Upon being reminded that Simpsons creator Matt Groening grew up in Portland, former Simpsons writer and future Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien said this:
“He’ll always be my boss. You know how you feel when you run into your third-grade teacher at the supermarket? Your worry that you’re going to get in trouble, even if you’re 45? That’s how I feel when I see Matt Groening.”
The LA Weekly has dropped Matt Groening’s weekly comic strip Life in Hell after 22 years. As far as I can tell, no other Los Angeles periodicals are carrying it, which means Life in Hell is no longer available in the city that inspired it. [CNN]
Simpsons creator Matt Groening has always enjoyed a favorable relationship with the press. Serving as a sort-of go-to cultural commentator, the head of Fox’s billion-dollar cartoon franchise is often quoted on everything from animation to music to high school to Olympic mascots. These days, however, he is often asked to comment on Fox’s other billion-dollar cartoon franchise, Family Guy. In a Wall Street Journal article about Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, MacFarlane’s contemporary is relegated to a handful of sentences, including a paragraph which curiously reads like a line from a Fox press release:
Cartoonist Matt Groening, creator of “The Simpsons,” says, “He’s laid the groundwork with this smash hit show and now, with new media opening up and Seth’s specific kind of rapid-fire visual humor, how to exploit it just depends on how ambitious he wants to be.”
Given that Fox and the Journal are corporate siblings, could this be another sign of The Simpsons‘s diminishing stature in the eyes of Fox executives? [Wall Street Journal]
Huell Howser is a big-time TV guy who was parodied in the gay marriage episode (the guy at the beginning who falls off a turnip truck). Upon finding about the parody, he did the following:
I got into the office the next morning and called Matt Groening and said, ‘This is Huell Howser,’ and there was this quiet on the other end of the phone because I knew he thought I was upset. I said, ‘If you’re going to do a parody of me, I could use the money and the exposure. If you’re gonna continue, just let me be my own voice next time.
It is unknown if Howser had any hostages at the time. [Pasadena Weekly]
Apparently The Simpsons was not the only show where former executive producer Sam Simon, whom Matt Groening once called “mentally unbalanced,” was difficult to work with. Hot off the heels of quitting The Simpsons and subsequent court proceedings, Simon created The George Carlin Show, a sitcom starring the late George Carlin, which ran for 27 episodes on FOX in 1994. Later, in a timeline page on his website, Carlin wrote the following reflection: “Lesson learned: always check mental health of creative partner beforehand.” [Macleans.ca]
As you know, we here at rubbercat.net/simpsons, we take our reporting seriously. Nevertheless, a few mistakes manage to slip themselves through and blemish our sterling reputation. We would like to take this opportunity to correct the record.
We regret the errors. OK not really
Matt Groening and David X. Cohen provided one of the night’s several references to the writer’s strike as they approached the podium with strike signs to collect their award for Futurama: Bender’s Big Score (Best Home Entertainment Production). Cohen joked that the writers had granted the Annie Awards a waiver for that one category alone. After winning the Annie for Music in an Animated TV production, The Simpsons composer Alf Clausen thanked Groening for using L.A. studio musicians and a 35-piece orchestra for every episode of his long-running show. He was modest as always comparing himself to Elizabeth Taylor’s eighth husband. “I know what to do, but I don’t know how to make it interesting!”
Hey idiots, the strike’s over! [Animation Magazine]
Along with at least 100 other showrunners, Matt Groening and James L. Brooks joined in solidarity with the WGA strike, signing a pledge and vowing that they “will do no writing” until a deal is made. Wait, they still work on the show? [WGA.org]
Popular celebrity-stalking website TMZ has posted an article by Melissa-Mindy Trump Hilton, who bears strong resemblance to comedienne Amy Sedaris, in which she declares her intentions of becoming the Akbar to Matt Groening’s Jeff:
People have been saying that I have “set my cap” on becoming “Mrs. Matt Groening.” And they say that for the entire summer, I have been drunkenly throwing myself at Matt, in a way that appears almost desperate, making plans to cross his path during movie industry events and parties and receptions, always popping up at his side. And that one incident where I got kind of drunk at the Viper Room with Matt that caused my banning. Anyway: Matt Groening and I are “just friends,” as they say. We do like to go to the beach together, we’ve been to a few local spas, we enjoy board games like Twatch and Scrabble. But we are just friends. Period. Oh, well, I have my hopes … like any girl does. But for now those hopes are private and I know that TMZ won’t betray my confidences.
[TMZ]
The Simpson [sic] creator Matt Groening has snubbed new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown by insisting he’ll never have a cameo on the hit animated series. While Brown’s predecessor Tony Blair guest starred on a show in 2003, cartoon genius Groening is adamant there won’t be another British statesman on the show for years. He says, “One Prime Minister per century is enough.”
Could this lead to a British boycott of The Simpsons??? Developing… [Starpulse]