‘Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening turns 70: that’s how rich he has become

American Matt Groening, who celebrates his 70th birthday on February 15, made television history with the cult series ‘The Simpsons’. Together with his fellow series creators, James L. Brooks, who was 13 years his senior, and Sam Simon, who died in 2015, Groening brought the characters Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Maggie to the then underexposed, intelligent TV audience in the late eighties Experience absurd adventures in the fictional and yet very American town of Springfield.

“The Simpsons” and other series made Groening quite wealthy. Last year, the comic book writer landed fifth place on Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-earning entertainers, along with “Simpsons” co-producer James L. Brooks. His fortune is estimated at 523 million francs.

Groening grew up in the northwestern United States. His father Homer Groening, who died in 1996 and whom he referred to as the father of the “Simpsons,” was also a filmmaker and cartoonist. His son attended Evergreen State College in Washington state, in Groening’s own words, “a hippie college with no grades or required courses that attracted every freak in the Northwest.”

The young creative then moved to Los Angeles. This is where Groening’s first successful comic strip was created, ‘Life in Hell’, which, first published in 1978, would last more than 30 years and could be found in 250 weeklies by the end of its lifespan. Although the “Life in Hell” characters, such as Bart Simpson’s predecessor, the rabbit Bongo, are still white instead of yellow, they already have numerous other visual cues from the later Simpsons, such as the oversized googly eyes .

Groening’s comic strip came to the attention of film producer, author, director and three-time Oscar winner James L. Brooks in the mid-1980s. He originally wanted to bring ‘Life in Hell’ to television, but its creator, Matt Groening, realized – according to legend, literally at the last second – that the Fox television channel, which was to air ‘The Simpsons’, had the rights on the characters.

Groening took their place with the well-known main characters from the Simpsons. Short segments from the “Tracey Ullman Show” became the iconic series “The Simpsons,” which has aired more than 760 episodes to date. “The Simpsons” is the longest-running animated series, sitcom and scripted evening series in American television history. The program has received 36 Emmy Awards to date.

Inventor Groening said of his creation in the early 1990s: “Honestly, the whole ‘Simpsons’ project was a project to see how far I could go in the mainstream.”

In fact, Groening was heavily involved with the series, especially in the early years of “The Simpsons,” and also provided the basic idea for the 2007 film “Simpsons.” Since then, numerous authors and showrunners have overseen the popular animated program, whose biggest problem in the over the past twenty years, it still seems to be developing ideas not previously seen in the show.

Matt Groening focused on new projects in the 1990s. Together with “Simpsons” author David In 2018, the fantasy animated series ‘Disenchantment’ started on the streaming service Netflix, which had 50 episodes in 5 seasons in September last year.

Groening himself has received a total of 13 Emmy Awards in his long and successful career. In 2012, he received a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.