From TheBestLinks.com
Matthew Abram Groening (born February 15, 1954) (name rhymes with raining, SAMPA ['grEniN]) is an American cartoonist and the creator of the television series Futurama and The Simpsons, where he currently serves as creative consultant. In high school, he was the student body president, but was stripped of this title when he tried to amend the constitution to make him an all-powerful president for life. He graduated from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
A Photo of Matt Groening; From SF-Radio.net
Before his work in television, Groening created the syndicated cartoon 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.
When he went in to Fox to pitch them an idea for a cartoon, Matt had second thoughts about turning 'Life in Hell' into a TV series in case it failed. As such he came up with 'The Simpsons' on the spot. He named the main family Simpson characters after his own family (reportedly he was not feeling very creative that day), his parents, Homer and 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 Matt himself, he decided it was a bit too obvious and therefore called him "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 turned out to be the name of Matt's grandfather. Groening has also named his own sons Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe (which is the name of Grandpa Simpson).
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.
Matt's father Homer, a descendant from Russian Mennonites in Canada, spoke Plautdietsch as a child in Saskatchewan in the 1920s but Matt never learned that 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 & 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.
External links
de:Matt Groening
it:Matt Groening
sv:Matt Groening
Related links
Top visited
0 of
0 links
[no links posted yet]
>> place link >>
Discussion
Last posted
0 of
0 messages
[no messages posted yet]
>> post message >>
Watch
You can
add this article to your own "watchlist" and receive e-mail notification about all changes in this page.
