Bob Cesca Show, Bio, Wiki, Age, Married, Salon, Salary, And Net Worth, Mark Blyth Political Scientist, Bio, Wiki, Age, Height, Wife, Books, Podcast, and Net Worth, Copyright 2023 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes, List of States in the US, Alphabetical list of States in the U.S., and Abbreviation of States in United States. Deborah Kaplan has been divorced from Matt Groening since 1999. As Flaubert might have said, "Binky, c'est tout le monde." Needless to say, it panned out. [92] In May 2013, Picasso gave birth to Nathaniel Philip Picasso Groening, named after writer Nathanael West. Years later, during the early seasons of The Simpsons, when it came time to give Grampa a first name, Groening says he refused to name him after his own grandfather, Abraham Groening, leaving it to other writers to choose a name. liverpool v nottingham forest 1989 team line ups; best crews to join in gta 5. jay chaudhry house; bimbo bakeries buying back routes; pauline taylor seeley cause of death Groening went to Ainsworth Elementary School and Lincoln High School. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. Groenings Norwegian American mother, Margaret Ruth (ne Wiggum; March 23, 1919 April 22, 2013), worked once as a teacher, and his Russian Mennonite father named Homer Philip Groening (December 30, 1919 March 15, 1996), served as a filmmaker, advertiser, writer, and cartoonist. As to the autonomy he'd enjoyed with "The Simpsons," Groening was told, "We don't do business like that anymore. ", Mr. Groening identifies closely with the oppressed children of America, sitting at their desks, waiting to cause trouble. Growing up in Portland, Ore., he did well in school, but was frequently hauled down to the principal's office for smart-aleck conduct, like drawing cartoons. Bush family aside, who is not a fan of Matt Groening? The pair married in 1986 and had two sons together namely, Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe, both of whom he occasionally portrays as rabbits in Life in Hell. Realizing that he would lose the rights to his Life in Hell characters with the deal, Groening quickly created a new cartoon family named after his own siblings and parents, albeit with a "Bart" in lieu of a character named after himself. The show premiered under the Fox Broadcasting Company banner, in 1999. [54] When designing Lisa and Maggie, he "just gave them this kind of spiky starfish hair style, not thinking that they would eventually be drawn in color". The network resisted giving Groening the autonomy he needed and plied him with notes. Tags: Geek (1), Animation (1), Cartoons (1 . Beginning 1987, he worked in the Traccy Ullman Show for two years as writer and animator. She is the author of "Do You Love Me or Am I Just Paranoid?" Associated Press articles: Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. [26] Groening also started Acme Features Syndicate, which initially syndicated Life in Hell as well as work by Lynda Barry and John Callahan, but would eventually only syndicate Life in Hell. The show is watched by more than 60 million people weekly in more than 60 countries around the world -- beating out even the lowest-common-denominator friendly "Baywatch" as the world's most-watched show. Groening has won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, 11 for The Simpsons and 2 for Futurama, and a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. In 2011, he married artist Augustina Picasso, with whom he had been in a relationship for four years. So he resurrected a family he had created in high school as an answer to what he saw as the co-opting of "The Catcher in the Rye.". The couple has two sons, Homer and Abe. At its peak, the cartoon was carried in 250 weekly newspapers. . [41][44] However, he stresses that aside from some of the sibling rivalry, his family is nothing like the Simpsons. The couple has two sons, Homer and Abe. He made his first professional cartoon sale of Life in Hell to the avant-garde magazine Wet in 1978. [80] He described the fantasy-oriented series as originating in a sketchbook full of "fantastic creatures we couldn't do on The Simpsons". "But I thought I would have a little bit more leeway since I made Fox so much money with 'The Simpsons. Groening and Deborah divorced in 1999. 1 . The goal of the company, she told Newsweek, was to "keep the machine of Matt going." . [35][40] In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening with the proposition of working in animation on an undefined future project,[9] which would turn out to be developing a series of short animated skits, called "bumpers," for the Fox variety show The Tracey Ullman Show. Choosing Los Angeles because it was the place where a writer was most likely to be overpaid, Groening answered a "writer/chauffeur wanted" ad in the L.A. Times. The final strip of the comic strip "Life in Hell" was published on June 16, 2012. Groening is a guy who lunches with Rupert Murdoch and finds him congenial. Most importantly, The Simpsons retained the subversive undercurrent that has driven its creator since he was a bored grade school student. "The excuse was that the networks never let you get away with anything," he said. Matt Groening was the writer and executive producer of this project. The message? The Simpsons was mostly a satire aimed at politicians, teachers, police and other authorities. He rose to fame with the comic strip Life in Hell; and his animated television series The Simpsons. And they said, 'Don't make it like "Blade Runner"!' When Billie Met Lisa (2022), Disenchantment (2018-present) [15] He befriended fellow cartoonist Lynda Barry after discovering that she had written a fan letter to Joseph Heller, one of Groening's favorite authors, and had received a reply. Images of "The Simpsons" have been licensed to sell everything from T-shirts to toys to potato chips to cheese, suggesting that mainstream culture has gotten pretty good at marketing genuine hipness as well. The Simpsons premiered in 1989 with him as creator, writer, voice actor and executive producer. Deborah is a publisher. About Matt Groening is a 68 year old American Cartoonist. His other role model was cartoonist, Charles Monroe Schulz, who was known for his comic creation Peanuts. So, how much is Matt Groening worth at the age of 67 years old? ", .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}James Cameron Keeps Smashing His Own Records, The Cocaine Bear Drug Smuggler Was a Real Person, Meet The Last of Us Creator Neil Druckmann, The Last of Us Cast Guide: Actors and Characters, Biography: Jon Stewart (Community Heroes), Biography: You Need to Know: Dorothy Arzner. Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999) creator, Craig Bartlett, who was married to Groening's sister, Lisa, until they divorced in 2015. She joked that "his godfather is SpongeBob's creator Stephen Hillenburg". In 2004. Carina Chocano writes about TV for Salon. Upon seeing his work in the comic strip, producer and writer, James L Brooks, expressed his interest to involve Matt Groening in the creation of an animated series to run on comedy series The Tracy Ullman Show. Groening decided that this would be too distracting though, and redesigned the ear to look normal. He made a name exploring his own alienation and a fortune exposing the absurdities and hypocrisies of our culture, and nowadays, Groening is as powerful an insider as they come. In conversations over two days and several venues -- at a party at his friend Frank Zappa's house, over lunch at the Fox commissary and in his office -- he revealed a deep association with the adolescents who form the core audience of "The Simpsons." Ever since his syndicated comic strip "Life in Hell" -- that series of nihilistic but cuddly dispatches from the epicenter of gloom -- first appeared in 1980, Groening has been raising the dampened spirits of the fashionably alienated by dunking Binky, his rabbity, buck-toothed proxy, into a weekly bog of self-pity, anxiety and existential despair. They had 2 children, Homer (31) and Abe (29). "If there's a message that runs through the show," he told The New York Times in 2001, well after he had become wealthy and influential beyond his wildest dreams, "it's that maybe the authorities don't have your best interests at heart. He used to write articles and draw cartoon illustrations for the journal. In 1987, Groening married fellow Weekly staffer Deborah Caplan. However, the show's collection of memorable supporting characters and winking, multilayered nods to popular culture, arguably owes more to Simon and the original stable of writers than to Groening. (After 13 years of marriage, Caplan filed for divorce in March 1999, the same month as Groening's second show, "Futurama," premiered. The couple have two children together: a son, Homer, and a daughter, Maggie. A few years earlier they had set up their own syndicate, ACME Features, to distribute the strip. If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, you are probably a fan of Matt Groening. Fearing the loss of ownership rights, Groening created a new set of characters, the Simpson family. [105], Groening has been nominated for 41 Emmy Awards and has won thirteen, eleven for The Simpsons and two for Futurama in the "Outstanding Animated Program (for programming one hour or less)" category. After the two became romantically involved, she established a business to promote her future husband's work, negotiating syndication arrangements with other publications and a book deal with Pantheon. Leslie Jordan. Matt Groening received the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Primetime or Late Night Television Program for The Simpsons in the years 1998, 2000 and 2001. Le 15-2-1954 , Matt Groening (surnom: Matthew Abram Groening, Bat Groening, Mad Groening) est n Portland, Oregon, United States. In 1988, James L. Brooks, looking for a filler in the television show, The Tracey Ullman Show (1987), turned towards a framed "Life in Hell" strip on his wall and contacted Groening. "So much humor is based on 'life is horrible, sex is nasty and you can't trust anyone,' " he said. Then, no sooner had they ordered 13 episodes than the doubts set in. He is a man of above-average stature. [62] "Some Enchanted Evening" was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1990, as the last episode of the first season, because of animation problems. "I'm a fan of counterculture -- of which there is very little right now," he told Fortune magazine. Ten years later, at the age of 46, Groening is responsible for a comic strip syndicated in 250 newspapers, more than 25 books, two prime-time animated series and untold containers full of valuable merchandise. If you answered no, you are also probably a fan of Matt Groening. [48] When Groening originally designed Homer, he put his own initials into the character's hairline and ear: the hairline resembled an 'M', and the right ear resembled a 'G'. In 1987, producers of the soon-to-be-launched sketch comedy program The Tracey Ullman Show, headed by the legendary James L. Brooks, contacted Groening about developing short animated cartoons to air between skits. As to his position on the "Simpsons" voice actors' recent contract negotiations, he told Mother Jones, "I have sympathy. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/matthew-abram-groening-2308.php, 20th Century Film & Theater Personalities, 21st Century Film & Theater Personalities, 20th Century American Film & Theater Personalities, 21st Century American Film & Theater Personalities, Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour), Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less). More than just a television hit, "The Simpsons" is also a mass marketing phenomenon: probably not since Mickey Mouse raised his ears has a silhouette appeared on as many paraphernalia as Bart Simpson's crown-roast-shaped head. Sometime after midnight on the day of his arrival, his car stalled in the fast lane of the Hollywood Freeway in 100 degree heat. In Groening's version, the boy dies from his head injury and returns as a ghost every Halloween, a morbid tale that surprisingly became the winning entry. "It turns out I was the latest in a long line of writer-chauffeurs," Mr. Groening said. Or rather, he is the struggling, penurious pre-"Simpsons" Matt Groening. They were created when James L. Brooks, the producer of "The Tracey Ullman Show," asked Mr. Groening to create animated segments for the program. "The Simpsons" premiered in 1990, and eventually became the most popular, most widely broadcast and one of the longest-running shows in television history. Deborah Caplan: Groening has been in a relationship with Deborah Caplan since 2006. In 1997, Groening and former Simpsons writer David X. Cohen developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000, which premiered in 1999, running for four years on Fox, then picked up by Comedy Central for additional seasons. Matt Groening has made appearances in films and documentaries, such as, Comic Book: The Movie (2004), The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005), The Seventh Python (2008) and I Know That Voice (2013). It was at this time that he began drawing cartoons for his self-published book titled Life in Hell, which was based on his struggles and featured Binky an oppressed rabbit. [99], Groening is a self-identified agnostic. I like the idea of trying to be successful on some level, at least reaching an audience enough so that you can sustain it and keep on going." Ian Maxtone-Graham, another writer on the show, has said in an interview, "I would rather make George Meyer laugh than get an Emmy." Indeed, the biggest danger the show seems to face is that it will lose its power to surprise. Groening claimed that he feared viewers would "see it as nothing but a pathetic attempt to advertise The Critic at the expense of The Simpsons," and was concerned about the possible implication that he had created or produced The Critic. A thousand years in the future -- a wry, bleak version of a future where suicide booths and celebrity heads preserved in jars are part of the landscape -- work is still hell. While at college, he befriended famous cartoonist Lynda Barry, whom he also regards as a great inspiration. However, Groening had expressed a desire to continue the Futurama franchise in some form, including as a theatrical film. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012. ", The Simpsons are offspring of Bongo, Akbar and Jeff, only slightly less hapless. Commentary for ", Silverman, David; Reardon, Jim; Groening, Matt. In the following week's column, he would confess to fabricating everything in the previous column and swear that everything in the new column was true. 3) Disgusted? Deborah Caplan: Net Worth: $600 million: Birth Place: Portland, OR: Nationality: American: Education: Evergreen State College: Father: Homer Philip Groening: Mother: Brooks contacted him in 1985 about adapting Life in Hell for animated sequences for the Fox variety shows The Tracey Ullman Show. That year, he also began working for the alternative-weekly newspaper the L.A. Now I'm deliriously happy all the time.". For more information, please consult the OP. Soon, he was driving an 88-year-old movie director around by day and ghost-writing his autobiography by night while living upstairs from a nocturnal rock lover (whose ceiling light he eventually dislodged with a plunging cinderblock). MATT GROENING would like to tell you a few things about his family: His father, Homer, is not bald. Reader hired sales rep Deborah Caplan, who observed that the Life in Hell strips were "a major selling point" of the paper. The couple has two sons, Homer and Abe. Indeed, "The Simpsons" has something to offend almost everyone: the cops sit around eating doughnuts, the teachers are lost without their answer books, the parents are losers and even God is a malcontent. They have a son, Nathaniel, and twin daughters, Luna and India. Homer Groening (born 1991) While working on his animated series Futurama, he took up multiple roles like voice actor, creator, writer and executive producer of the show. He also made appearances in episodes of television series The Pitts, Portlandia and Space Ghost Coast to Coast. But mainly, he is Matt Groening. Following this success, came his next work, Work is Hell, also published by Deborah Caplan. A critic of most of what is on television, Mr. Groening sees the popularity of "The Simpsons" as a challenge to the writers and producers who have been inundating America with successive waves of innocuous situation comedies. "If I could pay my rent, I was deliriously happy. In the mid '80s, renowned producer James L. Brooks approached Groening about using the characters from "Life in Hell" on a new show he was developing for comedian Tracey Ullman. Deborah Caplan (29 October 1987 - 1999) . Groening said: "Nobody thought The Simpsons was going to be a big hit. Matt Groening has won 12 Primetime Emmy Awards and 23 Annie Awards across various categories. Born in 1954 in Portland, Oregon, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening had, in many ways, an idyllic childhood. [97], Matt was the brother-in-law of Hey Arnold!, Dinosaur Train and Ready Jet Go! He ran for student body president on the Teens for Decency ticket, with the tongue-in-cheek slogan, "If you're against decency, then what are you for?" "A Bit From the Animators", illustrated commentary for "All Singing, All Dancing", in, From a radio interview with Groening that aired on the, Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute, List of awards and nominations received by Matt Groening, Outstanding Animated Program (for programming one hour or less), "My Rock 'n' Roll Life, Part One: So You Want To Snort Derisively", "Homer Groening, Cartoonist's Father, 'Simpsons' Inspiration", "The real people behind Homer Simpson and family", "Homer Simpson has Canadian Mennonite roots", "Matt Groening Creator and Executive Producer [Bio]", "Matt Groening says Monty Python influenced new show Disenchantment", "Matt Groening | Biography, Cartoons, & Facts | Britannica", "Interview with Harry Shearer (Part 3 of 4)", "Prime time is heaven for 'Life in Hell' Artist", "Index to Comic Art Collection: "Gro" to "Groenne", "Conan on being left out of "Simpsons Movie", "Matt Groening's Reaction to The Critic's First Appearance on The Simpsons", "EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Claudia Katz on Futurama the Movie: Bender's Big Score", "Toon comedy has logged seasons on Fox, Comedy Central since 1999", "Matt Groening Netflix Animated Comedy A Go With 20-Episode Order, Abbi Jacobson, Nat Faxon & Eric Andre Lead Voice Cast", "Matt Groening Talks Origins of New Netflix Series 'Disenchantment', "Meet The End of The Century With Gary Panter", "Frank Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa", "Photos of Simpsons creator and his son Nathaniel", "aguspicassogroening on Instagram: "nirvana", "aguspicassogroening on Instagram: "One month of my zen baby Satori his name is Him thanks @chriscallahanphotography", "Virginia Roberts Giuffre Alleges Jeffrey Epstein Ordered Her to Massage Matt Groening's 'Crusty' Feet", "Matt Groening's Federal Campaign Contribution Report", "Jennifer Aniston, Vin Diesel among Hollywood Walk of Fame class of 2012", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Matt_Groening&oldid=1142437596, Creator, writer, executive producer, and creative consultant, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 10:48. In fact, to prove that he didn't mean anything by naming a fat, incompetent slob like Homer Simpson after his father, he named his first son Homer, too. Lisa is a producer and is famous for her work on Christmas at Pee Wees Playhouse (1988), Arnold Escapes from Church (1988), and The Arnold Waltz (1990). 2002, 2003 and 2004. But in any case, Groening allowed the series to evolve under the tutelage of his writers, the undisputed champions of television comedy. When he's not telling the Cinderella story, the story Groening tells about himself is a David and Goliath story; and the older and more powerful he becomes, the bigger and more powerful the lumbering naysayers standing in his way. 1. [55] Groening storyboarded and scripted every short (now known as The Simpsons shorts), which were then animated by a team including David Silverman and Wes Archer, both of whom would later become directors on the series. The team included what is now the Klasky Csupo animation house. Groening was born on February 15, 1954, in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. "I wanted to write something they couldn't teach in high school because it had too much foul language," he said. (2015) His favorite artist is Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention and his favorite album is Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart (which was produced by Zappa). The artist saw his first non-self-published comic appear in a 1978 issue of Wet magazine. He then married Argentinian artist Augustina Picasso in 2011, after dating for four years. "[46] He also formed Zongo Comics in 1995, an imprint of Bongo that published comics for more mature readers,[46] which included three issues of Mary Fleener's Fleener[84] and seven issues of his close friend Gary Panter's Jimbo comics. [19][72] By the time they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and storylines; Groening claimed they had gone "overboard" in their discussions. Abe Groening (born 1993) "Bart is like what would happen if Eddie Haskell got his own show," he said. He simply shrugs and buys more computer games, like the electronic ant farm that once caught his fancy. A fan of science fiction, he had been thinking about creating a show about the future for some time. He ran for student body president on the "Teens for Decency" ("If You're Against Decency, What Are You For?") James L. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. In 2016, Groening developed a new series for Netflix, Disenchantment, which premiered in August 2018. (2002). The animated shorts that Groening created were The Simpsons (1989). So it is not surprising that when people learn that the creator of America's favorite dysfunctional family, the Simpsons, named the characters after his closest relatives, they want to know if he is, well, you know, a little hostile. Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008) After attending Evergreen College in Olympia, Wash., Mr. Groening moved to Los Angeles to become a writer, but he didn't really have any idea how to get started. [52] Lisa's physical features are generally not used in other characters; for example, in the later seasons, no character other than Maggie shares her hairline. The show went on to become the longest running US primetime TV series and earn multiple awards. Before, Groening was married to his first wife Deborah Caplan. The paper offered him a cartoon strip in 1980, and, surprised, Groening accepted. He also enjoyed a happy home life, with his dad, Homer, mom, Margaret, and four siblings, including younger sisters Lisa and Maggie. At 39, Mr. Groening still observes many of the customs of the youthful counterculture where he got his start: his hair is longish, his attire runs toward T-shirts and sneakers, and instead of business cards he hands out his phone number on little bits of torn paper. Groening is the brother-in-law of the creator of Hey Arnold !, Craig Barlett, who is married to his sister Lisa. Originally, Brooks wanted Groening to adapt his Life in Hell characters for the show. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. AT WORK WITH: Matt Groening; The Fun of Being Bart's Real Dad, https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/25/garden/at-work-with-matt-groening-the-fun-of-being-bart-s-real-dad.html. He was fired from the L.A. (2005). [45] Groening also has an older brother and sister, Mark and Patty, and in a 1995 interview Groening divulged that Mark "is the actual inspiration for Bart. 2) Disappointed? The book became a success with over 20000 copies being sold in its initial two printings. He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978. They said, 'It doesn't make any difference!'". Groening celebrates his birthday on February 15th, every year. I may be going to hell, but I did embrace all the stuff -- the T-shirts, the Bart phone, the chess set, all of it.". His spirit of solidarity with children extends to his own sons, Homer, 3, and Abe, 1, toward whom, he confesses, he is "indulgent and spoiling. The couple also welcomes daughters Luna Margaret and India Mia born in 2015. Therefore, Groening has accumulated a decent fortune over the years. Comedian, screenwriter, and television producer Groening is the multitalented creator of The Simpsons, the longest-running entertainment series in 2009 on primetime television. Were it not for the clueless executives, the inane network decisions, the petty betrayals at the hands of people who benefit from his success, he might have stagnated by now. In 2002, he won the Reuben Award by the National Cartoonists Society for his work, Life in Hell. Matt's grandfather Abram was born in Hillsboro, Kansas. [15] At the end of its run, Life in Hell was carried in 250 weekly newspapers and has been anthologized in a series of books, including School is Hell, Childhood is Hell, The Big Book of Hell, and The Huge Book of Hell. He grew up in Portland and did his schooling from the Ainsworth Elementary School and Lincoln High School. His work The Simpsons grabbed the Annie Award in the Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Program category for the year 1999. For a man who has become famous on the strength of his dark musings, starting with "Life in Hell," his weekly comic strip, Mr. Groening (it rhymes with complaining, his publicist says) comes off in person as surprisingly benign: big, bearish and still a bit astonished to find his jokes getting so out of hand. Work is Hell soon followed, also published by Caplan. His sister Lisa does not play the saxophone. His mother, Margaret, though, used to have "huge hair.". Chester Bennington American Singer-Songwriter. One of his first employers was an aging B-movie director who needed help both getting around and writing his memoirs. "Technically, I'm an agnostic, but I definitely believe in hell especially after watching the . [8][9] Homer, born in Main Centre, Saskatchewan, Canada, grew up in a Plautdietsch-speaking family. [17] He served as the editor of the campus newspaper, The Cooper Point Journal, for which he also wrote articles and drew cartoons. As Groening told Spin magazine. [72] Groening described trying to get the show on the air as "by far the worst experience of [his] grown-up life. "[17] The Simpsons was co-developed by Groening, Brooks, and Sam Simon, a writer-producer with whom Brooks had worked on previous projects. [30] The strip, titled "Forbidden Words," appeared in the September/October issue of that year. ``Matt didn't particularly have a reputation for discipline,'' says Randy Michael Signor, a former Reader editor who today works in . Illustrated commentary for ", Groening, Matt. However, the column would rarely actually be about music, as he would often write about his "various enthusiasms, obsessions, pet peeves and problems" instead. From 1972 through 1977, Groening studied at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, a liberal arts school that Groening described as a hippie college, with no grades or required classes, that drew every weirdo in the Northwest. "He was a deviant.". I Thought I Told You to Shut Up!! In 2008, Matt Groening won the Annie Award in the Writing in a Feature Production for comedy film The Simpsons movie. They divorced in 1999 and Groening married Argentine artist Agustina Picasso in 2011. When he and former "Simpsons" show runner David X. Cohen (now the show runner on "Futurama") first approached Fox with the new idea, the network went into instant paroxysms of ecstasy. [66] Despite common fan belief that Sideshow Bob Terwilliger was named after SW Terwilliger Boulevard in Portland, he was actually named after the character Dr. Terwilliker from the film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.[67], Although Groening has pitched a number of spin-offs from The Simpsons, those attempts have been unsuccessful.