h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is the Simpsons really the longest running cartoon? I've always thought Dragonball has over 400 episodes. Can anyone confirm this?

It is! It has been on primetime for over 10 years. Maybe the 400 episodes were not as spaced out but the Simpsons are in teh Guinness Book of Records with the accolade of longest running cartoon series.

It depends how you count.

There have actually been three Dragonballs. The first was just called Dragonball. The second was Dragonball Z, and that is currently being shown in the US on the Cartoon Network. The third is Dragonball GT, which is still being produced in Japan to my knowledge. Check the fan sites for more info on the differences between them.

Overall, more than 500 episodes have been produced by the Dragonball franchise. The hitch is that you can count these as being divided into three different series, each of which has shown fewer episodes than the Simpsons.

I can't confirm that but if you activate your homepage people will stop by to say hi!

My personal hope is that people at least take into account that one episode of the Simpsons is equivalent to least fifty episodes of Dragonball. It is stretch to even consider Dragonball animated. It's difficult to compare Dragonball and The Simpsons (in an animation sense), when one is an animated television series and the other is a poorly arranged series crudely drawn images that animation camera pan across while the main characters laugh for thirty minutes. Technically speaking, they are both animated and therefore comparable... though it is a stretch.

On a lighter note, I have read other places that The Simpsons is the longest running primetime series (be it animated or not) ever! Is this wrong?

I'm not sure, but I would seriously doubt it. You'd have long-running sitcoms and old TV comedies to contend with.

I know that the longest running television series is Doctor Who. It ran for something 20 years. If someone has an exact length of run of the show, please respond.

I found this list [Broken link removed by Moderator]

Is only US shows, though. Simpsons is #26. Gunsmoke #1 with a 20yr production run.

I've never seen any of the Dragonball shows - my question would be if they were ever shown in primetime? I did state that The Simpsons is the longest-running *primetime* animated show.

I read somewhere once that the some of the Simpsons staff is hoping to pass Gunsmoke. They still have a ways to go, however, and Law & Order isn't that far behind. Lucky for them that Bev. Hills 90210 finally gave up........