"But I don't consider 'The Simpsons' a compromise in any way. (2002). Matt's grandfather Abram was born in Hillsboro, Kansas. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell (1977-2012) and the television series The Simpsons (1989-present), Futurama (1999-2003, 2008-2013, 2023-onwards [2] ), and Disenchantment (2018-2022). [102], Groening has made a number of campaign contributions, all towards Democratic Party candidates and organizations. Where Does Matt Groening Live? "So much humor is based on 'life is horrible, sex is nasty and you can't trust anyone,' " he said. After four years the show was cancelled, however, it maintained a strong fan following. In 1994, Matt Groening started the comic book publishing company named Bongo Comics. "Hey, they were right! Choosing Los Angeles because it was the place where a writer was most likely to be overpaid, Groening answered a "writer/chauffeur wanted" ad in the L.A. Times. The /s signifies sarcasm. Groening is married to his wife Agustina Picasso an Argentine artist. [8][9] Homer, born in Main Centre, Saskatchewan, Canada, grew up in a Plautdietsch-speaking family. Since 1989, Groening take part in the television series The Simpsons which is the longest-running U.S. primetime-television series in history and the longest-running U.S. animated series and sitcom. "The Simpsons" premiered in 1990, and eventually became the most popular, most widely broadcast and one of the longest-running shows in television history. He befriended fellow cartoonist Lynda Barry and, finding no real authority to rebel against, he turned to cartooning in earnest. Or rather, he is the struggling, penurious pre-"Simpsons" Matt Groening. The Simpsons is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. By his own description, Mr. Groening behaved as a child much as Bart Simpson would if only he had more scholastic aptitude. 6, the list of recipients had grown from 20 to 500. In 1972, he enrolled at the Evergreen State College in Olympia and studied there for five years. 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. ``Matt didn't particularly have a reputation for discipline,'' says Randy Michael Signor, a former Reader editor who today works in . He is 68 years old. Fearing the loss of ownership rights, he created a new set of characters, the Simpson family. His Norwegian American mother, Margaret Ruth (ne Wiggum; March 23, 1919 April 22, 2013),[6] was once a teacher, and his Russian Mennonite father, Homer Philip Groening (December 30, 1919 March 15, 1996),[7] was a filmmaker, advertiser, writer and cartoonist. "I never saw anything as crude as my stuff getting published," he has said. Matt Groening was the writer and executive producer of this project. Creating 'The Simpsons:' How Matt Groening's Own Family - Biography 4) Disagreeably damp and jittery? In 2011, he married artist Augustina Picasso, with whom he had been in a relationship for four years. His sister Lisa does not play the saxophone. Hair High (2004) as Dill [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. He is also a father to five more children. "[17] The Simpsons was co-developed by Groening, Brooks, and Sam Simon, a writer-producer with whom Brooks had worked on previous projects. He ran for student body president on the Teens for Decency ticket, with the tongue-in-cheek slogan, "If you're against decency, then what are you for?" The book became a success with over 20000 copies being sold in its initial two printings. [33] Among the fans of the column was Harry Shearer, who would later become a voice on The Simpsons. Matt Groeningyellow inferno! - Zoa Studio - 15/02/2022 They said, 'Make it like "The Jetsons"! In 1987, Groening married fellow Weekly staffer Deborah Caplan. After spending a few years researching science fiction, Groening got together with Simpsons writer and producer David X. Cohen (known as David S. Cohen at the time) in 1997 and developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000. The company published comics related to The Simpsons and Futurama. In Groening's version, the boy dies from his head injury and returns as a ghost every Halloween, a morbid tale that surprisingly became the winning entry. He found some work along those lines, whipping up slogans for horror movies, but also took on a series of jobs that included chauffeur, dishwasher and record store clerk to make a living. It is six years since "The Simpsons" made its debut as a 20-second segment in "The Tracey Ullman Show" and three years since it became its own series on Fox Broadcasting. He found some work along those lines, whipping up slogans for horror movies, but also took on. A thousand years in the future -- a wry, bleak version of a future where suicide booths and celebrity heads preserved in jars are part of the landscape -- work is still hell. When Comedy Central began negotiating for the rights to air Futurama reruns, Fox suggested that there was a possibility of also creating new episodes. [60] Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching. Claiming that it was a bit too obvious to name a character after himself, he chose the name "Bart," an anagram of brat. Groening named the cartoon family named after his own siblings and parents, albeit with a "Bart" in lieu of a character named after himself. Groening started sending the comic back home to friends in Portland in lieu of doleful letters about his miserable life. The Simpsons premiered in 1989 with him as creator, writer, voice actor and executive producer. Upon seeing his work in the comic strip, producer and writer, James L Brooks, expressed his interest to involve Matt Groening in the creation of an animated series to run on comedy series The Tracy Ullman Show. [65] The names of a few other characters were taken from major street names in Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon, including Flanders, Lovejoy, Powell, Quimby and Kearney. Work is Hell soon followed, also published by Caplan. The strip gained traction after a shift in tone, with Binky becoming less preachy and more of a victim of the cultural and social forces that browbeat dissidents into submission. 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. Perhaps, were he to walk in off the street, he could get a job as a writer on the show. I Thought I Told You to Shut Up!! [62] "Some Enchanted Evening" was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1990, as the last episode of the first season, because of animation problems. 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. According to Groening, the goal with Bongo is to "[try] to bring humor into the fairly grim comic book market. Groening and his wife Agustina Picasso welcomed a baby in May 2013 named Nathaniel Philip Picasso Groening, named after writer Nathanael West. But mainly, he is Matt Groening. "I showed it to the editor of the Los Angeles Reader," he once told an interviewer, "and he hired me immediately -- to deliver newspapers." [105], Groening has been nominated for 41 Emmy Awards and has won thirteen, eleven for The Simpsons and two for Futurama in the "Outstanding Animated Program (for programming one hour or less)" category. Futurama: Benders Big Score (2007) They were created when James L. Brooks, the producer of "The Tracey Ullman Show," asked Mr. Groening to create animated segments for the program. "What's happened is that mainstream culture has gotten so good at marketing pseudo-hipness that it overwhelms other choices that are out there.". Matt Groening - Freedom From Religion Foundation "He was a deviant.". That year, he also began working for the alternative-weekly newspaper the L.A. 1 . Meanwhile, Groening was up to his old tricks of rocking the boat, writing silly reviews of bands based on their publicity photos and even making up phony acts to cover. We're calling everybody's bluff. . The final strip of the comic strip "Life in Hell" was published on June 16, 2012. [36] Released a month later, the book was an underground success, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings. "[19] The show premiered on March 28, 1999. The message? [8][50] Bart's original design, which appeared in the first shorts, had spikier hair, and the spikes were of different lengths. [72] Groening described trying to get the show on the air as "by far the worst experience of [his] grown-up life. Matt Groening, an American animator, television producer, author, and cartoonist, has an estimated net worth of a staggering $600 million. Groening and Deborah Caplan married in 1986 and had two sons, Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe. Over the years, "The Simpsons" and its irreverently unsentimental outlook have provoked a mountain of commentary about the decline of American culture. When he and former "Simpsons" show runner David X. Cohen (now the show runner on "Futurama") first approached Fox with the new idea, the network went into instant paroxysms of ecstasy. 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. If you answered no, you are also probably a fan of Matt Groening. [41][44] However, he stresses that aside from some of the sibling rivalry, his family is nothing like the Simpsons. Deborah Kaplan Entertainment - Director Why Famous: is an American screenwriter and film director Age: N/A Deborah Kaplan's Relationships (2) Matt Groening Arts - Other Why Famous: The Simpsons and Futurama As to the autonomy he'd enjoyed with "The Simpsons," Groening was told, "We don't do business like that anymore. "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. [15] Life in Hell made its official debut as a comic strip in the Reader on April 25, 1980. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. "[46], Maggie Groening has co-written a few Simpsons books featuring her cartoon namesake. 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. [49] Marge's distinct beehive hairstyle was inspired by Bride of Frankenstein and the style that Margaret Groening wore during the 1960s, although her hair was never blue. The network resisted giving Groening the autonomy he needed and plied him with notes. He made his first professional cartoon sale of Life in Hell to the avant-garde magazine Wet in 1978. He is a man of above-average stature. I vowed I would never forget what it was like.". The name "Wiggum" for police chief Chief Wiggum is Groening's mother's maiden name. Before, Groening was married to his first wife Deborah Caplan. [74] In an interview with CNN, Groening said that "we have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don't know We're having discussions and there is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me". 2) Disappointed? Reader hired sales rep Deborah Caplan, who observed that the Life in Hell strips were "a major selling point" of the paper. Eventually, it was moved to Sundays at 8 p.m., but although Fox recently ordered 18 more episodes for next season, Groening, thinking like the businessman that he is, still feels the show could benefit from more aggressive promotion and a better time slot. Matt Groening married Deborah Caplan in 1986. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. The couple divorced in 1999. She died of heart failure on January 24, 2013. In 2009, the show beat Gunsmoke to become the longest-running entertainment show on primetime TV. Groening claimed that he feared viewers would "see it as nothing but a pathetic attempt to advertise The Critic at the expense of The Simpsons," and was concerned about the possible implication that he had created or produced The Critic. [107] He received a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. Sometime after midnight on the day of his arrival, his car stalled in the fast lane of the Hollywood Freeway in 100 degree heat. Deborah Caplan: Groening has been in a relationship with Deborah Caplan since 2006. At 39, Mr. Groening still observes many of the customs of the youthful counterculture where he got his start: his hair is longish, his attire runs toward T-shirts and sneakers, and instead of business cards he hands out his phone number on little bits of torn paper. [73][29], Since no new Futurama projects were in production, the movie Into the Wild Green Yonder was designed to stand as the Futurama series finale. James L. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. Despite the unprecedented success of "The Simpsons," the process of getting "Futurama" on the air has been described by Groening as "the worst experience of my adult life." Matt Groening Futurama Later, Groening attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., which was known for its extremely liberal (no grades, no core requirements) liberal arts program. "Bart is like what would happen if Eddie Haskell got his own show," he said. Groenings Norwegian American mother, Margaret Ruth (ne Wiggum; March 23, 1919 April 22, 2013), worked once as a teacher, and his Russian Mennonite father named Homer Philip Groening (December 30, 1919 March 15, 1996), served as a filmmaker, advertiser, writer, and cartoonist. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. [86] He guest-edited Da Capo Press's Best Music Writing 2003[87] and curated a US All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in 2003. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. [110], He received the 2,459th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012. Groening is a guy who lunches with Rupert Murdoch and finds him congenial. In the spirit of youthful rebellion, he makes pointed digs at Fox in front of network officials. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Brooks' and Simon's hand in shaping the show was significant. He described life in Los Angeles to his friends in the form of the self-published comic book Life in Hell, which became loosely inspired by the chapter How to Go to Hell in Walter Kaufmanns book Critique of Religion and Philosophy. In conversations over two days and several venues -- at a party at his friend Frank Zappa's house, over lunch at the Fox commissary and in his office -- he revealed a deep association with the adolescents who form the core audience of "The Simpsons." Gratuit English at Leicester University of Leicest. Le 15-2-1954 , Matt Groening (surnom: Matthew Abram Groening, Bat Groening, Mad Groening) est n Portland, Oregon, United States. "Teachers, principals, clergymen, politicians -- for the Simpsons, they're all goofballs, and I think that's a great message for kids." Clerks: The Animated Series (2000-2002) Along with mailing the comics to friends and family back in Portland, he attempted to sell his stapled-together books from his record store. [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 - Family, Family Tree - Celebrity Family - celebfamily Groening was one of four children. 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."). Groening is estimated to be worth US$ 500 million. Matt Groening - Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Matt Groening did not particularly like school, which is what originally turned him towards drawing. But when pressed, he concedes that he is not sure what makes his critique of Middle America so appealing to Middle Americans. The Simpsons (1989-present) Ever since his syndicated comic strip "Life in Hell" -- that series of nihilistic but cuddly dispatches from the epicenter of gloom -- first appeared in 1980, Groening has been raising the dampened spirits of the fashionably alienated by dunking Binky, his rabbity, buck-toothed proxy, into a weekly bog of self-pity, anxiety and existential despair. Matt is stepfather to Agustinas daughter, Camille. This comic book made its official debut as a comic strip in the Reader on April 25, 1980, and caught the attention of Hollywood writer-producer and Gracie Films founder James L. Brooks, who had been shown the strip by fellow producer Polly Platt. It may simply be, he speculates, "that people don't get it.". He donned the role of an executive producer for animated films Futurama: Bender's Game (2007), Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008), Futurama: Bender's Game (2008), and Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009). The Simpsons is the longest-running U.S. primetime-television series in history and the longest-running U.S. animated series and sitcom. (2005). He also enjoyed a happy home life, with his dad, Homer, mom, Margaret, and four siblings, including younger sisters Lisa and Maggie. 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." He simply shrugs and buys more computer games, like the electronic ant farm that once caught his fancy. [82], In 1994, Groening formed Bongo Comics (named after the character Bongo from Life in Hell[83]) with Steve Vance, Cindy Vance and Bill Morrison, which publishes comic books based on The Simpsons and Futurama (including Futurama Simpsons Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis, a crossover between the two), as well as a few original titles. "The success of the show," he has said, "has gone beyond my wildest dreams and worst nightmares.". Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Years later, during the early seasons of The Simpsons, when it came time to give Grampa a first name, Groening says he refused to name him after his own grandfather, Abraham Groening, leaving it to other writers to choose a name. Groening's position is an interesting one for a satirist to find himself in. [28][29], Groening described life in Los Angeles to his friends in the form of the self-published comic book Life in Hell, which was loosely inspired by the chapter "How to Go to Hell" in Walter Kaufmann's book Critique of Religion and Philosophy. And he has "gone Hollywood" enough, he concedes, that when he is picked up by a limousine, he no longer feels that he has to keep the chauffeur entertained for the whole ride. They have a son, Nathaniel, and twin daughters, Luna and India. The show premiered under the Fox Broadcasting Company banner, in 1999. In 2008, Matt Groening won the Annie Award in the Writing in a Feature Production for comedy film The Simpsons movie. Many members of the Simpson family are named for members of his own family: Homer, Marge, Maggie, Lisa and Patty. Spouse/Ex-: Agustina Picasso, Deborah Caplan, siblings: Lisa Groening, Maggie Groening, Mark Groening, Patty Groening, children: Abe Groening, Homer Groening, Nathaniel Philip Picasso Groening, Ancestry: Norwegian American, Canadian American, Notable Alumni: The Evergreen State College, Founder/Co-Founder: Bongo Comics Group, Zongo Comics, The Curiosity Company, Quotes By Matt Groening |