As in The Big Book of Hell (in other words, I didn't write it) Legalities: The following is Copyright 1990, Matt Groening Productions, Inc. and was first published by Panthenon. Matt Groening was born near Beaverton, Oregon, in 1954. His father, Homer Groening, a cartoonist himself, encouraged his son's primitive doodlings. Matt enjoyed drawing from an early age, but felt a strong loathing for coloring books, mainly because he was never able to stay inside the line. In grade school, Matt drew cartoons when he should have been paying attention, which left strange gaps in his education. To this day, he does not know his state capitals, and don't bother asking him to multiply any numbers between 7 and 13. He'll just look at you blankly. In high school, Matt continued his frivolous ways. He drew cartoons in every class, even Physical Education, injuring himself severely his sophomore year while doodling on the parallel bars. Until he was kicked off the staff, Matt drew cartoons for the school newspaper. Feeling the revolutionary fervor of the time, Matt and his hippie pals formed their own political party, the Teens for Decency. Responding to the slogan, "If You're Against Decency, What Are You For?", his confused classmates elected Matt Student Body President and immediately regretted it. Matt attended the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, taking full advantage of the school's no-grade, no-required-courses policies. He graduated in 1977 and drove to Los Angeles, where his car broke down in the fast lane of the Hollywood Freeway just above the Vine Street exit at 2 a.m., inspiring the "Life in Hell" cartoon series. "Life in Hell" debuted in Wet magazine in 1978, and began its first regular weekly appearance in the Los Angeles Reader in 1980. The comic strip currently appears in about 250 newspapers around the world, much to Matt's amazement. Matt has published six cartoon books, all but one with the word "Hell" in the title. He is also responsible for countless "Life in Hell" calendars, postcard books, greeting cards, posters, T-shirts, and coffee mugs. "What the hell," he explains enigmatically. Matt's first animated work, " The Simpsons," which began as a feature on The Tracey Ullman Show, is now a freakishly popular weekly half-hour primetime series. Matt lives in Los Angeles with his radiant wife, Deborah Caplan; his son, Homer; and more pet ducks than you can shake a stick at. First, there was Groening...: The history of THE SIMPSONS began with the sketches of a comic book creator whose comic series "Life in Hell" was published in many newspapers, Matt Groening. Born on February 15, 1954 in Portland, Ore., Groening soon discovered his artistic talent. After graduating from Evergreen State College, he went to LA to draw comics, inspired by his father Homer, a cartoonist and filmmaker. He became popular with his comic "Life in Hell". In 1986, the producers of the "TRACY ULLMAN SHOW" asked him to produce some small animated films which would be shown during the breaks of the show. Groening drew some sketches of characters very similar to his own family, and the producers like them. Those shorts became so successful, that in 1989 FOX gave THE SIMPSONS their own 30 min. show. The following year, THE SIMPSONS won their first EMMY AWARD for best animated series (they won it 13 times until now). THE SIMPSONS are the longest running and most successful animated series of all times. The creation: Now you know how the characters are based on Groening's family, but how did the characters got their names? Groening's parents were called Homer and Margaret (but she was called Marge by everyone), so the Simpsons are called Homer and Marge (Marjorie). Groening's sisters were called Lisa and Maggie(what a surprise!). Groening once said that Lisa's character was very similar to his sister. Only Bart's name doesn't come from Groening's family, it comes from "Brat". When he was asked why he chose Springfield as name for the town, Groening said that's because it's the most common town name in the US, but it's only the 2nd one. The name "Simpson" is also a very popular name and it also means son of a Simpleton. The theme is inspired by "THE JETSONS", "THE FLINTSTONES" and other themes, and some people say that THE SIMPSONS are yellow because Groening didn't have any other colors. D'oh, the probably most known Simpsons catchphrase comes from D'ooow. In the script, it was called (Annoyed Grunt) and then Dan Castellaneta came up with D'ooow. Groening told him to shorten it, and a new expression was born. The Simpsons Comics: The Simpsons Comics became nearly so successful as their relatives on TV. The American issue is published every 2 months and contains 1 Simpsons story and perhaps a I&S or RM story in addition to the Simpsons. More than 40 issues were published until now and they're still so successful as in the beginning. But, the Comics also exist in Europe, issues are published in Great Britain and Germany. The US and European issues are published by the BONGO COMICS GROUP. BONGO was founded in 1993 by Matt Groening. CD's and Videos: Because of their success, 4 SIMPSONS CD's were already recorded: "The Simpsons Sing the blues", "Songs in the key of Springfield", "The yellow Album" and "Go Simpsonic with the Simpsons". There also a lot of Videos: THE BEST OF THE SIMPSONS, features 12 cassettes and 720 minutes of pure Simpsons, uncut. (in addition every Video contains 1 short films of the TRACY ULLMAN SHOW). But the Simpsons don't just have a lot of fans, they're also very expensive. An Episode costs nearly 1.000.000 dollars and it takes 6 months to produce them. The Episodes are animated in Korea and then send to the FOX studios for coloring. The people who give their voices to the Simpsons earn 50.000 dollars per Episode. August 1 1987 - The Simpsons, created by cartoonist Matt Groening (and named to the members of his family -- except for Bart, which is an anagram for Brat), appeared in 1987 as a serie of 30-second spots produced for the FOX Emmy Award-Winning variety series The Tracey Ullman Show. The Simpsons premièred on FOX as a half hour-comedy on January 14, 1990. Confirmed by fans and critici to be the most hilaric and lifelike portraits of the average American family, the series received the 1990 and 1991 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program. The Simpsons, living in the community of Springfield, include Homer, a father wo gives bad advice and works as safety inspector at the nuclear power plant; Marge, a loving mother and wife who tries to reserve the peace in the family; Bart, a ten year old anarchist; Lisa, a smart, philosophical girl of ten years old, who loves to play the saxophone; and Maggie, the baby, who sucks her pacifier while watching the rest of the family quarrel. THE SIMPSONS has a more colorfull history and a bigger influence on the world than any other television series. The show carries catchy phrases as "Cowabunga", "Aye Caramba", "D'oh!", "Eat my shorts!" and "Don't have a cow, man!" which has become part of the daily vocabulary of many viewers. The biggest compliment the show ever received is the political disorder it produced and still produces, of which former Vice President Dan Quayle is painfully aware. While visiting the New Yersey Elementary School (6/15/92), the vice president corrected a young student's spelling of the word "potato" by making it "potatoe", only to find that the student was right and he was wrong! The opening credits of The Simpsons on June 25 1997 showed Bart, writing a sentence over and over again on the blackboard as a punishment for a prank he played. This time Bart wrote: "Potatoe, not potatoe" According to Matt Groening, it was Bart's idea. Of course, the show has received a lot of criticism. Politically that is. Former first lady Barbara Bush said in an interview appearing in "people" magazine (september, 1990) that The Simpsons was the dumbest thing she's ever seen. Marge Simpson wrote mrs. Bush a letter give her a piece of her own mind. Surprisingly enough, mrs. Bush responded in two weeks with a letter asking for forgiveness for "a loose tongue". In a speech of "The National Religious Broadcasters convention" (01/27/92), former president George Bush said: "The nation should mirror itself more to the Waltons, instead of The Simpsons". This time Groening responded: "Hey, The Simpsons are just like The Waltons, both families spend a lot of time praying for the end of the depression!" His response appeared in newspapers all over the world. In January '95, a group of parents in Greenwood, S.C., protested against the decision of the school council to let the school to be built there, be named Springfield Elementary. That happened because the school council let the students pick the name of the school. The parents accused Bart Simpson to be a bad example for the youth and that the district should not honor the name of Bart's school. The school council, who previously was not aware of the background of the school's name, stayed with their decision; the name was chosen: Springfield Elementary. The Simpsons also have a couple of good deeds on their name. A mother in Auburn, Washington, says that The Simpsons saved her son's life. Karen Beneze tells us that eight year old Alex was choking on an orange. Chris, his brother, performed the Heimlich-manoeuvre, removed the orange and Alex' breathing returned to normal. Karen claims that her son used this technique because he saw an episode of Homer eating a donut and choking on it. Actually, the Heimlich manoeuvre was never really performed in the show. Homer managed to cough up the donut himself while his collegues were watching a poster projecting the steps of the manoeuvre. Naturally, animated characters depend upon voices to help bring them to life, and The Simpsons are no exception. The voices behind these characters include Dan Castellaneta as Homer, Julie Kavner as Marge, Nancy Cartwright as Bart, Yeardley Smith as Lisa and series regulars HarryShearer and Hank Azaria who play a variety of roles... Troughout its first 100 episodes, The Simpsons has attracted nearly as many celebrity guest voices to its ranks. These famous guests have included Elizabeth Taylor, Sting, Johnny Carson, Michael Jackson, Bette Midler, Luke Perry, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Penny Marshall and Bob Hope. The series has spawned an abundance of merchandice bearing the likenesses of Groening’s creations. One would have to look far and wide to find a place where there is not a mug, beach towel, t-shirt, board game, wristwatch, puzzle, notebook, pencil or backpack with Homer, Bart, Lisa and Maggie proudly telling the world that the owner is a certified fan. There is even a platinum ( sales of bigger than one million copies ) recording entitled "THE SIMPSONS SING THE BLUES". Now there is also a CD called "Songs in the key of Springfield : original themes from the show". Winner of the 1990 and 1991 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program ( and winner of a nomination in 1992 ), THE SIMPSONS is executive produced by three time Academy Award and eleven-time Emmy Award winner James L. Brooks and Matt Groening, along with David Mirkin, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. THE SIMPSONS is a Gracie Films Production in association with Twentieth Television. "The Simpsons" is an animated television series produced by Gracie Films for Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Network. It began as a series of interstitals (also called bumpers or shorts) for "The Tracey Ullman Show" on April 19, 1987, and premiered as a series on December 17, 1989 in the 8PM time slot. Regular broadcasts began on Sundays beginning January 14, 1990. Seasons Two, Three, Four, and Five were broadcast by Fox on Thursday nights in the 8PM slot, before returning to Sunday nights beginning with Season Six. Seasons One, Two, and Three were animated by Klasky-Csupo (pronounced "CLASS-key CHOOP-oh"), who also worked on "The Tracey Ullman Show" bumpers. Subsequent seasons have been animated by Film Roman, with in-between work being done for both animation houses by Akom Production Company, Anivision, and Rough Draft Studios in Korea. The Simpson family was created in ~15 minutes while Matt Groening waited in the foyer to James L. Brooks' office, a long-standing legend confirmed in the Oprah Winfrey Interview by Groening himself. All were taken from "Fans" of Matt Groening from different sites.___________