The Simpsons: Matt GroeningBy Wikipedia
Matthew Abram Groening (born February 15, 1954) (name rhymes
with raining, IPA ['greɪnɪŋ])
is an American cartoonist and the creator of the animated series The
Simpsons and Futurama. He currently serves at the former as
creative consultant.
While at Lincoln High School, he was the student body president. He
graduated from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
Before his work in television, Groening created the syndicated comic
strip Life in Hell, which is still carried in many weekly
newspapers and has been anthologized in a series of books, such as School
is Hell, Love is Hell, Work is Hell, and The Big Book of Hell.
He is also the creator of the comic strip, Akbar and Jeff.
The Simpsons
Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strip caught the attention of
Hollywood writer-producer and Gracie Films founder James L. Brooks, and
asked Groening to developed a series of short animation skits to be
featured on the FOX variety show The
Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. The animation skits would later be
known as The Simpsons.
He quickly named the main family Simpson characters after his own
family (reportedly he was not feeling very creative in those fifteen
minutes), his parents, Homer and Margaret (Marge), and his younger
sisters, Lisa and Maggie. Groening also has an older brother and sister,
Mark and Patty, but these siblings were left out of the main Simpson
family. As for Groening himself, he decided it was a bit too obvious to
name a character after himself and therefore chose the name
"Bart" (an anagram of brat). Not wishing to curse another
member of his family by lending their name to a cartoon character,
Groening says he refused to name Homer's dad, instead choosing to leave
the room. When he returned, the writers had given him the name of Abraham,
which coincidentally turned out to be the name of Groening's grandfather.
Groening has also named his own sons Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe
(which is the name of Grandpa Simpson). Other names, like other elements
of the cartoon, are rife with obscure and not-so-obscure references to
pop-culture for alert viewers to discover on their own.
Other character names
Groening grew up in Portland, Oregon, and seems to have found names for
some characters from major Portland street names such as Flanders,
Lovejoy, Powell, Quimby, and Terwilliger.
Facts
- His father Homer, a descendant from Russian Mennonites in Canada,
spoke Plautdietsch as a child in Saskatchewan in the 1920s but Matt
never learned the language.
- The name Groening may be derived from Groningen (city) (or Grun'n
in the local dialect) in the north of the Netherlands.
- Groening was influenced as a youngster by the dark humor of English
cartoonist Ronald Searle.
- He is part of the rock and roll band The Rock Bottom Remainders
whose members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy
Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Stephen King, Kathi
Kamen Goldmark, and Greg Iles.
- Groening currently serves as creative consultant on The Simpsons. In
the past he has served as executive producer on The Simpsons
and Futurama.
- Both Groening and his character Bart Simpson are left-handed. Other
left handed characters on The Simpsons include Ned Flanders, Mr. Burns
and Moe Szyslak, the bartender.
- In college, Groening sometimes took notes in class in the form of
comic strips.
Myths
A popular legend in the U.S. Navy's nuclear program is that Groening is
a former Navy nuclear operator. The story goes on to claim that the
character of Mr. Burns is based on
Admiral Rickover, and that the Ned Flanders
character was inspired by a former commander of a moored training ship
prototype unit in Charleston, South Carolina.
It was said that while being student body president Groening was
stripped of this title when he tried to amend the constitution to make him
an all-powerful president for life. But when asked at a party for his
publishing company, Groening said he liked the myth better, but he did
finish his term and was not stripped of his title.
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