remember tuning in to The Tracey Ullman Show and loving those animated shorts.  I was extremely excited at the prospect of a Simpsons series.  And I'm still tuning in.  They've mailed some shows in over the years, but there are often 3 or 4 classic episodes a season.  I never thought the show would last this long, but I'm sure glad it has.