Matt Groening

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Matthew Abraham Groening (listen) GRAY-ning (born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, animator, and voice actor.

He is the creator of Life in Hell (1977-1992) and the television series The Simpsons (1989–2012), Futurama (1999–2003), and Disenchantment (2018–2013).

The Simpsons is the longest-running U.S. primetime television series, as well as the longest-running U.S. animated series and sitcom. In 1978, Groening sold Life in Hell, his first professional cartoon, to the avant-garde Wet magazine.

The cartoon appeared in 250 weekly newspapers at its peak.

James L. Brooks's life in Hell captured his interest.

Brooks came to Groening, 1985, with the offer of working in animation for the Fox variety show The Tracey Ullman Show.

Originally, Brooks wanted Groening to reimagine his Life in Hell characters for the show.

Groening was afraid of losing ownership rights, Groening decided to create something new, the Simpson family, and named the members after his own parents and siblings; while Bart was an anagram of the word "brat."

The shorts will be turned into their own series The Simpsons, which has since been broadcast in 672 episodes.

Groening and former Simpsons writer David X. Cohen created Futurama, an animated film about life in the year 3000, which aired on Fox for four years, and was then picked up by Comedy Central for additional seasons.

Disenchantment, Groening's new Netflix series that premiered in August 2018, was released in 2016. In 2004, Groening received thirteen Primetime Emmy Awards, 11 for The Simpsons and two for Futurama, as well as a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy."

In 2002, he received the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for his book Life in Hell.

On February 14, 2012, he was named on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Early life

Groening was born in Portland, Oregon, the middle of five children (older brother Mark and sister Patty were born in 1950 and 1952, respectively, while younger siblings Lisa and Maggie were born in 1956 and 1958. Margaret Ruth (née Wiggum), a Norwegian mother, and his Russian Mennonite father, Homer Philip Groening (December 30, 1919 – March 20, 1996), was a filmmaker, advertiser, writer, and cartoonist. Homer, who was born in Main Centre, Saskatchewan, Canada, grew up in a Mennonite, Plautdietsch-speaking family.

Abraham Groening, Matt's grandfather, attended Tabor College, a Mennonite Brethren liberal arts college in Hillsboro, Kansas, before heading to Lewis and Clark College in Oregon in 1930.

Groening grew up in Portland and attended Ainsworth Elementary School and Lincoln High School. Groening attended The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, a liberal arts school in Washington, Washington, that drew every weirdo in the Northwest from 1972 to 1977. He served as the editor of The Cooper Point Journal, which also wrote articles and drew cartoons. Lynda Barry, a fellow cartoonist, was befriended after finding that she had written a fan letter to Joseph Heller, one of Groening's most popular writers, and had received a reply. Barry Groening has been credited with being "probably [his] biggest inspiration." After watching the Disney animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, he became interested in cartoons, and he has also cited Robert Crumb, Ernie Bushmiller, Monty Python's Monty Python, and Charles M. Schulz as inspirations.

Personal life

Groening and Deborah Caplan married in 1986 and had two sons together, Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe, both of whom Groening occasionally portrays as rabbits in Life in Hell. In 1999, the couple married in a divorce.

After a four-year marriage, Groening married Argentine artist Agustina Picasso and became her stepfather to her daughter Camila Costantini. Nathaniel Picasso Groening, named after writer Nathanael West, was born in May 2013. "His godfather, SpongeBob's creator Stephen Hillenburg," she joked. Luna Margaret and India Mia were born in 2015. Sol Matthew and Venus Ruth Ruth became the father of twins for the second time when his wife gave birth to Sol Matthew and Venus Ruth, both on Instagram.

Matt is Hey Arnold's brother-in-law, Dinosaur Train, and Ready Jet Go! Craig Bartlett, the designer who is married to Lisa Bartlett of Groening, is married to Lisa Bartlett. Bartlett appeared in Simpsons Illustrated.

Groening is a self-identified agnostic.

Groening was discussed in a case brought by Virginia Giuffre against allegedly being coerced by sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to massage Groening's feet when on Epstein's jet in 2001.

Groening has made a number of campaign contributions, many of which have been directed at Democratic Party candidates and organisations. He has contributed to the unsuccessful presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, as well as earlier contributing to Kerry's Massachusetts senator campaign. Groening also contributed to the Democratic senatorial committee and Senator Barbara Boxer (California), Paul Simon (California), Ted Kennedy (Michigan), Harvey Gantt (North Carolina), Tom Bruggere (Oregon), and Barbara Boxer (California). He also contributed to the now defunct Hollywood Women's Political Committee, which also lobbied for the Democratic Party. Laurie Monnes Anderson, his first cousin, was a member of the Oregon State Senate, representing eastern Multnomah County.

In an interview with Wired from 1999, he said that if he were president, his first act would be "campaign finance reform," implying that it would be "a real detriment to democracy."

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Career

Groening moved to Los Angeles in 1977 to become a writer at the age of 23. He went through "a string of lousy jobs" including being an actor in the television film When Every Day Was July, busing tables, washing dishes at a nursing home, clerking at a law firm, and chauffeuring and ghostwriting for a former Western director.

Groening related life in Los Angeles to his colleagues in the form of the self-published comic book Life in Hell, which was loosely influenced by Walter Kaufmann's book Critique of Religion and Philosophy's chapter "How to Go to Hell." In the book corner of Licorice Pizza, a record store in which he worked, Groening sold the comic book. In 1978, he made his first commercial cartoon contribution to the avant-garde Wet magazine. In the September/October issue of that year, the strip, titled "Forbidden Words," appeared.

Groening had gained work at the Los Angeles Reader, a newly formed alternative newspaper, that sold newspapers, typesetting, editing, and answering phones. He presented his cartoons to the editor, James Vowell, who was enthralled and eventually gave him a spot in the paper. In the Reader on April 25, 1980, Life in Hell made its official debut as a comic strip. In 1982, Vowell gave Groening his own weekly music column, "Sound Mix." However, the column will rarely be about music, as he would often write about his "unique passions, obsessions, pet peeves, and issues" rather than music. He "just made stuff up" concocting and analyzing fictional bands and nonexistent records in an effort to bring more music to the column. In the following week's column, he'll admit to fabricating everything from the previous column and promise that everything in the new column was correct. He was eventually asked to abandon the "art" column, but later on. Harry Shearer, who would later be a voice on The Simpsons, was one of the column's supporters.

Hell became a hit almost immediately. Deborah Caplan, Groening's then-girlfriend and co-worker, offered to publish "Love is Hell," a series of relationship-themed Life in Hell strips, in book form in November 1984. The book was a huge success a month later, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings. Hell is coming, followed by Caplan, which was also published. Caplan and Groening were emailed and assembled the Life in Hell Co., which was responsible for merchandising in Hell. In addition, Groening began Acme Features Syndicate, which also includes Life in Hell, Lynda Barry and John Callahan's work, but Life in Hell will only be syndicated. Life in Hell was distributed in 250 weekly newspapers and has been anthologized in a series of books, including School is Hell, Childhood is Hell, The Big Book of Hell, and The Huge Book of Hell. "I'll never give up the comic strip," Groening said before. The Life in Hell strip came to an end on June 16, 2012. The Center for Cartoon Studies commissioned a poster that was donated to Groening in honor of his work after Groening's demise of the strip. The booklet featured tribute cartoons by 22 of Groening's cartoonist friends who were inspired by Life in Hell.

James L. Brooks, a writer-producer and Gracie Films founder, had been interested in Hell's life, after being shown the strip by fellow producer Polly Platt. Brooks contacted Groening in 1985 with the prospect of animating on an unspecified future project, which would include the creation of a series of short animated skits dubbed "bumpers" for the Fox variety show The Tracey Ullman Exhibition. Originally, Brooks wanted Groening to be adapted for the show. Groening was afraid that he'd have to give up his ownership rights, and that the show would fail and strip down his comic strip with it. In the lobby of James L. Brooks' office, Groening entertained the prospect of a dysfunctional family: Homer, the overweight father; Marge, the slim mother; Bart, the bratty oldest boy; and Maggie, the baby. Groening drew comparisons of the main Simpson characters after relatives of his own family: his parents, Homer and Marge (Margaret or Marjorie in full), and his younger siblings, Lisa and Margaret (Maggie). He chose the word "bart," an anagram of brat, after claiming that it was a bit too obvious to describe a character after himself. However, he emphasizes that his family is nothing like the Simpsons, in the absence of any of the sibling rivalry. Groening also has an older brother and sister, Mark and Patty, and Groening admitted that Mark "is the original inspiration for Bart."

Maggie Groening has co-written a few Simpsons books based on her cartoon namesake.

Because Groening had basic sketches to the animators in the hopes of removing them from the animations, they were merely traced over his drawings. The entire Simpson family was created in such a way that they would be recognizable in silhouette. When Groening first created Homer, he incorporated his own initials: the hairline and ear mimicked a 'M,' and the right ear resembled a 'G'. Groening decided that this would be too distracting, and they redesigned the ear to look more like a professional. When he draws photographs of Homer for fans, he still regards it as a 'G'. Marge's distinctive beehive hairstyle was inspired by Bride of Frankenstein and the Margaret Groening hairstyle during the 1960s, although her hair was never blue. Bart's original layout, which appeared in the first shorts, had spikier hair and spikes of different lengths, and spikes were attached to the spikes. The number was then limited to nine spikes, which were all of the same size. Groening was primarily black and "not thinking that [Bart] will be drawn in color] would get him spikes that seem to be an extension of his head." Lisa's physical characteristics are generally not used in other characters; for example, no one other than Maggie shares her hairline in the later seasons. Groening Lisa "couldn't be bothered to even think about girl's hairstyles." "I just gave them this spiky starfish hair style, not thinking that they would ever be based in color." Any short (now known as The Simpsons shorts) were scripted and animated by a team including David Silverman and Wes Archer, both of whom would later become directors on the film.

The Simpsons shorts appeared in The Tracey Ullman Exhibition for the first time on April 19, 1987. Grampa Simpson, a family member, was introduced in the later shorts. Groening says he refused to name Grampa after his own grandfather, Abraham Groening, died in the early years of The Simpsons, leaving it to other writers to choose a name. They selected "Abraham" by chance, not knowing that it was the name of Groening's grandfather.

Despite the fact that The Tracey Ullman Exhibition was not a huge success, the shorts' popularity prompted a half-hour spin-off in 1989. The Simpsons were turned into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company by a team of production companies. The team was made up of what now the Klasky Csupo animation house. James L. Brooks negotiated a clause in the Fox network's pact that barred Fox from interfering with the show's terms. Groening said his intention in creating the show was to give the viewers an alternative to what he referred to as "the mainstream garbage" that they were watching. "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," a Christmas special, premiered on December 17, 1989. The first full-length episode of "Any Enchanted Evening" was the first full-length episode released, but it did not air until May 1990, the last episode of the first season, due to animation limitations.

To the surprise of many, the series became a worldwide phenomenon. "Nobody expected The Simpsons to be a big success," Groening said. "Itchenelle took it on everyone." Groening, Brooks, and Sam Simon, a writer-producer with whom Brooks had worked on previous projects, co-developed the Simpsons. Groening and Simon did not get along and were often in disagreement over the show; Groening had previously described their friendship as "very personal." Simon left the show in 1993 due to creative inconsistencies.

Many characters from the show have names that were influenced by people, places, or films, like the main family members. Groening's mother's maiden name is "Wiggum" for police chief Chief Wiggum. A few other characters were taken from famous street names in Groening's hometown, Portland, Oregon, such as Flanders, Lovejoy, Powell, Quimby, and Kearney. Despite common belief that Sideshow Bob Terwilliger was named after SW Terwilliger Boulevard in Portland, he was actually named after the character Dr. Terwilliger from the film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.

Despite the fact that Groening has performed a number of spin-offs from The Simpsons, those attempts have been fruitless. In 1994, Groening and other Simpsons producers produced a live-action spin-off about Krusty the Clown (with Dan Castellaneta playing the lead role), but they were unsuccessful in getting it off the ground. Groening has also produced "Young Homer" and a spin-off of Springfield's non-Simpsons residents.

Groening became embroiled in a big debate with Brooks and other Simpsons members over "A Star Is Burns," a crossover episode with The Critic that was also produced by Brooks and staffed with many former Simpsons crew members. Groening expressed trepidation that viewers might "see it as nothing but a desperate effort to market The Critic at the expense of The Simpsons," and was concerned about the possibility that he created or produced The Critic. He begged for his name to be deleted from the program.

Groening is credited with writing or co-writing the script "Some Enchanted Evening," "The Telltale Head," "Colonel Homer," and "22 Short Films About Springfield," which Groening has credited. The Simpsons Movie, which was also co-wrote and produced in 2007, was released in 2007. He has appeared on numerous cameo appearances on the show, as well as a speaking role in the episode "My Big Fat Geek Wedding." He currently works at The Simpsons as an executive producer and creative consultant.

Groening began researching science fiction for a few years, and in 1997, they joined Simpsons writer and producer David S. Cohen (known as David S. Cohen at the time) and created Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000. Groening and Cohen had created a number of characters and storylines by the time they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, and Groening said they had gone "overboard" in their discussions. Groening described trying to get the show on television as "by far the worst experience of [his] grown-up life." On March 28, 1999, the show premiered. "Rebirth" (story) and "In-A-Gadda-Leela" (story), Groening's writing credits for the show include "Space Pilot 3000" (co-written with Cohen), "Rebirth" (story) and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela).

Fox has cancelled the program after four years on the air. Futurama was revived in a situation similar to Family Guy, with good DVD sales and high ratings on Adult Swim. Fox implied that if Comedy Central started negotiating for the rights to air Futurama reruns, that there might also be new episodes created. Four new episodes of Comedy Central were scheduled, including Bender's Big Score (2006), Bender's Game (2008), and Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009).

Since there were no new Futurama projects in production, the film Into the Wild Green Yonder was supposed to be the Futurama series's finale. Groening had expressed an intention to keep the Futurama franchise in some manner, including as a theatrical film. Groening said in a CNN interview 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 excitement, but I can't tell if it's just me." In 2010, Comedy Central acquired an additional 26 new episodes and started airing them. The show continued in 2013 until Comedy Central announced in April 2013 that it would not be renewing it beyond its seventh season. On September 4, 2013, the last episode of the series appeared on TV.

The series was revived at Hulu on February 9, 2022, ahead of a 2023 release.

Groening was revealed on January 15, 2016, that it was in negotiations with Netflix to produce a new animated series. Netflix ordered Disenchantment, a Netflix exclusive, on July 25, 2017. He referred to the fantasy-oriented series as beginning in a sketchbook full of "fantastic animals we couldn't do on The Simpsons." Abbi Jacobson, Eric Andre, and Nat Faxon appear in the film.

With Steve Vance, Cindy Vance, and Bill Morrison, who published Bongo Comics (named after the character Bongo from Life in Hell), and a few original titles, Groening created Bongo Comics (named after the two characters) in 1994. Bongo's aim, according to Groening, is to "try] to bring humor to a very bleak comic book market." In 1995, he founded Zongo Comics, an imprint of Bongo that published comics for more mature readers, including three issues of Mary Fleener's Fleener's Fleener's Fleener and seven issues of his close friend Gary Panter's Jimbo comics.

Groening is known for his eclectic taste in music. Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention's favourite artist, and his current album is Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart (which was produced by Zappa). He edited Da Capo Press' Best Music Writing 2003 and curated a US All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in 2003. Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute (1996). He illustrated the front cover of Frank Zappa's posthumous album Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa. In May 2010, he curated a second edition of All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead, England. Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry, and Greg Iles are among the rock and roll band The Rock Bottom Remainders' other members, including Dave Barry, the cowbell player, and Sam Barry, who is also known as the cowbell player). Groening co-authored Hard Listening (2013) with the remainder of the Rock Bottom Remainders, published by Coliloquy, LLC).

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