Life in Hell
Life in Hell is a weekly comic strip following the exploits of a group of anthropomorphic rabbits. The strip was originally published by Groening himself but later picked up by Wet magazine and then the Los Angeles Reader.
James L. Brooks contacted Matt Groening in 1985 with regards to working on a series of animated shorts based on his "Life in Hell" comics for The Tracey Ullman Show. Instead of adapting these characters to this new format, Groening created The Simpson family. Following the success of the skits, Groening went on to develop the concept into a full show with the help of James L. Brooks and Sam Simon. Groening went on to win numerous awards for the show, which was massively successful.
Groening is credited as lone writer of only one episode:
However, he has co-written several others:
Groening was also one of the writers on The Simpsons Movie.
In 1997, Groening teamed up with The Simpsons writer David X. Cohen to develop the science fiction animated show, Futurama. The show first aired in 1999 to moderate success. However, due to falling viewer numbers (which were arguably the result of rather erratic scheduling), the show was cancelled in its fourth season.
After successful DVD sales and popular re-runs, Comedy Central signed up to air 16 new episodes, which would eventually be brought out as 4 direct-to-DVD movies. Following the success of these, Comedy Central signed up for a further 26 new episodes that are scheduled to air sometime in 2010.
Groening's only Futurama writing credit is for the show's first episode, Space Pilot 3000, which he co-wrote with David X. Cohen.
Log in to comment