600 episodes, 27 years, 28 seasons, and countless hours of laughs from a diverse group of viewers.

On October 16, 2016 the popular TV show, “The Simpsons,” celebrated its 600th episode. This record-breaking episode was a “Treehouse of Horror” episode, a popular Halloween-themed episode that has an opening with Halloween-themed credits and then is broken into three segments.

This time the segments were “Dry Hard,” “BFF,” and “Moefinger.” “Dry Hard” was derived from the Hunger Games in which the infamous Mr. Burns has stolen Springfield’s water supply and makes the children of Springfield fight to the death for a day in his personal reservoir. In “BFF” Lisa’s long-forgotten imaginary friend seeks to be Lisa’s one and only friend by killing her real friends and anybody else who threatens her goals. Finally, in “Moefinger” Bart is recruited by Moe who reveals that his bar has an underground secret lair and the drunken people in there are really undercover agents. Bart is recruited to take Homer’s place, as he has died serving this “noble” cause. It’s also notable that this episode happened to be the 27th “Treehouse of Horror” making it “Treehouse of Horror XXVII.”

“The Simpsons” first episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” premiered on December 17, 1989. The show is co-developed by Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, and Sam Simon. Groening’s goal was to offer an alternative to “the mainstream trash.” Meanwhile, Brooks negotiated that Fox would not be allowed to interfere with the show’s content; this caused doubt in Fox’s network and then proposed that the group start with three seven-minute shorts per episode and four specials. The group took a chance, however, and said they wanted to produce 13 full-length episodes.

Sam Simon also offered an unique idea by having the actors record their voices in the same room instead of doing it separately. This brought the characters to life and created “a level of honesty to the characters” and made them “three-dimensional.” This attribute contributed to the show’s success.

Eventually, “The Simpsons” grew into one of the most popular shows on TV and is now officially the second longest running prime time series. “The Simpsons” is predicted to surpass “Gunsmoke,” the longest running prime time show with 635 episodes by 2018.

While there are many episodes of “The Simpsons,” there are certain favorites of the general public. The mass majority of the public can agree that “Marge vs. The Monorail” is the best episode. Other popular episodes include “Rosebud,” “Cape Feare,” “Treehouse of Horror V,” and “Lisa the Vegetarian.” These episodes, and many others, have made millions of people smile and laugh, some people have even grown up watching “The Simpsons.” So, while it may be all laughs and jokes, this show is also a major piece of pop culture that does not appear to be losing momentum.