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.

" The show's creator Matt Groening has called Smith very similar to Lisa: " Yeardley has strong moral views about her character.

Matt Groening has stated that he decided to have Homer work at the power plant because of the potential for Homer to create havoc.

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.

" Matt Groening has described Smith as being very similar to Lisa: " Yeardley has strong moral views about her character.

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

When asked, Groening has simply noted that " characters are collaborations between the writers, animators, and actors " without specifically confirming or denying the association.

Matt Groening has indicated that Lovejoy is named after Lovejoy Street ( which in turn is named for Portland co-founder Asa Lovejoy ) in Portland, Oregon, the city where Groening grew up.

" Groening has commented that he was " unbelievably good " at doing animal noises.

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.

This group included Stephen King, Dave Barry, Matt Groening and Amy Tan, among other popular writers, and it has continued to perform one benefit concert per year since Zevon's death.

The creator of the show, Matt Groening, has cited Ralph as his favorite character.

His work has had a great deal of influence, particularly on American cartoonists, including Pat Oliphant, Matt Groening, Hilary Knight, and the animators of Disney's 101 Dalmatians.

Bender ( being the show's breakout character ) has made several cameos in different episodes of The Simpsons, another series by Matt Groening.

* It has been assumed that The Simpsons ( 1989 ) creator Matt Groening named his most famous character, Homer Simpson, after his own father, however, in several interviews given in 1990, Groening reportedly stated that he named the character after the Homer in this novel, although neither explanation is considered definitive.

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has declared that he created the Bumblebee Man character after watching El Chapulín Colorado on television at a motel on the U. S .- Mexico border.

Robotology is a play on the name Scientology, and series creator Matt Groening has said that he received a call from the Church of Scientology concerned about the use of a similar name.

Matt Groening has stated he is a fan of Howser, and has featured him in two episodes of The Simpsons: " There's Something About Marrying ", where a character named Howell Huser fell off a turnip truck, and " O Brother, Where Bart Thou?

Television has also made the strip " safe enough for a number of newspapers to print ", according to Groening, who claims that he has not " toned the strip down at all, other than no longer using profanity " as a concession to daily papers that carry the strip.

Groening described the inspiration for Flanders as " just a guy who was truly nice, that Homer had no justifiable reason to loathe, but then did ".

Groening described trying to get the show on the air as " by far the worst experience of my grown-up life.

Groening described trying to get the show on the air as " by far the worst experience of grown-up life.

Matt Groening has described him as the inspiration for Moe Szyslak from The Simpsons.

Matt Groening described Cash's appearance as " one of the greatest coups the show has ever had.

Many of the writers were fans of Brooks, and Matt Groening described the chance to have him guest star as " an incredible honor.

When they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and story lines ; Groening claimed they had gone " overboard " in their discussions.

By the time they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and story lines.

: 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 ".

" However, Groening later denied the story in the DVD commentary for the episode " Gump Roast ", while Jean stated in a piece after Taylor's death in 2011 that Taylor had said " fuck you " in jest and in Maggie's voice and did not storm out.

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.

Groening created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name.

After naming the main characters after his own family members ( except for Bart, an anagram of " brat ", which he substituted for his own name ), Groening refused to name Grampa after his grandfather, Abraham Groening.

Matt Groening, the series ' creator, allowed her to audition for Bart and offered her the role on the spot.

Creator Matt Groening let her try out for Bart, and gave her the job on the spot.

Notable contributors have included Barry Michael Cooper, Dave Eggers, Chuck Klosterman, Byron Coley, Kim France, Tad Friend, Elizabeth Gilbert, Andy Greenwald, William T. Vollman, Will Hermes, Dave Itzkoff, David Bourgeois, John Leland, Bart Bull, Greil Marcus, Matt Groening, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Glenn O ' Brien, Norman Mailer, R. Meltzer, Karen Schoemer, Marilyn Manson, William S. Burroughs, Anton Corbijn, Bob Gruen, Roberta Bayley, Jon Dolan, Rob Tannenbaum, Jonathan Ames, Strawberry Saroyan, Paul Beahan ( founder of Manimal Vinyl ), Michael O ' Donoghue, Bönz Malone, Hari Kondabolu, Dan Ackerman, and Marc Spitz.

Groening created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name.

Pinsky found it ironic that Groening spoofed Scientology in spite of the fact that the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright, is a Scientologist, having joined in 1989.

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

* In The Simpsons, one of the main characters, Bart Simpson, is inspired by the behavior of Haskell, whom the cartoon series ' creator Matt Groening considered to be his favorite character.

One of the bunnies jumping into the pit that Bart and Homer dug is Bongo, the one-eared rabbit character from Simpsons creator Matt Groening ’ s comic Life in Hell.

Groening conceived Bart as an extreme version of the typical misbehaving child character, merging all of the extreme traits of characters such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn into one person.

In an interview conducted by Entertainment Weekly in 2000 celebrating the show's tenth anniversary, Groening named " Bart the Daredevil " his favorite episode of the series, and chose the scene in which Homer is loaded into an ambulance and then falls out of it as the funniest moment in the series.

" Radio Bart " was written by Jon Vitti and directed by Carlos Baeza, though series creator Matt Groening came up with the idea for it.

Simpsons creator Matt Groening etched Bart Simpson into the east sidewalk of SW 18th Ave. in 1996 during the construction of this station.

The creative team of The Simpsons puts the episode among the top five best episodes of the series, and series creator Matt Groening cited " Bart Sells His Soul " as one of his favorite episodes.

Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, named the main characters after his own family members ( except for Bart, an anagram of brat, which he substituted for his own name ), but refused to name Grampa after his grandfather, Abraham Groening.