They divorced in 1999, after 13 years of marriage.Following this, Groening was in a six-year commitment with dating expert Lauren Frances. I vowed I would never forget what it was like.". Images of "The Simpsons" have been licensed to sell everything from T-shirts to toys to potato chips to cheese, suggesting that mainstream culture has gotten pretty good at marketing genuine hipness as well. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. By high school, Groening had learned to channel his subversive leanings in a manner that engaged his classmates. The book became a success with over 20000 copies being sold in its initial two printings. His mission, Groening has said, was to create a sofa-centric sitcom about a typical American family and turn it upside down in retaliation for all the bad TV he watched as a kid. [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. His first cousin, Laurie Monnes Anderson, was a member of the Oregon State Senate, representing eastern Multnomah County. Over the years, "The Simpsons" and its irreverently unsentimental outlook have provoked a mountain of commentary about the decline of American culture. Deborah Caplan and Matt Groening are divorced after a marriage of 13 years. Following this success, came his next work, Work is Hell, also published by Deborah Caplan. It was Mr. Groening's girlfriend, Deborah Caplan (now his wife), who in 1984 gave the comic strip its first lift by forming a small company to publish a collection of his cartoons, "Love Is Hell . 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. In a strange coincidence, they discovered that their parents were friends and that they both attended neighboring high schools in Philadelphia. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. When Comedy Central began negotiating for the rights to air Futurama reruns, Fox suggested that there was a possibility of also creating new episodes. Deborah Caplan: Net Worth: $600 million: Birth Place: Portland, OR: Nationality: American: Education: Evergreen State College: Father: Homer Philip Groening: Mother: Matt Groening received the British Comedy Award for his Outstanding contribution to comedy. [60] Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching. After marriage, he became step father to Augustina Picasso's daughter Camille. 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. The network resisted giving Groening the autonomy he needed and plied him with notes. 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). Groening is the brother-in-law of the creator of Hey Arnold !, Craig Barlett, who is married to his sister Lisa. "), 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. 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). [58], Although The Tracey Ullman Show was not a big hit,[59] the popularity of the shorts led to a half-hour spin-off in 1989. 1 . [109], He was awarded the Inkpot Award in 1988. His work The Simpsons grabbed the Annie Award in the Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Program category for the year 1999. The duo left the newspaper company and Matt Groening founded the Acme Features Syndicate that distributed Life in Hell. Beginning 1987, he worked in the Traccy Ullman Show for two years as writer and animator. 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. Agustina is an Argentinian artist. Or rather, he is the struggling, penurious pre-"Simpsons" Matt Groening. Playdate with Destiny (2020) [16] A liberal arts school that he described as "a hippie college, with no grades or required classes, that drew every weirdo in the Northwest". The pilot episode of "Futurama" was scheduled to air in the coveted slot between "The Simpsons" and "The X-Files" on Sunday night, and was watched by 19 million viewers. The message? Groening went on to the liberal Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where he butted heads with the more extreme countercultural types that populated the campus. Groening decided that this would be too distracting though, and redesigned the ear to look normal. The company published comics related to The Simpsons and Futurama. Growing up in Portland, Ore., he did well in school, but was frequently hauled down to the principal's office for smart-aleck conduct, like drawing cartoons. "I feel like it's a tidal wave I'm surfing on," he said. At its peak, the cartoon was carried in 250 weekly newspapers. Many members of the Simpson family are named for members of his own family: Homer, Marge, Maggie, Lisa and Patty. Groening worked as the editor of the campus newspaper, The Cooper Point Journal, for which Groening also wrote articles and drew cartoons. [30] Groening distributed the comic book in the book corner of Licorice Pizza, a record store in which he worked. So, how much is Matt Groening worth at the age of 67 years old? He made his first professional cartoon sale of Life in Hell to the avant-garde magazine Wet in 1978. The Simpsons Movie (2007) Writer/director Deborah Kaplan met partner, writer/director Harry Elfont, at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' prestigious film school. 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. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. "And to be honest, the whole 'Simpsons' project was a project to see how far I could go in the mainstream. Maratona Especial Os Simpsons (since 2017). 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. [71] He has had several cameo appearances in the show, with a speaking role in the episode "My Big Fat Geek Wedding". In fact, when "Simpsons" writers wax elegaic, they tend to do so about George Meyer, a writer who first became involved with the show late in 1989, a few months before its Fox premiere. Along with mailing the comics to friends and family back in Portland, he attempted to sell his stapled-together books from his record store. She was Groening's long-time girlfriend before she married him in 2011. "To many divisions of this company, 'The Simpsons' was the shining light that kept us motivated and believing that our division would grow. The two married in 2011 after a four-year relationship. Deborah Kaplan has been divorced from Matt Groening since 1999. He was an English major and a World War II vet. 5) Are you worried you might have accidentally minimized your potential? 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. "I never saw anything as crude as my stuff getting published," he has said. He used to write articles and draw cartoon illustrations for the journal. By his own description, Mr. Groening behaved as a child much as Bart Simpson would if only he had more scholastic aptitude. 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. In 1991, the newly wealthy Groening still seemed to struggle with the central paradox of his career. "The success of the show," he has said, "has gone beyond my wildest dreams and worst nightmares.". [110], He received the 2,459th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012. In 2004. Groening is a guy who lunches with Rupert Murdoch and finds him congenial. But for a few brief moments in the early '90s, the idea that anything "alternative" could suddenly overtake the mainstream was still surprising. 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?" 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. After marriage, he became step father to Augustina Picassos daughter Camille. [12] Although Groening previously stated, "I'll never give up the comic strip. [69], In 1995, Groening got into a major disagreement with Brooks and other Simpsons producers over "A Star Is Burns", a crossover episode with The Critic, an animated show also produced by Brooks and staffed with many former Simpsons crew members. Groening and Simon, however, did not get along[59] and were often in conflict over the show;[26] Groening once described their relationship as "very contentious. After graduating to a job at a record store called Licorice Pizza, whose gimmick it was to give away licorice to its customers (but whose employees often found themselves providing free licorice meals to the indigent instead), Groening began drawing "Life in Hell," a self-published, xeroxed comic book starring Binky, a lonely, alienated rabbit living in low-income Hollywood hell. ", "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. A self-published anthology of "Love Is Hell" led to a deal with Pantheon Books, and eventually Caplan began running Life In Hell Inc. Groening made his first professional cartoon sale of Life in Hell to the avant-garde magazine Wet in 1978. The animated shorts that Groening created were The Simpsons (1989). He found some work along those lines, whipping up slogans for horror movies, but also took on a series of jobs that included chauffeur, dishwasher and record store clerk to make a living. His father Homer, born in Main Centre, Saskatchewan, Canada, grew up in a Mennonite, Plautdietsch-speaking family. And yet he speaks like the kid who just made it big, who still can't believe his luck. Most importantly, The Simpsons retained the subversive undercurrent that has driven its creator since he was a bored grade school student. Some of the funniest jokes, he says, can only be caught on a still frame. And judging from the success of "The Simpsons," what Americans hold most dear is disrespect itself. In 1972, he enrolled at the Evergreen State College in Olympia and studied there for five years. It was at the Reader that Groening also met Deborah Caplan, a sales represen- tative with a background in publishing and a head for business - all qualities notoriously absent in Groening's psychological framework. [15] Soon afterward, Caplan and Groening left and put together the Life in Hell Co., which handled merchandising for Life in Hell. He is a cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. 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. [82], In 1994, Groening formed Bongo Comics (named after the character Bongo from Life in Hell[83]) with Steve Vance, Cindy Vance and Bill Morrison, which publishes comic books based on The Simpsons and Futurama (including Futurama Simpsons Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis, a crossover between the two), as well as a few original titles. In 1994, Groening and other Simpsons producers pitched a live-action spin-off about Krusty the Clown (with Dan Castellaneta playing the lead role), but were unsuccessful in getting it off the ground. Groening went to Ainsworth Elementary School and Lincoln High School. [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. platform, and regretted his victory immediately. During this time he was the editor of college paper The Cooper Point Journal. The strip gained traction after a shift in tone, with Binky becoming less preachy and more of a victim of the cultural and social forces that browbeat dissidents into submission. Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008) Groenings grandfather named Abraham Groening, worked as a professor at Tabor College, a Mennonite Brethren liberal arts college in Hillsboro, Kansas, prior to moving to Albany College (now named Lewis and Clark College) in Oregon in 1930. The couple has two sons, Homer and Abe. In 2009, the show beat Gunsmoke to become the longest-running entertainment show on primetime TV. [108] In 2007, he was ranked fourth (and highest American by birth) in a list of the "top 100 living geniuses", published by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. [33] Among the fans of the column was Harry Shearer, who would later become a voice on The Simpsons. Groening is a 68-year-old who was born on February 15, 1954, in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. Life in Hell caught the attention of American producer James L. Brooks. In the following week's column, he would confess to fabricating everything in the previous column and swear that everything in the new column was true. 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. MATT GROENING would like to tell you a few things about his family: His father, Homer, is not bald. 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. Matt Groening's income source is mostly from being a successful Cartoonist. The show went on to become the longest running US primetime TV series and earn multiple awards. Matt and Deborah separated in 1999. [57] Another family member, Grampa Simpson, was introduced in the later shorts. Matt Groening (full Name: Matthew Abram Groening) is a popular American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. All Rights Reserved. On this date in 1954, Matthew Abraham Groening was born in Portland, Ore., to Homer Groening, an advertising agent and amateur cartoonist, and Margaret Wiggum. [89] In May 2010, he curated another edition of All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead, England. The world is full of literalists (Elmer Fudds, Mr. Groening would say). [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). 2. Groening also became a father of twins On June 16, 2018, when his wife Agustina gave birth to Sol Matthew and Venus Ruth, as reported via Instagram. During this time the show has done for animated cartoons what "thirtysomething" did for yuppies: proved that despite some annoying tendencies, they can be successful in prime time. "I judge my life by how miserable it used to be," Groening told an interviewer last year, speaking of his early days as a lowly alternative cartoonist. 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. He is starting to think about other projects, like developing a show starring the Simpsons' favorite entertainer, Krusty, the dissolute clown. It was Groening's first day in hell. He ran for student body president on the "Teens for Decency" ("If You're Against Decency, What Are You For?") [17] In an effort to add more music to the column, he "just made stuff up,"[25] concocting and reviewing fictional bands and nonexistent records. Matt's grandfather Abram was born in Hillsboro, Kansas. As to his position on the "Simpsons" voice actors' recent contract negotiations, he told Mother Jones, "I have sympathy. [41] Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office and hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family: Homer, the overweight father; Marge, the slim mother; Bart, the bratty oldest child; Lisa, the intelligent middle child; and Maggie, the baby. [102], Groening has made a number of campaign contributions, all towards Democratic Party candidates and organizations. And I always say, 'Whatever offends you the most.' 1. Matt Groening is well known for his cartoon characters, comic strips and animated television series. creator, Craig Bartlett, who was married to Groening's sister, Lisa, until they divorced in 2015. That year, he also began working for the alternative-weekly newspaper the L.A. As Flaubert might have said, "Binky, c'est tout le monde." Its shorts were spun off into their own series, The Simpsons, which has since aired 727 episodes. Agustina Picasso Born - Unknown Agustina is an Argentinian artist. I Know That Voice (2013) The Longest Daycare (2012) Homer and Abe were their two sons. Groening's position is an interesting one for a satirist to find himself in. His Norwegian American mother, Margaret Ruth (ne Wiggum; March 23, 1919 April 22, 2013),[6] was once a teacher, and his Russian Mennonite father, Homer Philip Groening (December 30, 1919 March 15, 1996),[7] was a filmmaker, advertiser, writer and cartoonist. In the 10 years since the debut of "The Simpsons," however, Groening had gone from semifamous alternative cartoonist to iconic powerhouse. ", Groening himself has always made the deal. 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. Born Matthew Abram Groening on 15th February, 1954 in Portland, Oregon, he is famous for Creator of The Simpsons, Futurama and Life In Hell. Le 15-2-1954 , Matt Groening (surnom: Matthew Abram Groening, Bat Groening, Mad Groening) est n Portland, Oregon, United States.