Simpsons: Some interesting facts

Following the success of 'The Simpsons Movie', I have managed to dig up some interesting facts on our favourite TV family:

• The Simpsons began life as a series of 30-second cartoons on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987.
• It is America's longest running prime time show and is also seen in another 60 countries, including most of Europe, Latin America and Asia.
• President George Bush blamed them for society's ills, famously claiming that American families should be less like The Simpsons and more like The Waltons, while First Lady Barbara Bush described the show as the "dumbest thing" she ever saw.
• Homer's middle name is Jay.
• Bart's middle name is Jo-Jo and his head was inspired by a paper bag. Bart is voiced by woman, Nancy Cartwright. The show was really going to be based 100% on Bart at first. Matt Groening picked the name Bart by rearranging the letters in the word brat. Bart is an anagram for "brat."
• Bumblebee guy's real name is Pedro.
• There are 121 Springfields in the US. Matt Groening picked the name for the city because it was so common and well-known. They are a blue collar family living in the average town of Springfield.
• The president of 20th Century Fox's licensing and merchandising arm, Al Ovadia, has said he believes most people in the US own a Bart Simpson T-shirt. In 1991, Bart topped the British charts with Do the Bartman which was written by Michael Jackson.
• On the opening of every episode Maggie is listed to cost $847.63 at the cash register. It's the same amount that raising a baby costs in a year in US.
• One episode takes about 9 months to do it. They are working 7-8 episodes different episodes at same time. One episode costs about 1.5 million dollars.
• In Los Angeles about 100 animators work on the show. Animator of The Simpsons uses soft pen to sketch the scenes. There are also about 120 animators who work for the show in South Korea.
• The "couch gag" sequence is frequently used to help show staff make the show longer or shorter, depending on the length of the episode itself. Most couch gags last only about five seconds, but the longest one on record lasted 46 seconds.
• An Adelaide brewery got into big trouble when it started manufacturing Duff beer, Homer's brew of choice. Fox, owners of The Simpsons, took the brewery to court in 1996 and forced them to stop making it.
• Around 2,000 people took part in the survey which decided that rather than having an incompetent in charge of the USA, they would like Homer Simpson to take the role.
• The Simpsons currently holds the Guinness Book of World Records titles for "Longest-running Primetime Animated Series" and "Most Celebrities Featured in an Animation Series."