Cartoonist Matt Groening (1954-), his name rhymes with raining, was born in Portland, Oregon and is the creative genius behind The Simpsons, the first animated series in 20 years to appear on prime time television.

"Families are about love overcoming emotional torture," he once said.

A hilarious and irreverent glimpse of dysfunctional family life, The Simpsons premiered as a series on Fox in December 1989. The outlandish series revolved around a blue-collar family who are often rotten to each other, but still manage to provide support and love in a pinch.

"Here's something smart and funny and hip and original," explained Charles Solomon, animation critic for the L.A. Times. "It reminded us that something that's really family entertainment would appeal to the least sophisticated member of the audience and the most sophisticated at different levels."

For Groening, fact and fiction are a clever blur. His own father and son are named Homer. His mother is Marge and his two sisters are Lisa and Maggie. The name Bart, appropriately enough, is an acronym of "brat."

The animator has accepted that his role in life is to entertain and annoy:" I don’t want to get too scientific, but you can divide people into two groups: the Daffy Ducks and the Elmer Fudds. The Daffys are the people who laugh and annoy other people, and the Elmers are the ones who don’t laugh and get annoyed. And there’s plenty of ‘em."

According to Nielsen Media Research, The Simpsons averaged 14.3 million viewers in 2003. The Fox Network renewed the series until 2005, making Homer and the gang the stars of the longest-running situation comedy of all time.

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