The dog was introduced in the first episode of the show, the 1989 Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in which his owner abandons him for finishing last in a greyhound race.

Homer Simpson and his son Bart, who are at the race track in hope of winning some money for Christmas presents, see this and decide to adopt the dog.

Some of the episodes that focus on Santa's Little Helper have been inspired by popular culture or real experiences that staff members of the show have gone through.

In that episode, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (season one, 1989), Homer discovers that he has no money to buy Christmas presents for the family.

[4] In various episodes, Santa's Little Helper can be seen chewing on newspapers and other objects in the Simpsons' household, destroying furniture, and digging holes in the backyard.

This bonding breaks down the communication barrier, allowing the dog to understand Bart's commands, and consequently pass the obedience school.

In "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" (season six, episode twenty, 1995), he runs away to the dog racing track where he mates with a female hound named She's the Fastest.

[8] Santa's Little Helper sires another litter of puppies with Dr. Hibbert's poodle in the episode "Today I Am a Clown" (season 15, 2003).

[10] In "Dog of Death" (season three, 1992), he nearly dies of bloat and they decide to make budget cuts in order to pay for the required operation.

Although the dog's life is saved, the family begins to feel the strain of their sacrifices and starts treating him badly, causing him to run away.

Several days later, Bart stumbles upon the trained Santa's Little Helper and is attacked, but the greyhound eventually recognizes his old friend and stops.

[11] In "The Canine Mutiny" (season eight, 1997), Bart uses a fake charge card to buy a well-trained rough collie named Laddie from a mail-order catalog.

Laddie learns many tricks that Santa's Little Helper is completely unable to perform, and the Simpson family nearly forgets about their old pet.

Bart eventually gives Santa's Little Helper away instead of Laddie when repo men take back everything he fraudulently purchased.

When he finally finds him, Santa's Little Helper is serving as a seeing-eye dog for a blind man, but eventually decides to return to the family.

[12] In "Stop or My Dog Will Shoot" (season 18, 2007), Santa's Little Helper becomes a local hero after finding a lost Homer, and the Simpsons decide to enroll him in the Animal Police Academy.

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening told TV Guide in 2000 that "we [the staff] painted ourselves into a corner with our Christmas episode.

[23] Tom Coombe of The Morning Call wrote in 2002 that "fans of The Simpsons will tell you that the cartoon family's dog [...] is often dumb, disobedient and skittish.

"[28] Although cast member Dan Castellaneta occasionally voiced Santa's Little Helper for bit parts,[18] American voice artist Frank Welker most often provided the sounds of the dog and other animals on the show from "Bart's Dog Gets an 'F'", which aired on March 7, 1991, to "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily", which aired on October 1, 1995.

[19] After 1995, Castellaneta voiced Santa's Little Helper on his own while Welker performed other animal noises until his full departure in 2002, when he was denied a pay raise.

[30] In the "questions and answers" section on his website, Welker revealed that the reason he stopped performing as Santa's Little Helper was because "The producers thought... 'Hmmm, Dan barks pretty good, and we are already paying him and he seems to like doing the dog thing... why do we need to pay Welker who comes in here, spends less than an hour, eats all the doughnuts, refuses to come to rehearsals... let's just give the damn dog to Dan!

A writer for The Grand Rapids Press wrote in 2002 that "we all know who Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie are—heck, most Americans probably recognize their pets, Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II".

[32] According to a writer for McClatchy News Service, the rankings were "determined by popularity, name recognition and how long the show lasted.

In a realm of aggressively anthropomorphic canines, some of whom, admittedly, have strong speech impediments, he doesn’t talk or wisecrack or engage in shenanigans.

Consequently, episodes devoted to Santa’s Little Helper tend to be a little on the sleepy side, even the Simpsons Christmas special that launched the series.

[47] Santa's Little Helper has made an impact on real life in that an espresso-based drink has been named after him at the award-winning restaurant and bar Bambara in Salt Lake City's Hotel Monaco.