The Simpsons The Simpson family. From left to right: Bart, Marge, Santa 's Little Helper (dog), Maggie, Homer, Lisa, and Snowball II (cat). Genre Animated sitcom Created by Matt Groening Based on "The Simpsons '' shorts by Matt Groening Developed by James L. Brooks Matt Groening Sam Simon Voices of Dan Castellaneta Julie Kavner Nancy Cartwright Yeardley Smith Hank Azaria Harry Shearer (Complete list) Theme music composer Danny Elfman Opening theme "The Simpsons Theme '' Composer (s) Richard Gibbs (1989 -- 90) Arthur B. Rubinstein (1990) Ray Colcord (1990: "Dead Putting Society) '' Alf Clausen (1990 -- 2017) Bleeding Fingers Music (2017 -- present) Country of origin United States Original language (s) English No. of seasons 29 No. of episodes 639 (list of episodes) Production Executive producer (s) List of exec. producers (show) James L. Brooks Matt Groening (both; entire run) Al Jean (1992 -- 1993, 1995 -- 1998; 1999 -- present) John Frink (2009 -- present) Matt Selman (2005 -- present) Sam Simon (1989 -- 1993) Mike Reiss (1992 -- 1993) David Mirkin (1993 -- 1995) Josh Weinstein (1995 -- 1997) Bill Oakley (1995 -- 1997) Mike Scully (1997 -- 2001) George Meyer (1999 -- 2001) Tim Long (2005 -- 08) Ian Maxtone - Graham (2005 -- 2012) Running time 21 -- 24 minutes Production company (s) Gracie Films (1989 -- present) 20th Century Fox Television Klasky Csupo (1989 -- 1992) Film Roman (1992 -- 2016) Fox Television Animation (2016 -- present) The Curiosity Company (2015 -- present, uncredited) AKOM Rough Draft Studios Distributor 20th Television Release Original network Fox Picture format 480i / 576i (4: 3 SDTV) (1989 -- 2009) 720p (16: 9 HDTV) (2009 -- present) Audio format Stereo (1989 -- 1991) Dolby Surround 2.0 (1991 -- 2009) Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD, broadcast 2009 -- present) Original release December 17, 1989 (1989 - 12 - 17) -- present Chronology Preceded by The Simpsons shorts from The Tracey Ullman Show External links Official website
who long has the simpsons been on tv
December 17, 1989 (1989 - 12 - 17) -- present