The Tracey Ullman Show
5W08
TV Flash files “5W08” as the last listed hour of season 2 — The Tracey Ullman Show (1987–1990) on Fox, season 2, episode 22, aired 1988-05-08, 25 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E22: listed hour 35 of 82 in the The Tracey Ullman Show guide, last listed hour of season 2. It aired 1988-05-08 (25 min). The listed hour before it is “5W09” (S02E21). Next is “Backstage Special” (S03E01).
Viewer FAQ
Where does 5W08 sit in the The Tracey Ullman Show guide?
S02E22 is listed hour 35 of 82 — last listed hour of season 2, season 2 episode 22.
When did The Tracey Ullman Show S02E22 air?
5W08 aired 1988-05-08 and is listed at 25 minutes.
Is this just where The Simpsons started?
The shorts debuted here before the 1989 series, and the later profit dispute is origin-story litigation. The show is still Ullman's accents, songs, and sketches — variety as network-building.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Fox's early identity crisis in the best way: Ullman's accents, songs, and sketches, plus those Simpsons bumpers that accidentally founded a dynasty. Variety as network-building. A British polymath on a baby network, then the origin-story lawsuit that followed when yellow cartoons ate the universe. The sketches still reward a rewatch.
Fox, 1987–1990: a British comic chameleon packs sketches, music, and animated bumpers into half hours — a baby network trying on a face. That is the calendar, not a nostalgia variety hour with extra sequins. The Tracey Ullman Show, from James L. Brooks, put Ullman's accents and songs beside Julie Kavner and Dan Castellaneta, Paula Abdul-era choreography, and Simpsons shorts that debuted here before the 1989 series. Variety as network-building. The bumpers accidentally founded a dynasty. Rex can keep the martini…
Filed against
- Tracey Ullman as Various
Tracey Ullman’s accents, songs, and sketches gave a baby Fox its early identity — plus those Simpsons bumpers that accidentally founded a dynasty — then played Mrs. America’s ERA culture war in an ensemble that refuses a simple villain.…
- Julie Kavner as Various
Julie Kavner’s Marge Simpson is the blue-hair patience of Fox’s yellow family — a reference language still adding pages while the country litigates whether the golden age is over. Not a sitcom you finish. On TV Flash she is the…
- Dan Castellaneta as Various
Dan Castellaneta voices Homer Simpson — the yellow everyman who turned “D’oh!” into a global punctuation mark. Decades of The Simpsons mean his throat is half of American cartoon history. TV Flash tips the doughnut to the man behind the…