Matt Groening

FZ by Matt Groening. (Fan art, not an official Groening drawing)

Matt Groening (Portland, Oregon, February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist and animator, best known as the creator of "Life in Hell", "The Simpsons" and "Futurama".

After graduating from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington Groening moved to Los Angeles intending to become a writer. He started to send cartoons to his friends expressing his dislike of life in LA and frustration with the progress of his career. He called them "Life In Hell". They soon became popular and Groening found himself making hundreds of copies of each one. He found a job with a weekly paper, the Los Angeles Reader, as an editor/delivery man. The paper started to publish the Life In Hell cartoons which then became even more popular.

In 1985 producer James L. Brooks, having admired the Life In Hell cartoons, asked Groening to create an animation to be shown during The Tracey Ullman Show. Just before a meeting with Brooks Groening hurriedly sketched a family consisting of one father, one mother, two girls and one boy. He called the family The Simpsons and named them after his own family members - with the exception of Bart which was a variation of Brat. The Simpsons evolved and grew into their own show which, by 1997, became the longest running animated series.

Quotes about Zappa

"Americans are really suspicious of anything cerebral, and Zappa didn't disguise his intelligence well enough. In addition to being a man of wide-ranging talent, one amazing thing that always struck me about Frank was his melodic dimension ... Frank Zappa was my Elvis."

— Matt Groening.

"American culture has a lot of great moustaches in its history. Mark Twain had a great moustache, Charlie Chaplin, Ben Turpin ... but Zappa, he's got the best moustache in American history. Got the moustache, right, and he's got that little thing on his chin, I think it's called an imperial, that is, like, the coolest thing. That's like one of the great icons of the twentieth century."

— Matt Groening, BBC Television Zappa Tribute.

"The amazing thing about Freak Out! was that there was nothing quite like it in rock 'n roll at the time. It was really simultaneously crude and ugly, and incredibly sophisticated. The Beatles were funny, but there was nothing with the kind of sneer that you could feel in the music of Frank Zappa."

— Matt Groening, BBC Television Zappa Tribute.

"With its angular melodies, quick change rhythms, and eccentric arrangements, Hot Rats basically invented that peculiar musical genre known as fusion."

— Matt Groening, Introduction to Frank Zappa: Hot Rats (Guitar TAB).

More references to Zappa

FZ was to have supplied a voice for The Simpsons but he became too ill to record his part.

Groening's Zappa Allegiance Pledge.

Groening interviewed Zappa together with Don Menn in The Mother Of All Interviews (Part 2). He created the cover manuscript art for Frank Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa.

Groening appeared in The Revenge Of The Dead Indians, BBC Television Tribute, The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart and Peefeeyatko.

He is one of the people receiving thanks for their "very special but no less significant contributions" in The Yellow Shark liner notes.

References to Zappa in "The Simpsons"

So far, two undeniable references to Frank Zappa have been found in "The Simpsons".

• In the episode "The Girl Who Slept Too Little" (2005) The Simpsons walk into a convention. The banner welcomes visitors with the words: "Welcome to the Fathers of Invention", with the words "And Mothers" scribbled above it. http://a176.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/107/l_8c505205679edce8a6eff5a4e45393bf.jpg

• In the episode "A Midsummer's Nice Dream" (2011) Homer takes Bart and Lisa to his the attic to let them listen to his old Cheech & Chong albums. In a brief scene a copy of the rock magazine "Crawdaddy" can be seen with Zappa's face on the cover. http://www.the-mosi.net/FZsimpsons.jpg

See Also

• Wikipedia article on Matt Groening