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The Man Who Created The Simpsons - 1996
A group of impish friends and the "perfect" television families of the 1960s inspired Matt Groening to create The Simpsons.
The celebrated cartoonist, who began his working life as a journalist freelancing for rock 'n' roll magazines, said he used to only doodle on the side.
"In school, I'd draw when I was supposed to be paying attention to my life. And I spent way to much time watching television. I had to become a cartoonist.
"He (Bart) is a combination of me and all my boyhood friends ... at our worst, all together. We really were that bad. I wasn't bad myself. I was pretty good. But if you put me at my worst with my friends at their worst, I guess you'd come up with Bart.
"And the Simpson family, is a combination of my family, and the families I gre up with, watching on TV.
It was a time when television families were all cookies and milk, no fights, no divorces. "The families on TV were how I wished families would act.
But in life, no one's ever measured up. I had this theory that if you made a family people would feel superior to, they would feel better.
"Married With Children seems far worse that The Simpsons though. They really seem to hate each other. When I watch, it's mainly in awe that they can get away with it."
But there were other inspirations for the cartoonist. "When I was a kid, there were no cartoons on at night. I thought if I had a chance of getting an animated TV show on at night, I knew kids would watch, especially if it was even mildly funny."
Groening came up with 13 episodes of The Simpsons in 1990, and now, six years later, he is comfortable with the knowledge that Bart and his family have "settled into a steady city groove".
"And fans need not worry about The Simpsons ever becoming middle class.
"I have had a ton of experiences to keep them from repeating themselves." Groening said.
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