Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Simpsons: An Unauthorized, Uncensored History

"The Simpsons" is one of my all-time favorite TV shows, dating back to my college days in early 1990 when a friend recommended in passing that I watch one of the first, crudely drawn episodes airing to little fanfare on the then-fledgling Fox Network. I was hooked from the start and still watch the show today. Much to my wife's dismay, my young daughter even likes the show now. So I'll definitely be buying a new book released yesterday, The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History

The book's author, John Ortved, wrote a story for "TheDailyBeast.Com" about how uncooperative Fox, Matt Groening and James L. Brooks were with the project. One quote from this article really caught my eye since I had always viewed Matt Groening as the undisputed, beloved creator of the main characters and of the show itself, and since I had seen a "60 Minutes" profile of Sam Simon years ago that explained he had left the show after the first few years.
"One witness to the early days was particularly annoyed that Groening took so much credit for the show’s success, when 'the fat fu** just sat up in his office all day, figuring out ways to make more money [with merchandising]' while Sam Simon and the writers churned out brilliant script after brilliant script."
That's piqued my curiosity, for sure. (And probably piqued a few other people as well.)

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