", Mr. Groening identifies closely with the oppressed children of America, sitting at their desks, waiting to cause trouble. Yet Groening's DNA is all over the show, from the characters named after the streets of his hometown (Flanders, Lovejoy, etc. Matt Groening. The animated shorts that Groening created were The Simpsons (1989). 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. Deborah Kaplan has been divorced from Matt Groening since 1999. 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. Matt Groening Futurama The Simpsons premiered in 1989 with him as creator, writer, voice actor and executive producer. "Technically, I'm an agnostic, but I definitely believe in hell especially after watching the . He was also given the responsibility of handling the papers music column for a short period. Matt Groening - Biography - IMDb Matt Groening is well known for his cartoon characters, comic strips and animated television series. "I wake up every morning thinking how lucky I am. 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. And I always say, 'Whatever offends you the most.' SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. Commentary for ", Silverman, David; Reardon, Jim; Groening, Matt. He notes with a chuckle that he has just received the lastest shipment of Simpsoniana: Bart golf balls. 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. The poster contained tribute cartoons by 22 of Groening's cartoonist friends who were influenced by Life in Hell. 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?" [49] Marge's distinct beehive hairstyle was inspired by Bride of Frankenstein and the style that Margaret Groening wore during the 1960s, although her hair was never blue. 4) Disagreeably damp and jittery? [23] Groening graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism in 1977. [80] He described the fantasy-oriented series as originating in a sketchbook full of "fantastic creatures we couldn't do on The Simpsons". 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. Now I'm deliriously happy all the time.". [53] While designing Lisa, Groening "couldn't be bothered to even think about girls' hair styles". His mother, Margaret, though, used to have "huge hair.". In 1987, Groening married fellow Weekly staffer Deborah Caplan. All Rights Reserved. In 2008, Matt Groening won the Annie Award in the Writing in a Feature Production for comedy film The Simpsons movie. But before delirium set in, Groening spun a lingering bad mood and an "accidental" cartooning career into a billion-dollar print, broadcast, merchandising and licensing empire. Spouse/Ex-: Agustina Picasso, Deborah Caplan, siblings: Lisa Groening, Maggie Groening, Mark Groening, Patty Groening, children: Abe Groening, Homer Groening, Nathaniel Philip Picasso Groening, Ancestry: Norwegian American, Canadian American, Notable Alumni: The Evergreen State College, Founder/Co-Founder: Bongo Comics Group, Zongo Comics, The Curiosity Company, Quotes By Matt Groening | [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". Matt Groening created the show The Simpsons, and two of the principal characters, a husband and wife, are named Homer and Marge. Groening won a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012. A self-published anthology of. You know, "Meet George Jetson. Groening stands at a height of 5 ft 8 in (approx:1.7 m). In 2012, a 3-D short film based on The Simpsons was released with the title The Longest Daycare. . His other role model was cartoonist, Charles Monroe Schulz, who was known for his comic creation Peanuts. Life in Hell caught the attention of American producer James L. Brooks. Matthew Abram Groening ( / ren / GRAY-ning; born February 15, 1954) [1] is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. Deborah Kaplan - IMDb From his friends at the "alternative" newspapers like The Village Voice that run his comic strip, Mr. Groening gets a fair amount of flak, he says, about "selling out." They had 2 children. TIL Matt Groening's parents were Homer and Margaret Groening. "[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. But while he used to drive a beat-up Dodge Dart, he now drives a sleek new BMW. There is not much information about Mark. Matthew Abraham Groening was born 15 February 1954 in Portland, Oregon, United States to Homer Philip Groening (1919-1996) and Margaret Ruth Wiggum (1919-2013) . She was Groenings long-time girlfriend before she married him in 2011. 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. But that's not my point of view.". 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. "Hey, they were right! Work is Hell soon followed, also published by Caplan. Every week or so Mr. Groening gets a new offer to develop a movie or a cartoon or a situation comedy. They had been married for 11.1 years. Creating 'The Simpsons:' How Matt Groening's Own Family - Biography Its shorts were spun off into their own series, The Simpsons, which has since aired 727 episodes. 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. Le fils de pre Homer Philip Groening et mre Margaret Ruth est comdien de stand-up, crivain & caricaturiste, anno 2023 clbre pour The Simpsons & Futurama. Born in 1954 in Portland, Oregon, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening had, in many ways, an idyllic childhood. He is a cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. Playdate with Destiny (2020) From this and other joyless jobs, "Life in Hell" was born. Matt Groening - Wikipedia The Simpsons is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Homer and Abe were their two sons. The world is full of literalists (Elmer Fudds, Mr. Groening would say). He wasn't serious. She is the author of "Do You Love Me or Am I Just Paranoid?" But the short clips were a hit with fans, and producers began exploring a standalone series as Tracey Ullman floundered in the ratings. [8][50] Bart's original design, which appeared in the first shorts, had spikier hair, and the spikes were of different lengths. 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. [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. [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. [2], On January 15, 2016, it was announced that Groening was in talks with Netflix to develop a new animated series. (Villard). In 2011, he married artist Augustina Picasso, with whom he had been in a relationship for four years. 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). If you answered no, you are also probably a fan of Matt Groening. Groening was born on February 15, 1954, in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. By installment No. 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 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. [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. **** Despite his status as an ultimate insider, Groening's writing has always been that of an outsider. Upon seeing his work in the comic strip, producer and writer, James L Brooks, expressed his interest to involve Matt Groening in the creation of an animated series to run on comedy series The Tracy Ullman Show. [100][101], Groening was mentioned in a lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre over allegedly being forced by sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to massage Groening's feet while on Epstein's jet in 2001. Then Fox moved "Futurama" to Tuesday night, and audiences fell to about 8 million. He befriended fellow cartoonist Lynda Barry and, finding no real authority to rebel against, he turned to cartooning in earnest. His wife is Agustina Picasso (m. 2011), Deborah Caplan (m. 1986-1999) Matt Groening Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2020-2021. [110], He received the 2,459th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012. Mr. Groening planned to use the figures from "Life in Hell." He is starting to think about other projects, like developing a show starring the Simpsons' favorite entertainer, Krusty, the dissolute clown. ", Groening himself has always made the deal. It is currently running in its 27th season. By then, however, "Life in Hell" was running in several other alternative weeklies, and soon the L.A. Weekly brought him on board. Groening's career got a boost in the early 1980s when the L.A. Needless to say, the life-affirming executives at Fox worried that the show was too dark and negative. She married Groening in 1987 and they got divorced in 1999, after 13 years of marriage. They said, 'It doesn't make any difference!'". Matt Groening - Address & Phone Number | Whitepages Published a month later, the book was an underground success, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings. [107] He received a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. Le 15-2-1954 , Matt Groening (surnom: Matthew Abram Groening, Bat Groening, Mad Groening) est n Portland, Oregon, United States. Groening is a guy who lunches with Rupert Murdoch and finds him congenial. 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. Furthermore, the once-struggling artist was about to be presented with the business offer that would change his life forever. 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. [15] Life in Hell made its official debut as a comic strip in the Reader on April 25, 1980. Homer Groening (born 1991) [85], Groening is known for his eclectic taste in music. [61] The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", a Christmas special. As Groening told Spin magazine. Groening said: "Nobody thought The Simpsons was going to be a big hit. Matt Groening has won 12 Primetime Emmy Awards and 23 Annie Awards across various categories. The number was later limited to nine spikes, all of the same size. It was Homer, a cartoonist and filmmaker, who showed his precocious son that a career of creative fulfillment was possible. Matt Groening (full Name: Matthew Abram Groening) is a popular American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. At its peak, the cartoon became carried in 250 weekly newspapers. But mainly, he is Matt Groening. "Futurama" moved away from the family sitcom structure and into dysfunctional workplace territory, a subject that had long inspired Groening. "[46], Maggie Groening has co-written a few Simpsons books featuring her cartoon namesake. In the mid-1980s, he moved to Los Angeles and started drawing a comic strip named "Life in Hell", which eventually became published in the newspaper where he worked. Deborah Kaplan and Matt Groening | Married Divorced Children Ex She joked that "his godfather is SpongeBob's creator Stephen Hillenburg". [34], Life in Hell became popular almost immediately. (2002). "Teachers, principals, clergymen, politicians -- for the Simpsons, they're all goofballs, and I think that's a great message for kids." 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. In 2009, the show beat Gunsmoke to become the longest-running entertainment show on primetime TV. Reader hired sales rep Deborah Caplan, who observed that the Life in Hell strips were "a major selling point" of the paper. Patricia was an art dealer. Twenty-four years ago, Groening was just another unrecognized genius driving to Los Angeles in a crummy car with a coat hanger for a radio antenna. Groening knew this would have meant losing ownership rights to his characters, so he decided to start from scratch. "Of course, those are all true. 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. Matt Groening Children & Wife | Net Worth 2023 | Age | Bio [92] In May 2013, Picasso gave birth to Nathaniel Philip Picasso Groening, named after writer Nathanael West. 7) Do you question authority when authority is out of earshot? Groening is married to his wife Agustina Picasso an Argentine artist. The message? "And to be honest, the whole 'Simpsons' project was a project to see how far I could go in the mainstream. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. In the mid '80s, renowned producer James L. Brooks approached Groening about using the characters from "Life in Hell" on a new show he was developing for comedian Tracey Ullman. Who is Matt Groening? Net Worth, Bio, Age, Height, Affairs (2023) 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. [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'. Homer was a cartoonist, advertiser, writer, and a documentary filmmaker. Matt and Deborah separated in 1999. He is a man of above-average stature. [12] Although Groening previously stated, "I'll never give up the comic strip. They have two sons, Homer and Abe, now 13 and 10.). In 2013, the couple had a son named . On the radio, a drunken DJ wept a final farewell to his job. The final strip of the comic strip "Life in Hell" was published on June 16, 2012. 1. [111], Groening, Matt; Reiss, Mike; Kirkland, Mark. Meanwhile, Groening was up to his old tricks of rocking the boat, writing silly reviews of bands based on their publicity photos and even making up phony acts to cover. (2015) They had two sons together, Homer and Abe. In 2016, Groening developed a new series for Netflix, Disenchantment, which premiered in August 2018. Matt Groening and Deborah Caplan married in 1986 and have two children: Homer (who goes by the name of Will) and Abe. All rights reserved. He received the Annie Award (for accomplishments in animation) in the Best Animated Television Production category for his series The Simpsons for six years from the year 1992 to 1997. Futurama: Benders Big Score (2007) 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 (m.1986, d.1999) Agustina Picasso (m.2011) Children: Abe Groening, Homer Groening, Nathaniel Philip Picasso Groening, India Mia Groening, Venus Ruth Groening, Luna Margaret Groening, Sol . "[19] The show premiered on March 28, 1999. In high school, he drew cartoons for the school newspaper until he was kicked off the staff. 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. When he was asked by producer James L. Brooks to create animated shorts for The Tracey Ullman Show, Groening came up with The Simpsons. [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. Clerks: The Animated Series (2000-2002) Groening grew up in Portland, Ore., with a father named Homer, a mother named Marge and sisters named Maggie and Lisa. Matt Groening and Deborah Caplan - Dating, Gossip, News, Photos One of his first employers was an aging B-movie director who needed help both getting around and writing his memoirs. 8) Does this fill you with shame and guilt and cheese puffs? Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Matt Groening did not particularly like school, which is what originally turned him towards drawing. [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. The /s signifies sarcasm. The Simpsons (1989-present) 6, the list of recipients had grown from 20 to 500. For a man who has become famous on the strength of his dark musings, starting with "Life in Hell," his weekly comic strip, Mr. Groening (it rhymes with complaining, his publicist says) comes off in person as surprisingly benign: big, bearish and still a bit astonished to find his jokes getting so out of hand. Again, to his surprise, he won. He was an English major and a World War II vet. Deborah Kaplan is currently available. Still, it's clear that Groening's satire feeds on frustration and the stupidity of others. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. ", The Simpsons are offspring of Bongo, Akbar and Jeff, only slightly less hapless. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. [39], Life in Hell caught the attention of Hollywood writer-director-producer and Gracie Films founder James L. Brooks, who had been shown the strip by fellow producer Polly Platt. I may be going to hell, but I did embrace all the stuff -- the T-shirts, the Bart phone, the chess set, all of it.". 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. Groening is credited with writing or co-writing the episodes "Some Enchanted Evening", "The Telltale Head", "Colonel Homer" and "22 Short Films About Springfield". Since 1989, Groening take part in the television series The Simpsons which is the longest-running U.S. primetime-television series in history and the longest-running U.S. animated series and sitcom. Matt is stepfather to Agustinas daughter, Camille. Deborah Kaplan Entertainment - Director Why Famous: is an American screenwriter and film director Age: N/A Deborah Kaplan's Relationships (2) Matt Groening Arts - Other Why Famous: The Simpsons and Futurama
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