Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Matt Groening did not particularly like
school, which is what originally turned him towards drawing. In the
mid-1980s, he moved to Los Angeles and started drawing a comic strip
named "Life in Hell", which eventually became published in the
newspaper where he worked. In 1988,
James L. Brooks, looking for a filler in
the television show,
Die Tracey Ullman Show (1987),
turned towards a framed "Life in Hell" strip on his wall and contacted
Groening. The animated shorts that Groening created were
Die Simpsons (1989).
