There’s a lumpy brown couch that everyone knows.
Every week for years, five yellow bums found their way on to that couch in a new way.
728 ways, to be precise.
Now there are so many episodes of the Simpsons that you can watch two a day for a year, each with a unique “family gathering on the couch” scene.
And there’s a whole 20 minute episode after it too.
These days we are so used to skipping the intro that we forget how much of a pleasure it was to get that one new scene every episode.
Not every scene is great. And I’m sure there are some days they wish they’d never started doing it.
But that little nod to the audience, a brief gratitude for watching the credits, made the Simpsons stand out then and now.
How do they come up with a new idea every time?
It’s simple: They have to.
They committed.
People love it when you keep a promise.