12 Ridiculous Early Concept Designs Of Iconic Characters

Here's one set of designs that actually made it into the public eye. Before they were America's most simultaneously loved and hated family with their own show, The Simpsons were fighting for air-time on The Tracey Ullman Show. Looking back at these old bits that would air between other sketches and commercial breaks, it's hard to understand just how America could have come to fall in love with something so uncanny.

The animators had merely traced over many of show creator, Matt Groening's drawing which gave them this sharp, pointy, and jagged appearance. Characters also had this very wooden delivery for all of their lines, and the actual family dynamics had yet to be properly established, with Bart and Lisa being on much better terms, and Homer being a more decent father, always taking his family out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes.

Thankfully through sheer perseverance and consistent improvement, The Simpsons were able to leave their Tracey Ullman shells buried with everything else that was ever on The Tracey Ullman Show. Even the original animation studio that produced these crude doodles, Klasky Csupo, would go on to do great things, animating both Duckman, and a pop culture phenomenon of their own, Rugrats.

Not everything can be perfect at the start, and sometimes all it takes to get better is the will to keep working at it.