Matt Groening

[Duck Sauce]

i would just like to say that king of the hill is way underrated

Totally agree.  I've gotten into it via syndication (and the fact that it came on inbetween Simpsons eps, and I was too lazy to change the channel).  There are plenty of amazing episdodes, but the Bobby-centric ones (falling in love with the mannequin head, dog dancing, etc.) reach a sublime level of humor that few shows on TV can match.  

Also, it does keep true to the family-satire/contained-plot that the Simpsons folks have ditched years ago.  And it works.

I like the ones that exploit and poke fun at Hank's uptight conservativsms the best.

[cron]

Futurama's Godfellas is  brilliant brilliant brilliant.

[Pas]

In a whole, I don't know if Family Guy is better than the Simpsons (I think so though) but if you compare season 1-3 of FG with season 1-3 of The Simpsons you might as will compare Micheal Jordan to ya big fat mama.

[Pubrick]

In a whole, I don't know if Family Guy is better than the Simpsons (I think so though) but if you compare season 1-3 of FG with season 1-3 of The Simpsons you might as will compare Micheal Jordan to ya big fat mama.

that's a wack comparison. Family Guy is "standing on the shoulders of giants". the things that it takes for granted were created by the simpsons. do u realise that the first 3 seasons of the simps, now completely tame at best, were actually controversial at the time? there is a severe lack of awareness of context here.

Futurama is the only cartoon, that understood intimately what the simpsons did and was trying to do sumthing NEW with the possibilities. and it's not like the best simps seasons (4 to 8.) are so out of date that they are the Citizen Kane of cartoons. they broke every old rule and established a genius set of new ones which family guy is only marginally taking advantage of. i still watch family guy, cos it has its moments, but i would never quote it or refer to it in my daily life. still it has infinitely more moments than King of the Hill which wants desperately to be a live-action show. a seriously misguided direction to take.

and chuck seems to be the only one who saw Futurama. clearly an independent mind, cos the only reason family guy is so popular is the word of mouth created by 15-17yr olds. they ignored futurama cos it was touted as a "sequel" to the simpsons, which was in its decline when family guy started anyway.

[godardian]

I really loved Futurama, but I was negligent about watching it. It's high on my list of DVDs to get.

I remember a really funny line from one episode- I forget who said it or if this is even the right line- "It was worse than the laughter of a thousand art house movie audiences."

[freakerdude]

I would just like to say that Hank Hill is the most annoying cartoon character ever created and I really can't stand that show except for Bobby and Kahn Jr., sometimes.

I actually couldn't stand to watch it anymore about 4 years ago.....very annoying character and voice.

[Pas]

In a whole, I don't know if Family Guy is better than the Simpsons (I think so though) but if you compare season 1-3 of FG with season 1-3 of The Simpsons you might as will compare Micheal Jordan to ya big fat mama.

that's a wack comparison. .

Haha I know, I think I could've gotten away with it at school or something though.

[MacGuffin]

It's Groening's show, and now he's on it

After 15 seasons of The Simpsons, creator Matt Groening finally gets a guest spot (Fox, April 4, 8 p.m. ET/PT). “The writers wrote it in as a goof. I thought, ‘I'll show them. I'll do it,' ” he says.

He has supplied a couple of sounds — Maggie's pacifier, a Ned Flanders scream — but this time Groening plays himself. He's identified as the creator of Futurama. (He couldn't be the creator of The Simpsons on The Simpsons or “the whole universe would implode.”) Though Groening didn't draw his picture, it's closer to real life than one earlier depiction as “an eyepatch-wearing, head-shaved, right-wing gun nut.”

In the episode, Edna Krabappel runs off with Comic Book Guy to a comic convention, where Groening is autographing robot dolls of Futurama's Bender. Groening's image also appeared in an earlier episode on a wall of photos of people banned for life from Comic Book Guy's store. “I've been banned from many comic book stores,” he says.

[hedwig]

'Simpsons' Mastermind Snubbed by Gervais

HOLLYWOOD - The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has confessed he's hurt British funnyman Ricky Gervais hasn't picked him for a part on hit comedy show, Extras. Despite hailing his cameo on the cult cartoon series the pinnacle of his comedic career, Gervais has failed to return Groening's favor and invite him to star in Extras.  And Groening, who admits he's a big fan of the series, can't help but feel snubbed. He says, "He (Gervais) didn't ask me. It would have been perfect for me because I worked as an extra when I first moved to Los Angeles in 1978." Previous guests on the show include Samuel L. Jackson and Titanic beauty Kate Winslet.

[MacGuffin]

Interview: Rhymes with raining   
Crave talks to Matt Groening about the Simpsons and Futurama.
Source: Crave Online

You'll probably find no greater Simpsons fan than me. I have stood by the show in the darkest years, when many fair-weather fans just complain about the end of the Golden Age. I maintain there have been at least two renaissances. Frankly, I will go through serious withdrawals when the show finally ends. I told creator Matt Groening that and I think he thought I was being sarcastic. But he let me interview him anyway. There are 18 years of show to cover, plus the upcoming movie and the return of Futurama.

Crave Online: I was forever disturbed by the episode where Lester and Eliza save the day instead of Bart and Lisa. I expected them to recur as rivals. Were they always intended as one joke?

Matt Groening: It was a one shot. They were partially based on the original drawings of Bart and Lisa and we've written them into the show, but have they come back? I don't even remember. I think we put them in The Simpsons movie. They were in one draft. I'm not sure if they survive.

Crave Online: Can you finally clear this up: That was Michael Jackson in the Lisa's birthday episode, right?

Matt Groening: Oh, I think that was a contractual thing but I didn't sign any contract. Yeah, that was Michael Jackson.

Crave Online: Are there any other Simpsons urban legends?

Matt Groening: Oh, there were two rumors. One was that Madonna was going to be on the show, and then that the movie was going to be about Bart losing his virginity. That was 10 years ago. Bart losing his virginity was based on somebody asked one of the writers what's the Simpsons movie about? He goes, "Bart losing his virginity." That was a joke and that's not what the movie's about.

Crave Online: Will the movie focus on one character, like Homer?

Matt Groening: No, it's about the family. It's one of the nice things about having a full length feature is we don't have to just tell one or two small stories.

Crave Online: Who's doing the movie while the show's still running?

Matt Groening: Anybody who has been an animator on The Simpsons, generally we've called them up and said, "Come back."  And got a couple of studios working on the movie.  And David Silverman, one of the original directors back in The Tracey Ullman days, supervising director of The Simpsons for many years, is doing this with many veteran directors of the show.  And then it's the home team.

Crave Online: What took so long to do the movie?

Matt Groening: For me, part of the reason was, we're coming up on the 20th year of the show, we're coming up on the 400th episode, and if we're ever going to do it, we should do it now.  I don't want to do it [when] for some reason the show goes away and then do a movie. I thought it would really be neat to do a movie while the fans are still clamoring for it. 

Crave Online: Will the movie finally reveal what state Springfield is in?

Matt Groening: Yes. We actually have a really good joke about that. Remember, I said joke.

Crave Online: Since it's a movie, can you do things you can't do on TV?

Matt Groening: You'll see more of The Simpsons than you really should see and probably things, people you don't want to see. Whoever you don't want to see naked on The Simpsons, you know that's who you're going to see. Sorry about Marge.

Crave Online: Could the movie affect the TV show down the road?

Matt Groening: Every single episode we sort of paint ourselves into a corner and we jump out of the corner, so I don't think it'll be a problem.

Crave Online: Remember when everyone was all freaked out about how bad Bart was?

Matt Groening: Well, the history of entertainment is full of bad examples. I remember being in college and watching classic John Ford westerns and a villain shooting somebody dead, and then the next moment saying, "Fetch me some coffee, woman" and there'd be hissing from the audience. So it depends. It was okay to kill people but you can't be rude. So yeah, Bart's a bad kid. He's a bad example but there are real kids who are worse. He's not really that bad. Homer's a pretty bad father but Bart's not that bad.

Crave Online: And all the parents groups, where have they gone now that The Simpsons is on all day in syndication?

Matt Groening: I think when The Simpsons first came on, there was an uproar. People got used to it. They realized the show's really funny, it's got a heart so I think it's pretty safe. But you know all those episodes that are running all during the day, those are cut. Those aren't the full episodes. They're not cut for content necessarily, but they're cut so they can squeeze in more commercials. My guess is they cut out some of the juicier stuff.

Crave Online: You could say it goes over kids' heads, but kids have grown up 18 years while the Simpsons is on.

Matt Groening: I mean, what I like about the show is that there are references that are designed for people who have read a few books, seen a few movies. I know for a fact obviously, because my kids grew up watching the show, that there are some things they are introduced to from The Simpsons and then later in life they see the thing we're parodying. My kids had not seen Casablanca and we'd done parodies of Casablanca. We've done multiple references to Citizen Kane and of course Hitchcock. When the kids finally see the movies, they go, "Wha!"

Crave Online: How do you keep it fresh after all these years?

Matt Groening: The only problem is that we've done so many jokes that often when somebody says a joke, somebody else says, "We did that in Season Nine. We did that in season seven." "Oh yeah."

Crave Online: Kevin Smith wants to do a guest voice. Why haven't you asked him yet?

Matt Groening: We'll get him. I can't believe we haven't done it yet.

Crave Online: Have you ever rejected some guest voices just because you can?

Matt Groening: Well, that's the glory of being in Hollywood.  No, we have a long list.  There are a few people we've tried to get on the show who we haven't gotten yet, but we'll get them eventually.

Crave Online: What is your favorite episode?

Matt Groening: Let's see. I like the Frank Grimes episode a lot. I love that one. It's usually the one we're working on because I have such high hopes for it.

Crave Online: When they come up with a new character, like a Disco Stu, do you get a pass at drawing it?

Matt Groening: I approve every design but now we've got such good Simpsons artists that I generally either write OK or I add or remove a line but that's it.

Crave Online: Is there competition now between you and Family Guy?

Matt Groening: I think at the beginning, there was probably some competition going on but certainly not from me because I know how hard it is to do an animated TV show and I know Seth MacFarlane is a good friend and Family Guy is funny and it's got its own style and the more the merrier. I want more cartoons on TV.

Crave Online: So what did you think of the South Park goof on Family Guy?

Matt Groening: Well, I like Seth. He's a good guy. It was a tribute both to South Park pulling no punches, really funny and feeling bad because I know how hard animators work. The manatees was very [funny] and manatees seem to be this big comedy icon now. In The Simpsons we have a manatee episode, of course South Park and then on Conan, the horny manatee. That's unbelievable. It's not a rip-off. Family Guy has its own style, its own jokes. I would agree that The Simpsons was an inspiration to his career but then I'd say if I were an animator, I'd say any show that came after The Simpsons was probably inspired at least conceptually for doing something on TV that we were able to get away with that nobody had been able to for a long time.

Crave Online: With fans of all ages now, who are the hardest to please?

Matt Groening: I think the true fanatics who were so stunned by the show and were taken by it at the beginning; it's harder to please them because they're not surprised. They've memorized the show and every new episode, they're measuring it against their favorite episode so it's difficult to please the die hard fans but we try.

Crave Online: What do you think of the band Fall Out Boy?

Matt Groening: What an honor. Fall Out Boy the rock band named itself after the sidekick of Radioactive Man played by Millhouse. I hope they don't have too many regrets.

Crave Online: Will you have them on the show?

Matt Groening: That's a great idea. That's a great idea. You know what? I will pass that along. That's a really good idea. Are you a fan?

Crave Online: The Simpsons is one of the last examples of traditional animation. What do you think of the new CGI?

Matt Groening: I think there is a certain charm to the hand drawn image that I like. My problem with CGI is that it's so rich in texture that my eyes actually get tired. Everything is in focus down to the littlest leaf. For me personally, when they put things out of focus, a masterful version of that was Brad Bird's, (former Simpsons director), The Incredibles. He knew exactly, I thought, where to limit the detail.

Crave Online: Why did Hollywood go so crazy for CGI?

Matt Groening: I mean, it is amazing. I said personally my taste. It's very hallucinatory. It's very dream-like. I guess if it's charming, the Pixar movies are great.

Crave Online: Have your kids seen all the Simpsons episodes?

Matt Groening: Well, I can't say they've seen them all but they've seen the main ones.

Crave Online: Are you more involved now than you were in the past?

Matt Groening: The idea that I was not involved with the show or less involved with the show is simply not true. I've always been involved with the show. It's true there's only 24 hours in a day so then I have to work on Futurama. I can't be two places at once but the best thing about having two TV shows is I can go to each show and say I have to go to the other show and then I can go do whatever I want. Talk about a day job and night job, my night job after The Simpsons is Futurama, which is coming back on Comedy Central in 2008, 16 new episodes, and we're going to be running the old episodes, as well. Then, I a draw a weekly comic strip that locally appears in the LA Weekly and it appears in alternative news weeklies around the country.  That's something I do just by myself.  I get to go and sit at a drawing board.  Generally, I put it off as long as possible. It's due on Fridays at 5:30, I have to get it on the computer. So I start drawing it Friday afternoon. I can't twist my ankle. I can't get the flu.  I've got to do it. So far, 27 years I've been doing that. 

Crave Online:  Why do you still want to do a comic strip?

Matt Groening:  It's me working by myself. It keeps me honest and The Simpsons is the biggest collaborative project I could imagine and this is me by myself. They serve different needs. The great thing about hand lettering is there's no editing. I don't turn my stuff in and it gets changed around at all. It is what it is and I love it.

Crave Online: Futurama on Comedy Central, are you frustrated that Fox didn't pick it up like Family Guy?

Matt Groening: Well, I was frustrated when it got cancelled, but Fox, 20th Television is the one who came back and said, "Would you like to do a DVD movie?" and we said, "Let's do two" and they said, "Well, why not three?" and we said, "Well, why not four?" and they said, "Okay, four" and then that's it.

Crave Online: Are they really full movies or just three episodes together?

Matt Groening: We're writing them as movies and then we're going to chop them up, reconfigure them, write new material and try to make them work as separate episodes.

Crave Online: Can DVD versions be more extreme than the ones for air?

Matt Groening: Those are the marching orders we gave ourselves, yes, to really try to push it and do things we might not be able to do on TV. And then Comedy Central picked up the show and we went, "Okay, probably there's nothing we can think of that Comedy Central won't run" because I'm astonished at what I see on Comedy Central every day.

Crave Online: How will you turn those into episodes then?

Matt Groening: We are reconfiguring them and writing new material and narration and this that and the other so that they'll stand on their own as episodes.

Crave Online: Could it go on beyond that?

Matt Groening: I hope so. My guess now is that this is basically a season that we're in production on which is complicated because they're also DVDs, so that they'll probably wait and see how they do and then we'll get the pickup.

Crave Online: You never gave up on Futurama, did you?

Matt Groening: Well, I always felt like we were a little bit like the original Star Trek. I always thought that working with my partner, David X. Cohen, that we knew that the people who loved the show really, really loved it and they wrote petitions, they wrote letters and e-mails and it just seemed right. And also, everybody that worked on the show loved it. So when it came time when the show did come back, everybody without exception said, "I'm on board." At this point, I said, "We're thinking of gearing up the show again." They said, "I'm on board." Everybody, Katy Sagal, all the actors, John Dimaggio, Billy West. The original animation team, the original animation house, the original writers. Everybody came back. It was great.

[Gold Trumpet]

Crave Online: The Simpsons is one of the last examples of traditional animation. What do you think of the new CGI?

Matt Groening: I think there is a certain charm to the hand drawn image that I like. My problem with CGI is that it's so rich in texture that my eyes actually get tired. Everything is in focus down to the littlest leaf. For me personally, when they put things out of focus, a masterful version of that was Brad Bird's, (former Simpsons director), The Incredibles. He knew exactly, I thought, where to limit the detail.

Yes! When I reviewed Cars, I had a complaint that it was too realistic. That there didn't need to be so much detail and the animation should stay simple. I got one disagreement on the board, but I'm glad Groening is essentially backing me up.

[Pubrick]

Crave Online: How do you keep it fresh after all these years?

Matt Groening: The only problem is that we've done so many jokes that often when somebody says a joke, somebody else says, "We did that in Season Nine. We did that in season seven." "Oh yeah." We don't.

Crave Online: Have your kids seen all the Simpsons episodes?

Matt Groening: Well, I can't say they've seen them all but they've seen the main ones.

haha, he means the ones worth watching. that's as close as he'll get to admitting he wants to cut himself over the state of the show. at least he's not delluding himself about Futurama.

[Reinhold]

i wholeheartedly hope that was sarcasm on my part five years ago, but i fear it was not. eesh.

anyway, i just saw and liked the futurama movie The Beast with a Billion Backs.

20-Frame AFTER-CREDIT SPOILER


my favorite part was the League of Robots logo before the newscorp logo.