P2 Key Activity

Program: The simpsons

Santiago Diaz Seguy A01403105

Alejandro Pérez Hernández A01403165
Emilio Anaya Guerrero A01403152
Ramses Rodríguez Ruiz A01621407

Matt’s interest in drawing and animating:

Matt originally studied to be a journalist, but was also a passionate cartoonist as a hobby.
Groening began drawing cartoons featuring a pathetic oppressed rabbit named Binky. In
1999 Groening launched a new animated series, Futurama, about the adventures of a
20th-century pizza delivery boy who was transported to the year 2999.

The start of Matt’s career and the creation of the simpsons: Matt Groening was asked to
do short animated cartoons about his comic strip at the time “Life in Hell”. Matt didn’t go
through with it since making the animated shorts for “The Tracey Ullman Show '' would mean
he’d lose the rights to the characters he created. He quickly made the concept for “The
Simpsons” and pitched that instead.

Tracey Ullman Era: The Simpsons first premiered in 1989, but what many don’t know is that
their first actual TV appearance was in 1987 in the Tracey Ullman Show. The Tracey Ullman
Show was a program that compiled many bits and sketches mainly centered around
comedy, the famous yellow family was included as one of the bits and would appear every
so often in episodes. This era was characterized by rough quality when it came to the
animation and sloppy writing, but The Simpsons later became its own thing by December of
1989, with better quality, writing, animation and voice acting.

The politely correct era: In the article Groening tells us that he thinks that people don't
need to take things so seriously, he thinks that audiences are smarter than how the press
represents them. In his own words: “ I think audiences are smarter than the posse gives
them credit for, and people can handle nuance, except for the ones who can't handle
nuance. And then there's that phrase, something them if they can't take a joke.” A great
example is the polemic of the stereotyped iconic character from the show: Apu.

Simpsons showing stereotypes: On an interview with USA Today, Matt Groening spoke on
his character, Apu, after being questioned by the stereotypes: “I think the Apu stories are
fantastic, and he’s on of the most nuanced characters on a silly two dimensional cartoon
show”. He also spoke about the criticism he was getting, and whether or not Apu remained
in the show, criticism would always be there.

Celebration of a milestone: To celebrate the 32nd season and the renewal of two more
seasons, the producers decided to create the episode “Manger Things”, a Christmas
flashback episode that premieres in March and portrays Simpson's long tradition of holiday
themed stories.

Life after The Simpsons: Matt Groening is not really involved deeply anymore in the
creation of new Simpsons episodes, rather he is now a consultant and sometimes executive
producer. He created a show in 1999 named “Futurama”, which ran until 2003 originally, then
ran from 2010 to 2013 and, finally, came back in 2023 for Star Plus where it keeps running to
this day. Groening was also involved in the creation of “Disenchanted”, a show for Netflix
which has been running since 2018.

Sources:

Source #1: Matt Groening Interview:

'The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening talks 700 episodes, future of Apu (usatoday.com)

Source #2: Article on Matt Groening:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matt-Groening