Early career While still at Stanford, Simon's first job was a newspaper sports cartoonist for
The San Francisco Chronicle and
The San Francisco Examiner. "Battle of the Ex's", "Fairytales Can Come True", "Cheerio Cheers" and "The Bartender's Tale". Simon created, wrote and produced the short-lived sitcom
Shaping Up in 1984, alongside
Ken Estin; the show starred
Leslie Nielsen as a gym owner and ran for five episodes on
ABC. Simon also wrote and produced for
Best of the West (1981),
Barney Miller (1982) and ''
It's Garry Shandling's Show'' (1987–1988),
The Simpsons Simon co-developed the animated series
The Simpsons, which premiered on the
Fox network in 1989 and has remained on air ever since. The show is regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time, with
Time magazine naming it the 20th century's best series. The premise for the series originated as a series of
short cartoons airing in 1987 as part of
The Tracey Ullman Show, on which Simon was a writer and executive producer alongside
James L. Brooks, with whom Simon had worked on
Taxi. For
The Simpsons, Simon served alongside
Matt Groening (who conceived the show and the
five main characters) and Brooks as executive producer and
showrunner for the show's
first (
1989–1990) and
second (
1990–1991) seasons, and was creative supervisor for the first four seasons. Simon has been credited with "developing [the show's] sensibility." while Vitti has stated to "leave out Sam Simon" is to tell "the managed version" of
The Simpsons history, because "he was the guy we wrote for." Levine says that Simon "brought a level of honesty to the characters" and made them "three-dimensional," adding that his "comedy is all about character, not just a string of gags. In
The Simpsons, the characters are motivated by their emotions and their foibles. 'What are they thinking?'—that is Sam's contribution. The stories come from the characters." as well as many of the one-time and guest-star roles, such as
Bleeding Gums Murphy. One of his contributions to the show's character development was his proposal that
Waylon Smithers should be gay, but that this should never have too much attention drawn to it; Smithers' sexuality became one of the show's longest-running gags. Simon saw
The Simpsons as a chance to solve "what [he] didn't like about the Saturday-morning cartoon shows [he had] worked on ... [he] wanted all the actors in a room together, not reading their lines separated from each other.
The Simpsons would have been a great radio show. If you just listen to the sound track, it works." Simon adapted
Edgar Allan Poe's "
The Raven" for the third segment of the season two episode "
Treehouse of Horror." Groening was nervous about "The Raven" because it did not have many gags, and felt it would be "the worst, most pretentious thing [they had] ever done" on the show. Nevertheless, the segment has often been praised as one of the best
Treehouse of Horror stories in the show's history. Ryan J. Budke of
TV Squad described the segment as "one of the most refined
Simpsons pop references ever," and knows "people that consider this the point that they realized
The Simpsons could be both highly hilarious and highly intelligent." Simon co-wrote the episode "
Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" with Swartzwelder, an episode which
Tom Shales of
The Washington Post has described as "a bull's-eye political satire". The final episode he co-wrote for season two was "
The Way We Was," alongside Jean and Reiss. While Reiss and Jean took over as showrunners, Simon remained on the writing staff for
seasons three (
1991–1992) and
four (
1992–1993). For the third season he co-wrote "
Treehouse of Horror II," and conceived the story for the
Sideshow Bob episode "
Black Widower," together with mystery author
Thomas Chastain, hoping to construct a full mystery story; Vitti wrote the episode's teleplay. Simon also substantially contributed to the episode "
Stark Raving Dad," pitched the episode "
Homer at the Bat," and proposed the "Land of Chocolate" sequence from "
Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk." Simon's final writing credit was for the "Dial 'Z' For Zombies" segment of "
Treehouse of Horror III." Although they initially worked well together, Simon and Groening's relationship became "very contentious" according to Groening. Simon never expected the show to be a success, often proclaiming to fellow staff members "We're thirteen and out"—meaning that the show would be cancelled after the thirteenth episode of the first season. he elaborated in 2009 that "Really I was saying that to take the pressure off of everyone. I was just saying let's just go out and make 13 episodes that are really good and really funny." Simon later spoke well of Groening's influence, particularly on the show's positive tone. Simon left
The Simpsons in 1993; he commented that he "wasn't enjoying it anymore," wished to pursue other projects, and that of "any show I've ever worked on, it turns me into a monster. I go crazy. I hate myself." Before leaving, he negotiated a deal that saw him receive a share of the show's profits every year, particularly from home media, and an executive producer credit despite not having worked on the show since 1993. He conceived the show as what Carlin's life would have been like had he never become a comedian; Carlin played a heavy drinking New York taxi driver. Simon commented: "When I was doing
The Simpsons, people couldn't see how smart it was because of the low moments. There's something about this show. People who like it say it's classy. They don't see how vulgar it is." Carlin wrote negatively of his relationship with Simon. On his own website, Carlin wrote of the show: "always check mental health of creative partner beforehand. Loved the actors, loved the crew. Had a great time. Couldn't wait to get the fuck out of there." In his final book, the posthumously published
Last Words (2009), Carlin elaborated: "I had a great time. I never laughed so much, so often, so hard as I did with cast members
Alex Rocco,
Chris Rich,
Tony Starke. There was a very strange, very good sense of humor on that stage ... The biggest problem, though, was that Sam Simon was a fucking horrible person to be around. Very, very funny, extremely bright and brilliant, but an unhappy person who treated other people poorly." Simon described himself as "combative" and said that most people see him as having a "bad attitude". the
Friends season three episode "The One Without the Ski Trip" in 1997, and several episodes of
The Norm Show (1999) and
The Michael Richards Show (2000). From 1999 to some time in the early 2000s, Simon was President of e-Nexus Studios the once entertainment content arm of
ZeniMax Media, Parent Company of video game publisher
Bethesda Softworks. After E-Nexus was shut down, Simon became President of the creative group at ZeniMax Productions, another subsidiary of ZeniMax. Simon had his own show on
Radioio. Simon returned to television production work in 2012, serving as a consultant and director on the series
Anger Management for half a day a week.
Other ventures Animal rights Sea Shepherd vessel paid for by, and named after, Simon Simon was a staunch advocate for
animal rights and
veganism, and described himself as an "animal lover". An episode of
60 Minutes broadcast in March 2007 described it as "the grandest dog shelter in the country, a five star, [] spread in Malibu, perhaps the most desirable real estate on the planet. Here, among the waterfalls and the manicured grounds, The Sam Simon Foundation gives stray and abandoned dogs a new lease on life, literally." primarily the deaf. which was unveiled in December 2012. Simon was also a board member for
Save the Children, Simon has stated that animal rights charities have been his main target for donations, over other causes like human disease and environmental damage, because "your money can bring success" with visible results. He also won the $300 438-player No-Limit Hold'em Bounty $100,000 Guarantee at the 2009 L.A. Poker Open, winning $22,228. His biggest win in terms of both field size and prize money was the $200 1,082-player No-Limit Hold'em $150,000 Guarantee at the 2010 Winnin O' The Green, where he won $57,308. he produced the show. ==Awards==