Series creator Matt Groening felt that the idea gave the writers " nowhere to go.

During production, Simpsons creator Matt Groening was nervous about " The Raven " because it did not have many gags, and felt it would be " the worst, most pretentious thing had ever done " on the show.

Groening had originally intended to design Karl to look like Fierstein, who objected to the idea because he felt that he did not " look like gay people, how they're supposed to look.

Several members of the staff, including The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, has stated that they were against the episode as they felt Barney being sober was not funny.

Matt Groening felt that the idea was so big that it gave the writers " nowhere to go.

The staff, except for Matt Groening, felt it was too odd for the show at that point.

Meryl Streep guest starred in the episode as Jessica Lovejoy. Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, felt that Jessica Lovejoy was hard to draw in his own style but at the same time make her attractive.

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening told TV Guide in 2000 that " we staff painted ourselves into a corner with our Christmas episode.

" Although animals in cartoons often behave with " semi-human awareness ", Groening said on the DVD audio commentary for the episode " Two Dozen and One Greyhounds " that he prefers animals in cartoons to behave exactly the way they do in real life.

The episode, being the first to air, lacked the opening sequence which was later added in the second episode when Groening realized that a longer opening sequence resulted in less animation.

Also, Groening claims that this episode has been incorrectly credited with creating the " alternate version " of " Jingle Bells " that has become a well-known children's playground song.

The episode was also included on The Simpsons season one DVD set, which was released on September 25, 2001. Groening, Brooks, and Silverman participated in the DVD's audio commentary.

Creator Matt Groening developed the lengthy sequence in order to cut down on the animation necessary for each episode, but devised the two gags as compensation for the repeated material each week.

" Jon Bonné at MSNBC called the episode " a perfect example of the first season ’ s bizarre and fruitful balance between edgy humor and softly-drawn neuroses " and stated that " it was this combination that made Groening ’ s shorts for the Ullman show so compelling, and ultimately what made it possible for The Simpsons to break the molds of network television.

Fox strongly disliked the episode, but after negotiations, Groening received the same independence with Futurama.

In 1995, Brooks and Groening were involved in a public dispute over the episode " A Star Is Burns ".

Even Simpsons creator Matt Groening objected, preferring to remove his name from the credits of that particular episode in protest.

On the Futurama episode " Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences ", the main characters attend the 3010 convention ( with it being referred to as " Comic-Con Intergalactic " and the iconic eye logo now sporting multiple eyes ), where Fry looks for approval for his own comic while Bender attends a panel from Matt Groening ( creator of Futurama as well as The Simpsons ) on his new show " Futurella " ( a twist on the title of the show and a parody of its cancellation by Fox ).

The episode capsule is a convention that has since crossed over to many other TV show fansites and newsgroups, including co-Matt Groening animation Futurama.

Matt Groening, Mike Scully, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Tim Long, Matt Selman, David Mirkin, Max Pross and Lance Kramer participated in the audio commentary for the episode.

Matt Groening, Mike Scully, George Meyer, Donick Cary, Ron Hauge and Mark Kirkland participated in the DVD's audio commentary of the episode.

Staff members Steven Dean Moore, Al Jean, Matt Groening, Matt Selman, Tim Long, John Frink, Don Payne, Joel H. Cohen, Matt Warburton, David Silverman, and Mike B. Anderson participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode.

In a 2000 Entertainment Weekly article, Matt Groening ranked it as his sixth favorite Simpsons episode.

: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family ... Still Continued, Matt Groening wrote that he particularly enjoyed the episode and that it had a " very special story ".

" Simpsons creator Matt Groening has gone to say on record ( according to the season five DVD set audio commentaries ) that the torture sequence in " Pigs is Pigs " is his favorite scene in all of animation and his inspiration for the sequence in this episode of The Simpsons.

Staff members Matt Groening, Mike Scully, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Rob Lazebnik, Matt Selman, Tim Long, Max Pross, David Mirkin, and Mike B. Anderson participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode.

According to Matt Groening, people often include this episode among their top 10 favorites.

In a 2000 Entertainment Weekly article, Matt Groening ranked this episode as his second favorite episode of all time, behind " Bart the Daredevil ".

Fearing the loss of ownership rights, Groening decided to create something new and came up with a cartoon family, The Simpsons, and named the members after his own parents and sisters — while Bart was an anagram of the word brat.

The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a pitch for a series of animated shorts with the producer James L. Brooks.

Marge was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks ' office.

Marge's distinctive blue beehive hairstyle was inspired by a combination of the Bride's in Bride of Frankenstein and the style that Margaret Groening wore in the 1960s.

Marge was named after Groening's mother Margaret " Marge " Groening, who has said she bears little similarity to the character, stating, " It's really weird to have people think you're a cartoon.

" Marge's beehive hairstyle was inspired by the titular Bride in Bride of Frankenstein and the style that Margaret Groening wore during the 1960s, although her hair was never blue.

The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up ; instead, they just traced over his drawings.

One of these performances was featured as part of the edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival curated by Matt Groening in May 2010 in Minehead, England.

Cartoonist and writer Matt Groening tells of listening to Trout Mask Replica at the age of 15 and thinking " that it was the worst thing I'd ever heard.

Homer was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks ' office.

Very little else of Homer's character was based on him, and to prove that the meaning behind Homer's name was not significant, Groening later named his own son Homer.

My father was an athletic, creative, intelligent filmmaker and writer, and the only thing he had in common with Homer was a love of donuts " Although Groening has stated in several interviews that Homer's namesake is his father, he also claimed in several 1990 interviews that a character in the 1939 Nathanael West novel The Day of the Locust was the inspiration for naming Homer.

The family was crudely drawn because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up ; instead, they just traced over his drawings.

The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up ; instead, they just traced over his drawings.

At the time, Groening was primarily drawing in black and white ; 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 ".

Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, wanted to have a character that was " really cranky " and old, and who complained a lot and invented stories to tell to children, so he created Grampa.

Matt Groening has claimed that Hans Moleman was inspired by Tex Avery's Droopy, who shares many of Moleman's deadpan and unassuming mannerisms.

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening told TV Guide that " He was just written as a mad scientist character until Hank did the voice, and suddenly he became this nutty professor persona.

Krusty was created by cartoonist Matt Groening and partially inspired by Rusty Nails, a television clown from Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon.