From its debut on Dec. 17, 1989, “The Simpsons” was a hit, but with its seventh episode of the season, “The Call of the Simpsons,” on Feb. 18, 1990, the show began its 12-year run as one of the best stops for TV entertainment.

During that span, it had to compete with “Roseanne,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Seinfeld” and a dozen other truly great shows.

And it was “The Simpsons,” with its clever writing, its endless supply of unique characters and its dissection of the everyday, which kept pace and even pulled ahead of some of the best shows of the time.

One of the best features of “The Simpsons” was, and still is, the sight gags.

They are splattered macaronically throughout the show, forcing viewers to watch every second for fear of missing something purely visual, like a gun shop called Bloodbath and Beyond, a church message that reads: “No Shoes. No Shirt. No Salvation,” or the Springfield General Hospital sign that reads: “Quality care or your autopsy free.”

If you tuned in anytime during those 12 years, you were in for a donkey punch to the funny bone. But after a while, Father Time did his thing and started to erode the greatness that was “The Simpsons.”

The third episode of season 13, “Homer the Moe,” aired Nov. 18, 2001, and it marked the beginning of the decline.

Around this time, the show began to tread away from its believable story lines, like Homer trying to hide the family’s money troubles or Lisa having a crush, to wacked-out premises like Marge joining a gang of thieves or Bart switching roles with a rich kid who looks just like him.

During this time, there was also an influx of flashback and story-within-a-story episodes.

For about the last decade, there has been a debate whether “The Simpsons” should call it quits altogether.

That’s too drastic for me.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a sentimental attachment to the show that is responsible for introducing a full eight seconds of Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes.

“The Simpsons” still has the potential to be a great show. Over the past four years, it went from being bad to mediocre. The crew just needs to recapture that spark that made the show great.

But like Homer said, “If something’s hard to do, it’s not worth doing.”

No, wait.