An army of animated characters has crawled out of the curious cerebral cortex of one disgruntled writer-turned-illustrator named Matt Groening. This malcontent is responsible for "The Simpsons," one of the most recognized and amusing series in the history of American television....
[more]An army of animated characters has crawled out of the curious cerebral cortex of one disgruntled writer-turned-illustrator named Matt Groening. This malcontent is responsible for "The Simpsons," one of the most recognized and amusing series in the history of American television. The show revolutionized the cartoon world and spawned an entire new industry of Bart-related shirts, dolls, and cultural phrases.
Groening left his soggy Portland, Oregon, home for Los Angeles, where he hoped to break into the entertainment industry as a writer. Instead, he fell into that old Tinseltown trap of working in the service industry: he ended up as a chauffeur with a doodling hobby. In 1977 he placed a small comic strip in the pages of L.A. Weekly, where he was an editor. The strip features neurotic one-eared bunnies and bizarre, fez-sporting roommates trapped in a stifling and dreary L.A. lifestyle. "Life in Hell" took off -- it now appears in more than 200 newspapers
worldwide.
Backed by the success of the strip, he was able to produce "The Simpsons." In doing so, he unwittingly catapulted himself to stardom. The iconoclastic Bart and the oafish Homer speak to a generation weaned on cartoons and to younger adults just beginning their pop-cultural initiation. The cartoon posits a suburban world in which men are seen as bumbling, mischievous ne'er-do-wells, while women are nurturing, strong, and incredibly intelligent. In this and many other ways, "The Simpsons" puts a mirror up to our own evolving cultural values.
Like all animated greats, "The Simpsons" engages multiple levels of intellectual sophistication. Freeze-frame gags and consistently kooky jokes work as slapstick, situation comedy, and cultural innuendo. Homer and Marge (named after Groening's parents) were trailblazers that would pave the way for shows like "Beavis and Butthead" and "South Park." For his efforts, Groening received an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Animated Program" in 1997.
Groening leads a very busy life. In 1993 he founded the Bongo Comic Strip, which has generated four different comic book titles. He also created and serves as executive producer on the recent "Futurama" television series, which is drawing critical praise. On top of it all, he continues to work on both "The Simpsons" and "Life is Hell." Add a wife and two young boys (named Abraham and Homer) and you have the foundation for a very occupied life. Doh!
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