Editing Lisa Simpson (section)

===Creation===
[[Matt Groening]] conceived Lisa and the rest of the Simpson family in 1986 in the lobby of producer [[James L. Brooks]]'s office. Groening had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts for ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' and had intended to present an adaptation of his ''[[Life in Hell]]'' comic strip. When he realized that animating ''Life in Hell'' would require him to rescind publication rights, Groening went in another direction,<ref name="americasfirstfamily">{{cite video |people=BBC |year=2000 |title='The Simpsons': America's First Family (6-minute edit for the season 1 DVD) |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250735/ |format=DVD |location=UK |publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> hurriedly sketching his version of a [[dysfunctional family]], named after members of his own family. Lisa was named after Groening's younger sister, but little else was based on her.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2003818762_realsimpsons030.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120525111318/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2003818762_realsimpsons030.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 25, 2012 |title=The real people behind Homer Simpson and family |author=Rose, Joseph |date=August 3, 2007 |website=[[The Oregonian]]}}</ref> In ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' shorts, Lisa displayed none of the intelligence for which she later became known. She was more of a "female Bart"<ref name=MirkinBSNTH/> and was originally described as simply the "middle child", without much personality.<ref name=Carty/>

Lisa made her brief debut with the rest of the Simpson family on April 19, 1987, in ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' [[The Simpsons shorts|short]] "[[Good Night (The Simpsons)|Good Night]]".{{sfn|Richmond & Coffman|1997 |p=14}} On December 17, 1989, the shorts were adapted into ''The Simpsons'', a half-hour series on the [[Fox Broadcasting Company]].<ref name="americasfirstfamily"/>