Homer was a cartoonist, advertiser, writer, and a documentary filmmaker. So it is not surprising that when people learn that the creator of America's favorite dysfunctional family, the Simpsons, named the characters after his closest relatives, they want to know if he is, well, you know, a little hostile. In 1987, producers of the soon-to-be-launched sketch comedy program The Tracey Ullman Show, headed by the legendary James L. Brooks, contacted Groening about developing short animated cartoons to air between skits. he said in a Mother Jones interview. Matt Groening - Ethnicity of Celebs | EthniCelebs.com Surname is pronounced "gray-ning" (rhymes with "raining"); born February 15, 1954, in Portland, OR; son of Homer (a filmmaker) and Margaret Ruth (ateacher; maiden name, Wiggum) Groening; married Deborah Lee Caplan (Groening's manager and business partner), October 29, 1986; children: Homer, Abraham. [26][32] Vowell also gave Groening his own weekly music column, "Sound Mix," in 1982. Matt Groening is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and director. "[46] He also formed Zongo Comics in 1995, an imprint of Bongo that published comics for more mature readers,[46] which included three issues of Mary Fleener's Fleener[84] and seven issues of his close friend Gary Panter's Jimbo comics. [96] In January 2022, Groening's tenth child Satori was born. The /s signifies sarcasm. Groening's success owes as much to his own work as it does to the work of a slew of others, including co-creators James Brooks and Sam Simon, and "The Simpsons'" writing staff. He is from OR. In interview after interview, he has recalled his youthful vow never to forget what childhood was like -- a gauntlet of petty rules and restrictions that exist only to be broken. Matt Groening married Deborah Caplan in 1986. Groening found out the way everybody else did, by picking up the paper. Matt Groening Biography (1954-) - Film Reference In 1984, Groening and his wife Deborah Caplan published his first "Life in Hell" book, called Love in Hell, and eventually set up a distribution company, Life in Hell Co., which handled the syndication and merchandise for all of Groening's projects. And for a guy whose career has been dedicated to skewering television, crass commercialism, "evil billionaire tyrants" (how boss Rupert Murdoch described himself in a cameo on "The Simpsons") and brainless consumers, Groening sure does love his merchandise. The show went on to become the longest running US primetime TV series and earn multiple awards. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012. [29][68] Groening has also pitched "Young Homer" and a spin-off about the non-Simpsons citizens of Springfield. Who is Matt Groening? Net Worth, Bio, Age, Height, Affairs (2023) [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. He studied at Evergreen State College and edited the campus newspaper. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. [109], He was awarded the Inkpot Award in 1988. "I don't consider anything beneath me. Before, Groening was married to his first wife Deborah Caplan. AT WORK WITH: Matt Groening; The Fun of Being Bart's Real Dad, https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/25/garden/at-work-with-matt-groening-the-fun-of-being-bart-s-real-dad.html. The two married in 2011 after a four-year relationship. In 2011, he married artist Augustina Picasso, with whom he had been in a relationship for four years. However, the show's collection of memorable supporting characters and winking, multilayered nods to popular culture, arguably owes more to Simon and the original stable of writers than to Groening. [66] Despite common fan belief that Sideshow Bob Terwilliger was named after SW Terwilliger Boulevard in Portland, he was actually named after the character Dr. Terwilliker from the film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.[67], Although Groening has pitched a number of spin-offs from The Simpsons, those attempts have been unsuccessful. But for now, at least, it continues to thrive; it is consistently the most-watched show in its time slot, Thursday at 8 P.M., and is Fox's No. He simply shrugs and buys more computer games, like the electronic ant farm that once caught his fancy. In the mid-1980s, he moved to Los Angeles and started drawing a comic strip named Life in Hell, whi . Were it not for the clueless executives, the inane network decisions, the petty betrayals at the hands of people who benefit from his success, he might have stagnated by now. "When I was a kid, my friends and I used to put on puppet shows, make comic books, and I decided that's what I wanted to do, to play in every medium," he said. [64], Like the main family members, several characters from the show have names that were inspired by people, locations or films. [52] Lisa's physical features are generally not used in other characters; for example, in the later seasons, no character other than Maggie shares her hairline. She was Groening's long-time girlfriend before she married him in 2011. They had 2 children, Homer (32) and Abe (30). The team included what is now the Klasky Csupo animation house. Matt Groening's income source is mostly from being a successful Cartoonist. He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978. Or rather, he is the struggling, penurious pre-"Simpsons" Matt Groening. Later, he got employed at an alternative newspaper Los Angeles Reader, and here with the support of his supervisor, Matt Groening was able to officially publish Life in Hell as his first comic strip, in 1980. In 2016, Groening developed a new series for Netflix, Disenchantment, which premiered in August 2018. His first cousin, Laurie Monnes Anderson, was a member of the Oregon State Senate, representing eastern Multnomah County. [12] Although Groening previously stated, "I'll never give up the comic strip. 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. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/matthew-abram-groening-2308.php, 20th Century Film & Theater Personalities, 21st Century Film & Theater Personalities, 20th Century American Film & Theater Personalities, 21st Century American Film & Theater Personalities, Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour), Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less). In a strange coincidence, they discovered that their parents were friends and that they both attended neighboring high schools in Philadelphia. [15] Life in Hell made its official debut as a comic strip in the Reader on April 25, 1980. Life in Hell caught the attention of American producer James L. Brooks. Carina Chocano writes about TV for Salon. The early iteration of The Simpsons was a crude, Neanderthal version of the family that would become ubiquitous in pop culture; both Bart and Lisa were troublemakers, and Homer was a barely controlled cauldron of rage. Creating 'The Simpsons:' How Matt Groening's Own Family Inspired the Characters, Matt Groening; Photo: Gary Moss/Corbis via Getty Images, Matt Groening with a cutout of Bart Simpson; Photo: Getty Images, James Cameron Keeps Smashing His Own Records, The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. At its peak, the cartoon was carried in 250 weekly newspapers. I said, 'It's not going to be like "Blade Runner."' Groening and Deborah Caplan married in 1986 and had two sons, Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe. 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. . The message? [10], Matt's grandfather, Abraham Groening, was a professor at Tabor College, a Mennonite Brethren liberal arts college in Hillsboro, Kansas, before moving to Albany College (now known as Lewis and Clark College) in Oregon in 1930. When Billie Met Lisa (2022), Disenchantment (2018-present) Mr. Groening planned to use the figures from "Life in Hell." Ian Maxtone-Graham, another writer on the show, has said in an interview, "I would rather make George Meyer laugh than get an Emmy." Matt Groening Children & Wife | Net Worth 2023 | Age | Bio 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. A few years earlier they had set up their own syndicate, ACME Features, to distribute the strip. Matt Groening Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family In fact, to prove that he didn't mean anything by naming a fat, incompetent slob like Homer Simpson after his father, he named his first son Homer, too. A self-published anthology of. Matt Groening has made appearances in films and documentaries, such as, Comic Book: The Movie (2004), The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005), The Seventh Python (2008) and I Know That Voice (2013). Matt Groening - Biography - IMDb "Simpsons" executive producer Mike Scully, who took over as show runner, or head writer, in 1996, has said that in order to write for "The Simpsons," a writer must have "a healthy disrespect for everything Americans hold dear." However, Matt and Deborah divorced in 1999. Matt's paternal grandfather was Abram Arthur Groening (the son of Abraham Groening and Aganetha Klaassen). 4) Disagreeably damp and jittery? [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. The animated shorts that Groening created were The Simpsons (1989). 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. Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999) Television and those who watch it are remorselessly lampooned. In 1973, he moved to LA and sold his comic strip Life in Hell to the LA weekly. Reader in 1986, after writing a letter to the editor over a fellow writer's dismissal, but by then Life in Hell was already appearing in other alt-weeklies and providing extra income through merchandise sales. Groening and Deborah Caplan married in 1986[27] and had two sons together, Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe,[44] both of whom Groening occasionally portrays as rabbits in Life in Hell. He is 68 years old. From teachers who forced him to rip up his cartoons in front of the class, to the petty tyranny of bosses ("I was told that I would never get a job in the Pacific Northwest in journalism after my disgraceful stewardship of the Cooper Point Journal," Groening told the graduating class in a commencement address at his alma mater, Evergreen State College. TIL Matt Groening's parents were Homer and Margaret Groening. 2002, 2003 and 2004. He is also a father to five more children. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. [97], Matt was the brother-in-law of Hey Arnold!, Dinosaur Train and Ready Jet Go! 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." 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. "), to the narrow mentality of newspaper editors (even "alternative" newpaper editors "hated" his approach to obscure rock criticism) to the "timidness" of network executives trying to subject him to "corporate deflavorizer," to his famous battles with network censors, Groening's life reads like a series of epic adventures more Quixotic than Homeric in their details. Groening has won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, 11 for The Simpsons and 2 for Futurama, and a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. Reader through an ever-shifting array of responsibilities that included reporter, distribution manager, punk rock critic and assistant editor. The show continued in to 2013,[76][77] before Comedy Central announced in April 2013 that they would not be renewing it beyond its seventh season. He finally added staff cartoonist to his resume when Life in Hell first appeared in the paper in the spring of 1980. (2005). If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, you are probably a fan of Matt Groening. [94] On June 16, 2018, he became the father of twins for a second time when his wife gave birth to Sol Matthew and Venus Ruth, announced via Instagram. [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'. [110], He received the 2,459th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012. Groening celebrates his birthday on February 15th, every year. Post years of research in science fiction, in 1997, Matt Groening along with producer, David X Cohen, created an animated series project titled Futurama, about life in the year 3000. Matt Groening Love Is Hell 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. Matt Groening received the British Comedy Award for his Outstanding contribution to comedy. Tlcharger Livre Le Pays Basque d antan PDF Franais In the early days of "The Simpsons," Mr. Groening used to preside over all aspects of production, from scripts to story boards to voice-overs to animation. Published a month later, the book was an underground success, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings. However, the column would rarely actually be about music, as he would often write about his "various enthusiasms, obsessions, pet peeves and problems" instead. By now, though, the damage, such as it is, has clearly been done: the show has entered the very pop culture it pokes so much fun at. He also plays the drums in the all-author rock and roll band The Rock Bottom Remainders (although he is listed as the cowbell player), whose other members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Stephen King, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry and Greg Iles. "What's happened is that mainstream culture has gotten so good at marketing pseudo-hipness that it overwhelms other choices that are out there.". They divorced in 1999, after 13 years of marriage.Following this, Groening was in a six-year commitment with dating expert Lauren Frances. He rose to fame with the comic strip Life in Hell; and his animated television series The Simpsons. In 2009 and 2010, Matt Groening was awarded with the Annie Award in the category Best Animated Home Entertainment for Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs and Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder respectively. Groening decided that this would be too distracting though, and redesigned the ear to look normal. Matt Groening Net Worth | Celebrity Net Worth Groening won a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012.

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