I feel like it begins in 1989. The shorts on Tracey Ullman were more like proto-Simpsons and were only like what, a few minutes apiece? I remember watching them when they even came out and didn’t think too much of them other than they still seemed funny at the time. Those early shorts didn’t seem as “classic” as some of the first season episodes, I can vaguely even recall what happened in any of them and the character art was pretty rough then.
I feel like it begins in 1989. The shorts on Tracey Ullman were more like proto-Simpsons and were only like what, a few minutes apiece? I remember watching them when they even came out and didn’t think too much of them other than they still seemed funny at the time. Those early shorts didn’t seem as “classic” as some of the first season episodes, I can vaguely even recall what happened in any of them and the character art was pretty rough then.