Image courtesy of Everett Collection
Published Jul 2, 2026, 8:57 AM EDT
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
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Although The Simpsons is arguably the most quotable TV show in the history of the medium, the show’s best line ever is more than just a great gag. As The Simpsons prepares to change formats in 2026, the show’s place in pop culture history is once again becoming a popular topic of conversation. The Simpsons is currently the longest-running US scripted prime-time TV series and the longest-running sitcom in American TV history, and the show also holds the record as the longest-running animated comedy of all time.
However, all of these specific accolades still manage to somehow underplay just how pivotal a role the best American sitcom of all time has played in TV history. Not only are there dozens of specific episodes of The Simpsons that are considered masterpieces by TV critics, but the show’s historic popularity during its early years and its longevity since have played a huge part in the mainstreaming of adult animation as a major force in the entertainment industry.
Before the advent of The Simpsons, adult cartoons were mostly relegated to niche cult hits like Ralph Bakshi’s confrontational satires Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic. After the success of The Simpsons, the floodgates were opened. First, there was the generation of shows influenced by The Simpsons in the late '90s and early 2000s, including Family Guy, the similarly long-running South Park, King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-head, and Daria. Then, there was a generation of shows influenced by these shows themselves.
Without Family Guy, viewers would never have gotten American Dad or The Cleveland Show, and without King of the Hill, there would likely be no Bob’s Burgers. In turn, no Bob’s Burgers means no The Great North or Central Park, and this is without even getting into shows that have direct creative links to The Simpsons, such as Futurama and Disenchantment. Even bawdier, R-rated later hits like Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty and Smiling Friends, Solar Opposites, and Netflix shows like BoJack Horseman and Big Mouth owe The Simpsons a debt.
The clearest way to articulate what was so influential and original about The Simpsons can be surmised, fittingly enough, by a line from the show. Specifically, it is a quote from Homer in season 5, episode 18, “Burns’ Heir,” that was deemed memorable enough to enter The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations in 2007, 13 years after the episode first aired.
The episode sees Bart audition, along with the rest of Springfield’s kids, to become the heir to Mr. Burns’ massive fortune when he dies. When Bart wins this coveted role, Marge guilts him into spending time with his wealthy mentor, only for Bart to then reject his own family thanks to his newfound riches and life of luxury. This storyline inevitably ends with the family reunited and, just as inevitably, no richer than they were when the episode began.
As the misadventure comes to a close, Homer lands his children with a life lesson that flips the usual sitcom script on its head, telling them: “Kids, you tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.” The line is a funny subversion of expectations on its own, a jarring riposte to the usual platitudes that viewers have expected from family sitcoms since the days of Happy Days.
However, in an era where the shows listed above have largely inured viewers to cynical irony, it is important to situate this gag in its original cultural context. It is tough to overstate just how much The Simpsons built its reputation by taking the schmaltzy golden moments of '80s family sitcoms like Full House, Family Matters, or The Cosby Show and ironically subverting them, adding a cynical edge to their saccharine clichés.
The Simpsons’ Greatest Quote Had A Massive Influence On TV
MovieStillsDBTo be fair to the show’s live-action competitors, The Simpsons wasn’t the only show to subvert the family sitcom formula. By the late '80s, family sitcoms had become sweet enough to cause proverbial tooth decay, so shows like Roseanne and Married… With Children also stood out from the crowd by subverting this expectation. However, Roseanne did so with a surprisingly edgy depiction of blue-collar, working-class life, while Married… With Children used toilet humor to differentiate itself from the countless G-rated competitors.
What The Simpsons did with this gag was different. A lot like Larry David’s famous “No hugging, no learning” rule when he wrote for Seinfeld, this quote from The Simpsons was just one of many cases where the show lampooned the typical depiction of sitcom dads as patient arbiters of morality. Homer was arguably the worst, or at least the most amoral, member of the titular family, so his life lessons were fittingly terrible.
It is tough to overstate how much this shaped the formula of animated sitcoms that followed. Almost every episode of South Park ended with Kyle stating the ostensible “lesson” he learned that week, which was invariably a tasteless, flagrantly offensive conclusion. From their theme songs onward, Family Guy and American Dad both spoofed old-fashioned sitcoms like Father Knows Best with their amoral protagonists and gleefully dark “Life lessons.”
The Simpsons’ Best Quote Comes From An Iconic Episode
In the most thoughtful articulation of this trope, self-confessed Simpsons superman Bob Raphael Waksberg deconstructed the entire '80s family sitcom boom itself, and the dark culture behind it, in Netflix's critically acclaimed BoJack Horseman. That hit’s six seasons centered on a self-obsessed, self-loathing former sitcom star who, instead of taking accountability for his failures, reverts to the shallow bromides he recited in his “Very famous TV show” to make himself feel better.
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What makes this line's cutltural impact so impressive is the fact that, while The Simpsons shaped an entire era of anti-sitcoms with its aggressively flawed characters and lack of reassuring lessons learned, the line doesn’t even stick out in “Burns’ Heir.” Like so many episodes from The Simpsons season 5, this outing would be an all-time great top 50 episode even if it didn’t have this quote, which goes to show just how historically strong the writing of The Simpsons was during this legendary Golden Age of the show.
Release Date December 17, 1989
Network FOX
Showrunner Al Jean
Directors Steven Dean Moore, Mark Kirkland, Rob Oliver, Michael Polcino, Mike B. Anderson, Chris Clements, Wes Archer, Timothy Bailey, Lance Kramer, Nancy Kruse, Matthew Faughnan, Chuck Sheetz, Rich Moore, Jeffrey Lynch, Pete Michels, Susie Dietter, Raymond S. Persi, Carlos Baeza, Dominic Polcino, Lauren MacMullan, Michael Marcantel, Neil Affleck, Swinton O. Scott III, Jennifer Moeller
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Homer Simpson / Abe Simpson / Barney Gumble / Krusty (voice)
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Marge Simpson / Patty Bouvier / Selma Bouvier (voice)
English (US) ·