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For more than 35 years, The Simpsons has carved an indelible place in animation history. The titular family has earned a place in pop culture history, adapting with the times. However, the biggest change happened before the first episode of The Simpsons debuted in 1989. As the voice actor who has played Bart Simpson for decades explains, the bad boy of the family was much worse when he first appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show back in 1987.

During a Reddit AMA, Nancy Cartwright, who has voiced Bart Simpson on both The Tracey Ullman Show and the now-iconic The Simpsons spin-off, was asked what she thought had changed the most about Bart as a character. According to her, Bart’s worst characteristics were toned down when the show moved from shorts to full-length episodes.

“Actually, when we were on the Tracey Ullman Show, I think Bart was mostly antagonistic and that definitely has a sort of humor to it, but mostly because people are rejecting him being so mean. When we switched to the half-hour episodes, you need a more dimensional character. There’s more opportunity to have humor that’s not solely based on violence and beating up Lisa. As the years have gone by it’s been more about Bart’s antics and more good-natured situations he gets in.”

Watching back those early shorts from The Tracey Ullman Show can be tough. Not simply because of how much the animation has changed, but because of how unrecognizable those characters are from what we’ve come to know. Thankfully, the writers on The Simpsons realized they needed to tone down some of his harsher and more aggressive personality. Once the show shifted formats, he became a mischievous trouble-maker rather than an outright bully.