The Simpsons has changed a lot since its first episode, which is one that fans fondly remember, but it was originally going to be very different. Created by Matt Groening, The Simpsons began as a series of shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987, and after just three seasons, it was developed into a half-hour prime time show, making its official debut on Fox in 1989. Since then, The Simpsons has become the longest-running American animated series and continues to be unstoppable, with more than 30 seasons and counting.
The Simpsons follows the daily adventures of the title family in the fictional town of Springfield alongside other notable citizens, of which some are close friends of the family (like Milhouse van Houten and Barney Gumble) and others play an antagonist, sometimes villainous role, as happens with Sideshow Bob and Mr. Burns. Although these recurrent characters always play a role in the adventures of the Simpsons, there are some episodes that are focused on the family and no one else, allowing the audience to know them a bit more, and that was the case of the series’ very first episode.
The episode through which the audience was introduced to the Simpsons was “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, a Christmas story in which the title family struggled to have the holiday celebration they wanted due to lack of money, this after Mr. Burns cut his employees' Christmas bonuses and one of Bart’s pranks that involved a tattoo and its expensive removal. In the end, the family had a good Christmas despite their financial struggles and even welcomed a new member to the family: a dog named Santa’s Little Helper, who has stayed by their side ever since. However, the original premise for the first episode of The Simpsons was completely different and would have focused more on Homer, Marge, and their dynamic, without the Christmas backdrop.
Speaking to THR in 2012 in celebration of The Simpsons’ 500th episode, showrunner Al Jean reminisced about the beginnings of the series. Jean shared that the premise of the first full episode they wrote was Homer being worried that Marge would get drunk at a party and thus get him in trouble at the office, which now after decades of Simpsons adventures doesn’t seem fitting with the characters. It sounds like Marge and Homer exchanged roles in that story with Marge implied to have a drinking problem, but Jean didn’t give any more details about it. It’s worth noting that “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, while it was the first Simpsons episode to air, wasn’t planned to be the first one. In fact, season 1’s finale, “Some Enchanted Evening”, was going to be The Simpsons’ pilot episode, but there were a number of behind-the-scenes issues that led to the series premiere being delayed, and by the time it was supposed to debut, it was late December, so they decided to go with “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, which was the eighth episode produced.
Jean didn’t offer a reason why the original premise for the first episode of The Simpsons was changed, but it most likely has to do with the story going through rewrites and the characters’ personalities and more still developing – case in point, the original plan for Lisa was to be “this little hell-raiser like Bart”, but that changed as they continued building the characters. It would be interesting to know what the rest of that first episode was going to be like, as it sounds like the personalities of Marge and Homer were swiped, but what’s for sure is that, had they carried on with that idea, The Simpsons would be very different today.