By Robert Scucci
| Updated
Sometimes the best concept for an intellectual property starts out as a throwaway idea, and this is exactly how The Simpsons came to be in 1987 when series creator Matt Groening didn’t want to part ways with his first notable effort, Life in Hell. Immediately becoming popular among comic book fans after its 1980 debut, Life in Hell would eventually catch the attention of James L. Brooks, who had a hand in creating The Tracey Ullman Show, where we first caught a glimpse of a very crude iteration of The Simpsons before it became a cultural force that reinvented the family sitcom as we know it. Initially approached by Brooks to adapt his Life in Hell characters for a segment on The Tracey Ullman Show, Groening had the sudden and overpowering realization that if the show failed, then his comic would fail along with it– a fate that he didn’t want to succumb to if he had any say in it.
A Frantic Exercise In Self Preservation
Fearing that he’d lose the rights to Life in Hell in perpetuity if it failed, but knowing that he had to pitch something to Brooks in order to have a chance at getting one of his creations on The Tracey Ullman Show, Groening came up with a quick throwaway idea in the lobby of Brook’s office before his pitch meeting, which was a primitive version of The Simpsons based on his own family. Crudely drawn, as they were conceptualized on the fly, Groening assumed that animators would clean up his original versions of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, but they simply traced over his original drawings, resulting in the short animated skits that would eventually become a pop-culture force to be reckoned with after gaining traction on the variety show, two years before getting the green-light for its own series.
Though this throwaway idea saw immediate success for its portrayal of a dysfunctional family, The Simpson family as depicted in the Tracey Ullman Show skits are a far cry from what the family would evolve into when given the opportunity to become its own series in 1989 based off of Groening’s characters.
Based On Groening’s Actual Family, But Not Really
Groening has also gone on record stating that although Homer and Marge are named after his actual parents, and Lisa and Maggie are named after his younger sisters, the actual Simpsons are nothing like his own family aside from their names, which he simply used because the original concept was a throwaway idea and he couldn’t think of any other names to use at the time. Not wanting to name a character after himself, Groening chose Bart for the boy’s name, which is simply an anagram for “brat,” and later revealed to be inspired by his older brother, Mark.
An Unexpected Hit
History will tell you that The Tracey Ullman Show wasn’t a massive hit, but Groening’s throwaway idea in the form of The Simpsons was lightning in a bottle thanks to its crude depiction of a modern family. Knowing that The Simpsons had potential to be the next big thing in television, Brooks and Groening teamed up with Sam Simon, who had been known for working on series like Taxi and Cheers. Aiming to lampoon modern sitcoms of the time with a scathing satirical tone, Matt Groening wanted to undermine the idea of wholesome and safe middle-class families as portrayed in series like Family Ties and The Waltons in his efforts to show America the darker side of suburban life using the very characters he came up with at a moment’s notice as his creative vehicle.
Little did he know, his throwaway idea would not only be a runaway success, it would eventually become the longest-running animated sitcom of all time, still putting out new episodes to this day. So the next time you’re working on a creative project that you’ve devoted your life and time to, you might want to consider taking a break and busting out a few throwaway ideas of your own just to see what happens. For all you know, you’ll have the next Simpsons on your hands because sometimes the best ideas come from the most unassuming places.
