Matthew Abram Groening created the Simpsons in 1989 with
the idea of creating a story loosely based around his own life. The show that
would sweep the world for the next 22 years and onwards. 23 seasons and 500
episodes later the show is a huge hit with Groening showing the typical
American family going through basic daily tasks with hilarious outcomes.
According to his biography at IMDb (2011) the names of
Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie Simpson were derived from matt Groening’s parents
Homer and Margaret Groening and his sisters Lisa and Maggie Groening. Bart was
based on the idea of Dennis the Menace and instead of calling him Matt, whom he
originally wanted to call him, he gave him the name Bart as the name Matt would
be to closely linked to his family. Groening went with the name Bart as it is
the anagram of brat. Groening named the father of Homer Simpson Abraham Simpson
as he didn’t want to link the family too closely to his own so he went with his
middle name Abram changing it to fit the typical grandfather.
Groening placed his trade mark in all of his cartoons as
according to his biography at IMDb (2011). His characters usually can be
identified as his own by the overbites on all of them. His characters generally
had middle names that began with the letter J such as Homer Jay Simpson.
Likewise with his characters he would work his initials into the character
somehow. Take Homer Simpson for example his hair forms the M and his ear forms
a G.
Matt Groening created “Life in Hell”, “Akbar and Jeff”
and “Futurama” before even thinking about
“the Simpsons”. “the Tracey Ullman show” got into contact with Groening
about a new show in which they wanted him to take his “Life in Hell” strips and
transform them into a television show which later became known as the Simpsons.
According to Telegraph (2014) Matt Groening revealed that
Springfield Oregon was the inspiration for the hometown of the Simpsons.
Groening grew up in Portland Oregon which was right next to Springfield Oregon.
He used the town of Springfield as the hometown of the Simpsons as it was the
most common name of cities in America. He used Springfield as it would make
everyone who watches the show think that it was based on their Springfield.
Groening grew up in Evergreen Terrace which was what inspired him to name the Simpson
family home.
The iconic laugh of Nelson Muntz was discovered when matt
Groening was snatched for a strip search at an airport as he was seen to be a
suspicious character. Whilst being whisked away by airport security a little
boy laughed at him with the “ha ha” which he found to be annoying. He used that
laugh for Nelson Muntz one of the schoolyard bullies.
According to his biography at IMDb (2011) Matt Groening
quoted: “a joke has to pass muster about 100
times before it gets on the air. On the movie, it's probably 1,000 times”. This
was so that the joke could be funny each time you hear it. He also stated:
“There are jokes that were funny the first 350 times, and then, the 351st time,
we go, 'Ah, I'm kind of tired of that', so we change it.”
In conclusion Matt Groening and his
team of animators and comedy writers work really hard to keep the shows on top
with the hilarious episodes of fun for the whole family. The work put into the
design and output of the characters is a difficult task.
Reference:
1. Newcombe,
K. 2011. Matt Groening Biography.[online].available at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004981/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
[accessed on 3 March 2014]
2.
Henderson, B. 2012. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening reveals Springfield,
Oregon is his inspiration.[onine]. Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9197180/The-Simpsons-creator-Matt-Groening-reveals-Springfield-Oregon-is-his-inspiration.html . [accessed on 3 March 2014]
3.
Unknown. 2012. Matt Groening: I could easily fill up my entire life
just working on futurama.[online]. Available at http://metro.co.uk/2012/03/08/matt-groening-i-could-easily-fill-up-my-entire-life-just-working-on-futurama-344979/ [accessed on 4 march 2014]
4. Newcombe,
K. 2011. Matt Groening Biography.[online].available at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004981/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
[accessed on 3 March 2014]
