[41] Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office and hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family: Homer, the overweight father; Marge, the slim mother; Bart, the bratty oldest child; Lisa, the intelligent middle child; and Maggie, the baby. Matt Groening has won 12 Primetime Emmy Awards and 23 Annie Awards across various categories. He was an English major and a World War II vet. During this time he was the editor of college paper The Cooper Point Journal. He was fired from the L.A. Deborah Kaplan is currently available. Though the Tracy Ullman Show was soon cancelled, The Simpsons had gained popularity and earned its exclusive half an hour spin-off series. Futurama: Benders Big Score (2007) He casts himself as the avenging underdog tilting at windmills, but, in the end, he always returns the conquering hero. Again, to his surprise, he won. The couple divorced in 1999. "Life in Hell" was also sold in the punk corner of the store, where the punks sometimes ripped them up. [61] The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", a Christmas special. [108] In 2007, he was ranked fourth (and highest American by birth) in a list of the "top 100 living geniuses", published by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. Some of the funniest jokes, he says, can only be caught on a still frame. [35] In November 1984, Deborah Caplan, Groening's then-girlfriend and co-worker at the Reader, offered to publish "Love is Hell", a series of relationship-themed Life in Hell strips, in book form. Gratuit English at Leicester University of Leicest. In 1987, Groening married fellow Weekly staffer Deborah Caplan. Later, he got employed at an alternative newspaper Los Angeles Reader, and here with the support of his supervisor, Matt Groening was able to officially publish Life in Hell as his first comic strip, in 1980. "If there's a message that runs through the show," he told The New York Times in 2001, well after he had become wealthy and influential beyond his wildest dreams, "it's that maybe the authorities don't have your best interests at heart. She married Groening in 1987 and they got divorced in 1999, after 13 years of marriage. Carina Chocano writes about TV for Salon. His sister Maggie is not mute. Matt Groening Love Is Hell His then-girlfriend and co-worker at the Reader Deborah Caplan offered to publish "Love is Hell", a series of relationship-themed Life in Hell strips, in book form. They had two sons together, Homer and Abe. Groening feared that he would have to give up his ownership rights, and that the show would fail and take down his comic strip with it. Indeed, "The Simpsons" has something to offend almost everyone: the cops sit around eating doughnuts, the teachers are lost without their answer books, the parents are losers and even God is a malcontent. They said, 'It doesn't make any difference!'". It was reported on January 15, 2016, that Groening was in talks with Netflix to develop a new animated series. "Simpsons" executive producer Mike Scully, who took over as show runner, or head writer, in 1996, has said that in order to write for "The Simpsons," a writer must have "a healthy disrespect for everything Americans hold dear." Originally, Brooks wanted Groening to adapt his Life in Hell characters for the show. Perhaps, were he to walk in off the street, he could get a job as a writer on the show. "I never saw anything as crude as my stuff getting published," he has said. Ten years later, at the age of 46, Groening is responsible for a comic strip syndicated in 250 newspapers, more than 25 books, two prime-time animated series and untold containers full of valuable merchandise. (2002). Post years of research in science fiction, in 1997, Matt Groening along with producer, David X Cohen, created an animated series project titled Futurama, about life in the year 3000. But in any case, Groening allowed the series to evolve under the tutelage of his writers, the undisputed champions of television comedy. Groening was married to Deborah Caplan from 1986 to 1999. They divorced in 1999 and Groening married Argentine artist Agustina Picasso in 2011. This is likely influenced by the name of Groening's own parents. (After 13 years of marriage, Caplan filed for divorce in March 1999, the same month as Groening's second show, "Futurama," premiered. Matthew Abraham Groening was born 15 February 1954 in Portland, Oregon, United States to Homer Philip Groening (1919-1996) and Margaret Ruth Wiggum (1919-2013) . [27] He showed his cartoons to the editor, James Vowell, who was impressed and eventually gave him a spot in the paper. He received the Annie Award (for accomplishments in animation) in the Best Animated Television Production category for his series The Simpsons for six years from the year 1992 to 1997. "The Simpsons" premiered in 1990, and eventually became the most popular, most widely broadcast and one of the longest-running shows in television history. In the early days of "The Simpsons," Mr. Groening used to preside over all aspects of production, from scripts to story boards to voice-overs to animation. He still draws the ear as a 'G' when he draws pictures of Homer for fans. Matt Groening received the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Primetime or Late Night Television Program for The Simpsons in the years 1998, 2000 and 2001. In 1984, Groening and his wife Deborah Caplan published his first "Life in Hell" book, called Love in Hell, and eventually set up a distribution company, Life in Hell Co., which handled the syndication and merchandise for all of Groening's projects. Over lunch on the 20th Century Fox lot, he tried to dispel a lot of misconceptions about "The Simpsons," about television and about comedy in general. In the mid-1980s, he moved to Los Angeles and started drawing a comic strip named "Life in Hell", which eventually became published in the newspaper where he worked. "Who knew if this TV thing would pan out?" He is 68 years old. It's my foundation,"[37] the June 16, 2012 strip marked Life in Hell's conclusion. He used to write articles and draw cartoon illustrations for the journal. I like the idea of trying to be successful on some level, at least reaching an audience enough so that you can sustain it and keep on going." In 2008, Matt Groening won the Annie Award in the Writing in a Feature Production for comedy film The Simpsons movie. After graduating to a job at a record store called Licorice Pizza, whose gimmick it was to give away licorice to its customers (but whose employees often found themselves providing free licorice meals to the indigent instead), Groening began drawing "Life in Hell," a self-published, xeroxed comic book starring Binky, a lonely, alienated rabbit living in low-income Hollywood hell. "I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, because this is how everyone is treated [in Hollywood]," he told Mother Jones. He first sold his comic to magazine Wet, in 1978. The book became a success with over 20000 copies being sold in its initial two printings. When he's not telling the Cinderella story, the story Groening tells about himself is a David and Goliath story; and the older and more powerful he becomes, the bigger and more powerful the lumbering naysayers standing in his way. Ian Maxtone-Graham, another writer on the show, has said in an interview, "I would rather make George Meyer laugh than get an Emmy." SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. During this time the show has done for animated cartoons what "thirtysomething" did for yuppies: proved that despite some annoying tendencies, they can be successful in prime time. [26][31], Groening had gained employment at the Los Angeles Reader, a newly formed alternative newspaper, delivering papers,[15] typesetting, editing and answering phones. [41][44] However, he stresses that aside from some of the sibling rivalry, his family is nothing like the Simpsons. In the mid-1980s, he moved to Los Angeles and started drawing a comic strip named Life in Hell, whi . (2015) The show continued in to 2013,[76][77] before Comedy Central announced in April 2013 that they would not be renewing it beyond its seventh season. By then, however, "Life in Hell" was running in several other alternative weeklies, and soon the L.A. Weekly brought him on board. He went through what he described as "a series of lousy jobs," including being an extra in the television movie When Every Day Was the Fourth of July,[25] busing tables,[26] washing dishes at a nursing home, clerking at the Hollywood Licorice Pizza record store, landscaping in a sewage treatment plant,[27] and chauffeuring and ghostwriting for a retired Western director. "To many divisions of this company, 'The Simpsons' was the shining light that kept us motivated and believing that our division would grow. While working on his animated series Futurama, he took up multiple roles like voice actor, creator, writer and executive producer of the show. Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999) Matthew Abram Groening ( / ren / GRAY-ning; born February 15, 1954) [1] is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He also invited the off-the-wall submissions of campus cartoonists, finding himself inspired by the original works of fellow undergrad Lynda Barry. Now, though, "The Simpsons" offices at Fox, housed in what looks like a cheap motel, run on a routine, and he has eased off a bit. Indeed, the biggest danger the show seems to face is that it will lose its power to surprise. The goal of the company, she told Newsweek, was to "keep the machine of Matt going." [26][32] Vowell also gave Groening his own weekly music column, "Sound Mix," in 1982. "And to be honest, the whole 'Simpsons' project was a project to see how far I could go in the mainstream. "The Simpsons" has earned Fox's parent company, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., well over a billion dollars, and its role in the network's growth has been incalculable. ``Matt didn't particularly have a reputation for discipline,'' says Randy Michael Signor, a former Reader editor who today works in . He is also a father to five more children. Groening became stepfather to Agustinas daughter named Camila Costantini. At its peak, the cartoon became carried in 250 weekly newspapers. In high school, he drew cartoons for the school newspaper until he was kicked off the staff. Groening and Deborah Caplan married in 1986[27] and had two sons together, Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe,[44] both of whom Groening occasionally portrays as rabbits in Life in Hell. More than just a television hit, "The Simpsons" is also a mass marketing phenomenon: probably not since Mickey Mouse raised his ears has a silhouette appeared on as many paraphernalia as Bart Simpson's crown-roast-shaped head. [97], Matt was the brother-in-law of Hey Arnold!, Dinosaur Train and Ready Jet Go! Groening went to Ainsworth Elementary School and Lincoln High School. It sneaked up on everybody. Groening's career got a boost in the early 1980s when the L.A. Then, no sooner had they ordered 13 episodes than the doubts set in. Groening's success owes as much to his own work as it does to the work of a slew of others, including co-creators James Brooks and Sam Simon, and "The Simpsons'" writing staff. In 2013, the couple had a son named Nathaniel Philip Picasso. Furthermore, the once-struggling artist was about to be presented with the business offer that would change his life forever. Its first ten episodes premiered on the streaming service in August 2018, with the remaining ten episodes of the initial order scheduled to air in September 2019. About Matt Groening is a 68 year old American Cartoonist. It was Mr. Groening's girlfriend, Deborah Caplan (now his wife), who in 1984 gave the comic strip its first lift by forming a small company to publish a collection of his cartoons, "Love Is Hell." She was Groenings long-time girlfriend before she married him in 2011. She married Groening in 1987 and they got divorced in 1999, after 13 years of marriage. [86][88] He illustrated the cover of Frank Zappa's posthumous album Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute (1996). 2002, 2003 and 2004. Patricia was an art dealer. Groening is a guy who lunches with Rupert Murdoch and finds him congenial. George Bush once famously regaled the nation with the suggestion that American families should aspire to be "more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons," prompting Bart to retort, "But we're just like the Waltons -- we're both praying for an end to the depression."). "Hey, they were right! "The excuse was that the networks never let you get away with anything," he said. Matt Groening created the show The Simpsons, and two of the principal characters, a husband and wife, are named Homer and Marge. Groening is married to his wife Agustina Picasso an Argentine artist. One of his first employers was an aging B-movie director who needed help both getting around and writing his memoirs.