Alt.tv.simpsons

alt.tv.simpsons

The fruit of the discussion on alt.tv.simpsons is compiled and submitted to The Simpsons Archive.
Type of site	Television
URL	simpsonsarchive.com
Launched	March 1990
Current status	Closed

alt.tv.simpsons (called "a.t.s." by regular readers) is a usenet newsgroup dedicated to discussing the American television program The Simpsons. Created in 1990, the newsgroup became a popular community in the early 1990s. It still exists today, even when Google Groups shut down the Usenet service in 2024. It can be accessed on various news servers with a news reader and web archives like Novabbs^[1]. It is known for reviewing episodes and nitpicking minor details on the show.

The writers of The Simpsons knew about the forum and have on several occasions read the comments made on it. The character Comic Book Guy is often used in the show to lampoon and respond to the newsgroup's fans. In interviews some writers have admitted that they do not like being scrutinized, but other writers participated in the discussions on the forum. Independent commentators called the forum an example of an "active audience" and have claimed The Simpsons is tailor-made for such a forum.