After the two became romantically involved, she established a business to promote her future husband's work, negotiating syndication arrangements with other publications and a book deal with Pantheon. When Comedy Central committed to sixteen new episodes, it was decided that four straight-to-DVD films Bender's Big Score (2007), The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008), Bender's Game (2008) and Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009) would be produced. Work is Hell soon followed, also published by Caplan. [107] He received a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. [15] At the end of its run, Life in Hell was carried 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. 8) Does this fill you with shame and guilt and cheese puffs? He first sold his comic to magazine Wet, in 1978. As to the autonomy he'd enjoyed with "The Simpsons," Groening was told, "We don't do business like that anymore. It was at this time that he began drawing cartoons for his self-published book titled Life in Hell, which was based on his struggles and featured Binky an oppressed rabbit. Its shorts were spun off into their own series, The Simpsons, which has since aired 727 episodes. Groening is a guy who lunches with Rupert Murdoch and finds him congenial. The network resisted giving Groening the autonomy he needed and plied him with notes. The message? He grew up in Portland and did his schooling from the Ainsworth Elementary School and Lincoln High School. ", "I had a real strong sense of drama as a kid," he said, "and I couldn't believe adults didn't remember what it was like to be a kid. Matt Groening - Listal Groening's position is an interesting one for a satirist to find himself in. But mainly, he is Matt Groening. "[19] He first became interested in cartoons after watching the Disney animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians,[20] and he has also cited Robert Crumb, Ernie Bushmiller, Ronald Searle,[21] Monty Python,[22] and Charles M. Schulz as inspirations. 3) Disgusted? "I wake up every morning thinking how lucky I am. 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. "I wanted to write something they couldn't teach in high school because it had too much foul language," he said. This one is a Cinderella story: humble beginings, the insidious discouragement of petty authority figures, the unexpected intervention by fairy godproducer James L. Brooks and the eventual (stormy) marriage to a wealthy potentate (Rupert Murdoch's Fox network). Netflix has also renewed the series for twenty additional episodes, which are expected to start in ten-episode batches in 2020 and 2021. 6) Are you trapped in a loveless cubicle? Groening won a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012. It may simply be, he speculates, "that people don't get it.". His television series titled Futurama also earned him the Annie Award for Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production in the years 2010 and 2014, while his other work The Simpsons won the award in this category in the years 2011, 2012 and 2015. The couple has two sons, Homer and Abe. Groening is a 68-year-old who was born on February 15, 1954, in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. They divorced in 1999 and Groening married Argentine artist Agustina Picasso in 2011. In 2011, Groening married Argentine artist Agustina Picasso after a four-year relationship, and became stepfather to her daughter Camila Costantini. Claiming that it was a bit too obvious to name a character after himself, he chose the name "Bart," an anagram of brat. Perhaps, were he to walk in off the street, he could get a job as a writer on the show. [71] He has had several cameo appearances in the show, with a speaking role in the episode "My Big Fat Geek Wedding". Along with mailing the comics to friends and family back in Portland, he attempted to sell his stapled-together books from his record store. "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. Tales of the Rat Fink (2006) as Finkster 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. "The Simpsons" premiered in 1990, and eventually became the most popular, most widely broadcast and one of the longest-running shows in television history. After marriage, he became step father to Augustina Picassos daughter Camille. In 1997, Groening and former Simpsons writer David X. Cohen developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000, which premiered in 1999, running for four years on Fox, then picked up by Comedy Central for additional seasons. [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. 4) Disagreeably damp and jittery? Published a month later, the book was an underground success, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings. ", The Simpsons are offspring of Bongo, Akbar and Jeff, only slightly less hapless. He has donated money to the unsuccessful presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, as well as previously donating to Kerry's Massachusetts senator campaign. A few years earlier they had set up their own syndicate, ACME Features, to distribute the strip. [17] He served as the editor of the campus newspaper, The Cooper Point Journal, for which he also wrote articles and drew cartoons. 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. 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. He winds up working for an intergalactic delivery service, with a crew of misfits including Leela, the ship's one-eyed alien captain and Bender, a corrupt, vice-addled, disgruntled robot. Patricia was an art dealer. Matt Groening's then-girlfriend, Deborah Caplan, published "Love is Hell" in November 1984 which is a book form of series of relationship-themed "Life in Hell" strips and followed by "Work is Hell" which was also published by her. He notes with a chuckle that he has just received the lastest shipment of Simpsoniana: Bart golf balls. Has two sons with Deborah Caplan: Homer Groening (born 1991) and Abe Groening (born 1993). Soon, he was driving an 88-year-old movie director around by day and ghost-writing his autobiography by night while living upstairs from a nocturnal rock lover (whose ceiling light he eventually dislodged with a plunging cinderblock). 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. The show centers on Fry, a pizza-delivery man who is accidentally frozen in a cryogenics lab and defrosted 1,000 years later. "The success of the show," he has said, "has gone beyond my wildest dreams and worst nightmares.". In 2002, he won the Reuben Award by the National Cartoonists Society for his work, Life in Hell. [63], The series quickly became a worldwide phenomenon, to the surprise of many. A self-published anthology of. 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?" [41][42][43] Groening famously named the main Simpson characters after members of his own family: his parents, Homer and Marge (Margaret or Marjorie in full), and his younger sisters, Lisa and Margaret (Maggie). In 2009, the show beat Gunsmoke to become the longest-running entertainment show on primetime TV. The artist saw his first non-self-published comic appear in a 1978 issue of Wet magazine. Groening was one of four children. [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. 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 same year his direct-to-video film Futurama: Bender's Big Score earned him the Annie Award for Best Animated Home Entertainment. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. "I feel like it's a tidal wave I'm surfing on," he said. Later, Groening attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., which was known for its extremely liberal (no grades, no core requirements) liberal arts program. As a third-grader, he entered a short-story contest set up with the premise that a child walks into his attic, bumps his head and then knows what he wants to become when he grows up. [48] When Groening originally designed Homer, he put his own initials into the character's hairline and ear: the hairline resembled an 'M', and the right ear resembled a 'G'. He works as a cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. [35][40] In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening with the proposition of working in animation on an undefined future project,[9] which would turn out to be developing a series of short animated skits, called "bumpers," for the Fox variety show The Tracey Ullman Show. Groening's career got a boost in the early 1980s when the L.A. The strip continued to be published in the LA Weekly until 2009, when they were unable to pay Matt Groening anymore. [36] Released a month later, the book was an underground success, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings. [109], He was awarded the Inkpot Award in 1988. Groening has said that due to his limited drawing ability, it's unlikely he could get a job as an animator on "The Simpsons" today. [51] At the time Groening was primarily drawing in black and "not thinking that [Bart] would eventually be drawn in color" gave him spikes that appear to be an extension of his head. 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." 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. The couple also welcomes daughters Luna Margaret and India Mia born in 2015. But while he used to drive a beat-up Dodge Dart, he now drives a sleek new BMW. [15] He befriended fellow cartoonist Lynda Barry after discovering that she had written a fan letter to Joseph Heller, one of Groening's favorite authors, and had received a reply. Matt and Deborah married in 1986, and had 2 sons Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe, both who Matt portrays as rabbits in Life in Hell. Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999) Groening knew this would have meant losing ownership rights to his characters, so he decided to start from scratch. Indeed, the biggest danger the show seems to face is that it will lose its power to surprise. What may never happen again is another show that comes along and had the overall importance to a particular company like 'The Simpsons' has had for News Corp.", Groening was outspoken about his criticisms of Fox's business practices and its inexplicably shabby treatment of him and his new show. The show premiered under the Fox Broadcasting Company banner, in 1999. But that's not my point of view.". 2) Disappointed? His sister Maggie is not mute. But he realized that Fox would own whatever characters went on the air. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. **** His other role model was cartoonist, Charles Monroe Schulz, who was known for his comic creation Peanuts. [14] Following his high school graduation in 1972,[15] Groening attended the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. In 1997, he and retired Simpsons writer David X. Cohen developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000, which premiered in 1999, ran for four years on Fox, then picked up by Comedy Central for more seasons. Homer Groening (born 1991) By his own description, Mr. Groening behaved as a child much as Bart Simpson would if only he had more scholastic aptitude. In 1987, Groening married fellow Weekly staffer Deborah Caplan. However, Matt and Deborah divorced in 1999. His father, Homer Philip Groening, was a writer, filmmaker and advertiser and his mother, Margaret Ruth, was a teacher. While at college, he befriended famous cartoonist Lynda Barry, whom he also regards as a great inspiration.
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