Almanac of Story Tellers: Matt Groening

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 15th

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     It is the 46th day of the year, leaving 319 days remaining in 2022.

AP photo

    On this date in 1954, the cartoonist Matt Groening was born in Portland, Ore. His parents were Homer and Margaret Groening.

     Yes, I am serious. The creator of the Simpsons really named the patriarch and matriarch of the animated clan with the longest run on television after his own father and mother. He also has a sister named Lisa and another named Maggie. Alas, he has no immediate family member named Bart, which he claims is simply and anagram for brat.

    Anyway, after graduation from what he described as "a hippie college" in 1977, Groening was living in Los Angeles taking odd jobs, trying to make do, and drawing a cartoon called Life in Hell. It soon ran as a strip in various alternative weeklies, and James Brooks, then running The Tracey Ullman Show, asked Groening to draw it up to run in animated segments on the Ullman show.

    Instead Groening, while awaiting an interview with Brooks, conceived of and drew a quick sketch of the Simpsons family.

    The rest, as they say, is history. The short segments proved popular. Ullman's show did not last much longer, but The Simpsons premiered in 1989. The next year, it became a weekly series, and was immensely popular. It is still running today.

    It tells the story of a typical family in suburban America, with a bumbling but loving father, a put-upon mother, a wiseass young boy, his overachieving and far smarter sister, and -- a few years later -- Maggie, the pacifier-sucking infant.

    Groening's subversive sensibilities, acerbic satire, and complex characters have helped make the show a hit, and it has aired more than 700 original episodes -- and a full-length movie. Groening has won numerous awards during his career, including 11 Emmys for The Simpsons. 

    He says he hopes to keep the show going until it hits 1,000 episodes, which would happen sometime in 2033.