Early career In 1977, at age 23, Groening moved to Los Angeles to become a writer. He went through several jobs, including being an extra in the television film
When Every Day Was the Fourth of July, busing tables, washing dishes at a nursing home, clerking at the Hollywood Licorice Pizza record store, landscaping in a sewage treatment plant, and chauffeuring and
ghostwriting for a retired director of
Western films.
Life in Hell Groening described life in Los Angeles to his friends in the form of the self-published comic book
Life in Hell, which was loosely inspired by the chapter "How to Go to Hell" in
Walter Kaufmann's book
Critique of Religion and Philosophy. Groening distributed the comic book in the book corner of
Licorice Pizza, a
record store in which he worked. He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde
Wet magazine in 1978. Groening had gained employment at the
Los Angeles Reader, a newly formed
alternative newspaper, delivering papers, typesetting, editing and answering phones. He showed his cartoons to the editor, James Vowell, who was impressed and eventually gave him a spot in the paper.
Life in Hell made its official debut as a comic strip in the
Reader on April 25, 1980. Vowell also gave Groening his own weekly music column, "Sound Mix", in 1982. However, the column would rarely actually be about music, as he would often write about his "various enthusiasms, obsessions,
pet peeves and problems" instead. In an effort to add more music to the column, he "just made stuff up",
Life in Hell became popular almost immediately. In November 1984, Deborah Caplan, Groening's then-girlfriend and co-worker at the
Reader, offered to publish "Love Is Hell", a series of relationship-themed
Life in Hell strips, in book form. Released a month later, the book was an underground success, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings.
Work Is Hell soon followed, also published by Caplan. Soon afterward, Caplan and Groening left and put together the Life in Hell Co., which handled merchandising for
Life in Hell. Groening also started Acme Features Syndicate, which initially syndicated
Life in Hell as well as work by
Lynda Barry and
John Callahan, but would eventually only syndicate
Life in Hell. At the end of its run,
Life in Hell was carried in 250 weekly newspapers and has been anthologized in a series of books, including
School Is Hell,
Childhood Is Hell,
The Big Book of Hell, and
The Huge Book of Hell. the June 16, 2012, strip marked
Life in Hells conclusion. After Groening ended the strip, the Center for Cartoon Studies commissioned a poster that was presented to Groening in honor of his work. The poster contained tribute cartoons by 22 of Groening's cartoonist friends who were influenced by
Life in Hell.
The Simpsons Creation 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. In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening with the proposition of working in animation on an undefined future project, Groening famously named the main Simpson characters after members of his own family: his parents, Homer and Marge (for Groening's mother it was short for Margaret and the cartoon character Marge is short for Marjorie), and his younger sisters, Lisa and Margaret (Maggie). Claiming that it was a bit too obvious to name a character after himself, he chose the name "Bart", an anagram of brat. However, he stresses that aside from some of the sibling rivalry, his family is nothing like the Simpsons. Groening also has an older brother and sister, Mark and Patty, and in a 1995 interview Groening divulged that Mark "is the actual inspiration for Bart." Groening has said that his father was nothing like Homer (despite the same name), describing him as a heroic World War II pilot, filmmaker and "a huge inspiration to me." Maggie Groening has co-written a few
Simpsons books featuring her cartoon namesake.
The Tracey Ullman Show The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. 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'. Groening decided that this would be too distracting though, and redesigned the ear to look normal. He still draws the ear as a 'G' when he draws pictures of Homer for fans. 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. Bart's original design, which appeared in the first shorts, had spikier hair, and the spikes were of different lengths. The number was later limited to nine spikes, all of the same size. 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. Lisa's physical features are generally not used in other characters; for example, in the later seasons, no character other than Maggie shares her hairline. While designing Lisa, Groening "couldn't be bothered to even think about girls' hair styles". When designing Lisa and Maggie, he "just gave them this kind of spiky starfish hair style, not thinking that they would eventually be drawn in color". Groening storyboarded and scripted every short (now known as
The Simpsons shorts), which were then animated by a team including David Silverman and Wes Archer, both of whom would later become directors on the series. The Simpsons shorts first appeared in
The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. Another family member,
Grampa Simpson, was introduced in the later shorts. Years later, during the early seasons of
The Simpsons, when it came time to give Grampa a first name, Groening says he refused to name him after his own grandfather, Abraham Groening, leaving it to other writers to choose a name. By coincidence, they chose "Abraham", unaware that it was the name of Groening's grandfather.
Series Although
The Tracey Ullman Show was not a big hit, the popularity of the shorts led to a half-hour spin-off in 1989. A team of production companies adapted
The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The team included what is now the
Klasky-Csupo animation house. James L. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. 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. The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with "
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", a
Christmas special. "
Some Enchanted Evening" was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1990, as the last episode of the first season, because of animation problems. The series quickly became a worldwide phenomenon, to the surprise of many. Groening said: "Nobody thought
The Simpsons was going to be a big hit. It sneaked up on everybody."
The Simpsons was co-developed by Groening, Brooks, and
Sam Simon, a writer-producer with whom Brooks had worked on previous projects. Groening and Simon, however, did not get along and were often in conflict over the show; Groening once described their relationship as "very contentious." Simon eventually left the show in 1993 over creative differences. Like the main family members, several characters from the show have names that were inspired by people, locations or films. The name "Wiggum" for police chief
Chief Wiggum is Groening's mother's maiden name. The names of
a few other characters were taken from street names in Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon, including
Flanders,
Lovejoy,
Powell,
Quimby and
Kearney. Despite common fan belief that
Sideshow Bob Terwilliger was named after SW Terwilliger Boulevard in Portland, he was actually named after the character Dr. Terwilliker from the film
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.. Although Groening has pitched a number of spin-offs from
The Simpsons, those attempts have been unsuccessful. 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 has also pitched "Young Homer" and a spin-off about the non-Simpsons citizens of
Springfield. 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 claimed that he feared viewers would "see it as nothing but a pathetic attempt to advertise
The Critic at the expense of
The Simpsons," and was concerned about the possible implication that he had created or produced
The Critic. He requested his name be taken off the episode. Groening is credited with writing or co-writing the episodes "Some Enchanted Evening", "
The Telltale Head", "
Colonel Homer" and "
22 Short Films About Springfield". He also co-wrote and produced
The Simpsons Movie, released in 2007. He has had several
cameo appearances in the show, with him having done a speaking role for his animated counterpart in the episode "
My Big Fat Geek Wedding". He currently serves at
The Simpsons as an executive producer and
creative consultant.
Futurama 2009 After spending a few years researching science fiction, Groening got together with
Simpsons writer and producer
David X. Cohen (known as David S. Cohen at the time) in 1997 and developed
Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000. By the time they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and
storylines; Groening claimed they had gone "overboard" in their discussions. In an interview with CNN, Groening said that "we have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don't know... We're having discussions and there is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me". Comedy Central commissioned an additional 26 new episodes, and began airing them in 2010. The show continued in to 2013, before Comedy Central announced in April 2013 that they would not be renewing it beyond its seventh season. The final episode aired on September 4, 2013. On February 9, 2022 the series was revived at Hulu, with the
eighth season premiering on July 24, 2023. On July 25, 2017, the series,
Disenchantment, was ordered by Netflix. He described the fantasy-oriented series as originating in a sketchbook full of "fantastic creatures we couldn't do on
The Simpsons". The cast includes
Abbi Jacobson,
Eric Andre, and
Nat Faxon.
Disenchantment ran from August 17, 2018, to September 1, 2023, concluding with its fifth and final part, released on September 1, 2023.
Other pursuits In 1993, Groening formed
Bongo Comics (named after the character Bongo from
Life in Hell) 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. According to Groening, the goal with Bongo is to "[try] to bring humor into the fairly grim comic book market." He also formed
Zongo Comics in 1995, an
imprint of Bongo that published comics for more mature readers, which included three issues of
Mary Fleener's
Fleener and seven issues of his close friend
Gary Panter's
Jimbo comics. Groening is known for his eclectic taste in music. His favorite artist is
Frank Zappa and
The Mothers of Invention and his favorite album is
Trout Mask Replica by
Captain Beefheart (which was produced by Zappa). He guest-edited
Da Capo Press'
Best Music Writing 2003 and curated a US
All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in 2003. He illustrated the cover of Frank Zappa's posthumous album
Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute (1996). In May 2010, he curated another edition of All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead, England. 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. In July 2013, Groening co-authored
Hard Listening (2013) with the rest of the Rock Bottom Remainders (published by
Coliloquy, LLC). ==Personal life==