70th birthday Matt Groening
Everything about the creator of The Simpsons
Matt Groening – 2018 in Los Angeles – celebrates his 70th birthday
© Birdie Thompson/AdMedia/ImageCollect
Creative genius Matt Groening created “The Simpsons” and “Futurama.” The creator of Homer, Bart and Lisa turns 70 on February 15th.
The American Matt Groening (70), who celebrates his 70th birthday on February 15th, made television history with the cult series “The Simpsons”. Together with his co-series creators James L. Brooks (83) and Sam Simon (1955-2015), Groening brought the characters Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Maggie to the then underchallenged, intelligent TV audience in the late 1980s Experience absurd adventures in the fictional and yet very American small town of Springfield.
In addition, Groening, who once started out as a comic artist, also created the animated series “Futurama” and “Disenchantment” over the course of his illustrious TV career.
Start with the underground comic “Life in Hell”
Groening grew up in the northwest of the United States. His father Homer Groening (1919-1996), after whom he named the “Simpsons” father, was also a filmmaker and comic artist. His son attended Evergreen State College in Washington State, in Groening’s own words, “a hippie college with no grades or required courses that attracted every freak in the Northwest.”
The young creative then moved to Los Angeles. It was there that Groening’s first successful comic strip, “Life in Hell”, was created, which was first published in 1978, ran for over 30 years, and by the end of its life could be found in 250 weekly newspapers. Although the “Life in Hell” characters, such as Bart Simpson’s predecessor, the rabbit Bongo, are still white instead of yellow, they already have numerous other visual characteristics of the later Simpsons, such as the oversized googly eyes.
Matt Groening creates “The Simpsons”
The film producer, author, director and three-time Oscar winner James L. Brooks (“It Couldn’t Get Better”, “The Time of Tenderness”) became aware of Groening’s comic strip in the mid-1980s. He originally wanted to bring “Life in Hell” to TV, but its creator Matt Groening realized – According to legend, literally at the last second – that the Fox television channel, on which “The Simpsons” was to be broadcast, would get the rights to the characters.
Groening came up with the well-known “Simpsons” main characters in their place. Short clips on The Tracey Ullman Show became the iconic series The Simpsons, which has aired over 760 episodes to date. “The Simpsons” is the longest-running animated series, sitcom and scripted evening series in U.S. television history. The program has received 36 Emmy Awards so far.
Inventor Groening said this at the beginning of the 1990s about his creation: “To be honest, the whole ‘Simpsons’ project was a project to see how far I could go in the mainstream.”
Further career highlights with “Futurama” and “Disenchantment”
In fact, Groening was heavily involved in the series, particularly in the early years of “The Simpsons,” and also provided the basic idea for the 2007 “Simpsons” movie. Since then, numerous writers and showrunners have overseen the popular animated program, whose biggest problem is… Over the past 20 years, it seems to still be developing ideas that haven’t been seen on the show before.
Matt Groening turned to new projects during the 1990s. Together with “Simpsons” author David X. Cohen (57), he created the extremely popular sci-fi animated series “Futurama,” which is still being produced with interruptions. In 2018, the fantasy animated series “Disenchantment” started on the streaming service Netflix, which had 50 episodes in five seasons by September last year.
Groening himself has received a total of 13 Emmy Awards in his long and successful career. In 2012 he received a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In his private life, the “Simpsons” creator has stepped in front of the altar twice so far. The marriages resulted in a total of nine children.