The Simpsons Folder

Highly informative and original fan site, offering carefully selected information about The Simpsons with special photos, drawings, graffities, videos and other intriguing bits of content you won't find elsewhere.

    • Production

    The Simpsons Folder : Production

    about this page

    Here you can scroll tons of production sketches, learn about visual process of the show and see what other fans thoughts about the Simpsons on our Reasearhes. Don’t forget to scroll our Did You Know which has hundreds of dyk’s to be saved into your head. This is the Simpsons production: engine that makes show alive. If you’re into more, you might also wanna read Nice to Know at Scrapbook. And as a bonus we promise new documents for this feature on the future also.

    did you know

    • Unlikely many shows, The Simpsons has touched fans of it with a long stick via the show. One of most remarkable scene is when Comic Book Guy refers to the ‘worst episode ever’ and Bart says “They given you thousands of hours of entertainment for free; what could they possibly owe you?” Watching that it was like 100 voices behind The Simpsons shouting the line in unison.
    • Mostly Fox censors too much violence on Itchy & Scratchy. They are just cutting the amount of blood that comes out of Itchy or Scratchy. Usually they animate lots of blood to give simply ‘red-flag’ to censorship people which cut the blood to minimum. The producers cannot read fanscripts that are not submitted by agents because the legalities are too complicated.
    • Few writers on the show has mentioned alt.tv.simpsons -newsgroup bit annoying place alive. People are there only expressing how much they hate the show or giving advices how Mike Scully should be kicked off the show. My personal view for a.t.s is pretty much same level. It use to be pretty good place 1995-1997, share thoughs about the show but today it seems to be big, bottomless trash can, but if you have time to spend you will find something interesting.

    burns
     old man sitting in the bench a lot. often missed trains because his slow moves.

    • Bart’s middle name is Jo-Jo.
    • Bart’s head was inspired by a paper bag.
    • Bart is voiced by woman, Nancy Cartwright.
    • Bart is an anagram for “brat.”
    • The show was really going to be based 100% on Bart at first.
    • Matt Groening picked the name Bart by rearranging the letters in the word brat.
    • Homer’s middle name is Jay.
    • It is well known that when episode Homer Goes to College aired it was first episode where Homer started to act bit stupier.
    • Mr. Burns is 81 or 104 years old.
    • Mouse’s name is Itchy, and the cat’s name is Scratchy. Cat is the one who is suffering.
    • Enormously funny Itchy and Scratchy song goes like this: “They fight! And bite! They bite and bite and fight! Fight fight fight! Bite, bite, bite! The Itchy and Scratchy Show!”
    • Bumblebee guy’s real name is Pedro.
    • Krusty the Clown is jewish.
    • Krusty the clown was inspired by a real Clown named Rusty Nails.
    • Krusty’s show was made like Bozo’s show.
    • Comic Book Guy real name hasn’t been revealed yet.
    • According to Kelsey Grammer, voice of Sideshow Bob, Sideshow Bob character is based on actor Ellis Raab.
    • On the episode ‘Lisa’s Sax’ Lisa is performing saxophone solo near end of the episode. Song is Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’.
    • During the Tracey Ullman years Lisa wasn’t intelligent as she is today. She was more like younger Bart. Homer is more intelligent.
    • Lisa is 8 years old.
    • America met OFF first time April 19, 1987.
      The Simpsons debuted officially on Fox January 14, 1990.
    • No one could have predicted the show’s success. Cartoonist Matt Groening originally created Homer, Marge and their spikey-haired kids in 1987 to fill short segments between comedy routines on The Tracey Ullman show. The BBC didn’t immediately get the joke; the corporation bought the Ullman show and chose to edit out clips of The Simpsons.
    • There are 121 Springfields in the U.S. Matt Groening picked the name for the city because it was so common and well-known.
    • They are a blue collar family living in the average town of Springfield.
    • Many of the characters names like Flanders, Kearney and Quimby come from streets in Portland, Oregon.
    • There are mural on Portland which contains OFF painted on the wall. Photo on our Special page.
    • The town hall in The Simpsons was modeled after Matt Groening’s town hall in his home town.
    • Matt Groening parent’s names are Margaret and Homer and sister’s names are Maggie and Lisa. Matt has also brother, Mark.
    • Matt Groening especially likes Igor Stravinsky, Balinese Gamelan music, and Jazz from the 1920’s. When Matt Groening was growing up, he really did live in 742 Evergreen Terrace.
    • Matt Groening, first became known for the L.A. Reader’s “Life in Hell” comic strip.
    • Musical composer of The Simpsons, Alf Clausen surfed on the Net reading fans opinions about the best Homer line, the best Apu line, the best musical moment and countless other observations when he was making album ‘Songs in the Key of Springfield’.
    • At University of California, Berkeley students final paper is to write an original 22-minute Simpsons episode as “The Simpsons: Sitcom as Political and Social Satire”. A favorable review from Basovich earned them two college credits in history.
    • When Danny Elfman and Matt Groening we’re creating theme for The Simpsons, Matt Groening gave to Danny Elfman cassette included The Jetsons theme, selections from Nino Rota’s Juliet Of The Spirits, a Remington electric shaver jingle by Frank Zappa, some easy-listening music by Esquivel, and a teach.your-parrot-to-talk record. Danny Elfman listened tape and knew it exactly what Matt was looking for.
    • On the 1990 release “The Simpsons Sing the Blues”, Matt hooked up with DJ Jazzy Jeff, who is well known for working with actor/rapper Will Smith (Jeff and Will are also old childhood friends), to write and compose the music to Bart’s solo song “Deep Deep Trouble”. Jeff provided the scratches, keyboarding, and drums to the song and also co-wrote the song with Groening.
    • President George Bush blamed them for society’s ills, famously claiming that American families should be less like The Simpsons and more like The Waltons, while First Lady Barbara Bush described the show as the “dumbest thing” she ever saw.
    • DYN, Helen Hunt (Renee) and Hank Azaria (Moe) we’re really couple in real world, when they made episode where Moe falls in love. Unfortunately they’ve divorced late 2000.
    • The Simpsons began life as a series of 30-second cartoons on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987.
    • It is America’s longest running prime time show and is also seen in another 60 countries, including most of Europe, Latin America and Asia.
    • The cartoon has paved the way for imitations such as South Park and Beavis And Butt-Head and has also attracted an impressive number of celebrities who have popped up on the show.
    • In its first season The Simpsons won an Emmy and since then has gone from strength to strength.
    • The president of 20th Century Fox’s licensing and merchandising arm, Al Ovadia, has said he believes most people in the US own a Bart Simpson T-shirt. In 1991, Bart topped the British charts with Do the Bartman which was written by Michael Jackson.

    lisa
     lisa use to use all alone whole system. she didn’t needed any help to use station. she used our postbox.

    • The reasoning behind the invitation of Stephen Hawking – the world’s smartest man – on screen with Homer, the world’s most stupid. Hawking was delighted to be invited and was even prepared to fly to Hollywood to record his distinctive electronic voice for the programme.
    • The Simpsons is shown all over the world more than 60 countries.
    • The Simpsons is one of the few TV shows watched in large numbers by whites, African-Americans, and Hispanics.
    • Time magazine has called The Simpsons the century’s best television show, and the entertainment industry took note of the series 10th anniversary with a star on Hollywood Boulevard. The New York Times predicted in its millennium edition, perhaps with tongue in cheek, that The Simpsons would still be a top-rated show in 2025.
    • The whole idea of The Simpsons is that it’s a parody of the classic American stereotype — Homer’s stupid and lazy and fat, Bart’s an underachiever.
    • American aeroplane company Western Pacific had big yellow Boeing 737 which sides contained whole family, repainted 5 years ago. Website, The Simpsons Archive had a large campaign to prevent the repaint of the plane.
    • On the opening of every episode Maggie is listed to cost $847.63 at cash register. It’s the same amount a raising baby costs in a year in U.S.A.
    • On the Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular she is listed as NRA4EVER.
    • Since premiering on Twentieth Century Fox on January 14 1990 The Simpsons has won 16 Emmy awards and received 33 Emmy nominations, and 15 wins.
    • Reason why the Simpsons crew has over ten producers in Emmy list is simple: if they win, all of them will receive plate.
    • OFF means Our Favorite Family.
    • How many toilets does Simpsons have in their house? According to episode where Van Houten’s divorce, Marge has four or five toilet covers on the washing machine.
    • Anybody notice that the instruments in the monorail were made by VDO, a large German instruments maker?
    • In THOH1, James Earl Jones did voices in all three segments? In addition to the narrator in “The Raven” and Serak the Preparer in “Hungry are the Damned,” he was also the moving man in “Bad Dream
      House.”
    • The book “The 10 Do`s and 500 Don`ts of Knives” has backwards apostrophes, and the Krustyburger Fun Map has a few errors.
    • It looks as though West Virginia is missing (although it may just be obscured), and the second time we see the map, the U.S. appears to have annexed New Brunswick.
    • $pringfield: First, the music for the tiger show was “Sabre Dance,” from the ballet _Masquerade_, by Khachaturian. Once again, we have a ballet with wild animals riding some vehicle (one more time and it’ll be a theme). Also, Bart comments on the quality of the casino’s martinis. I guess he’d know a good martini when he saw one, what with all the mixology he learned in Bart the Murderer. There’s another in-joke lurking just below the surface of the Siegfried and Roy parody with the white tiger riding the unicycle.
    • Did anyone notice the label on the door behind Barney while he was being inter-viewed in the unemployment line on TV? It said “Room 1”. What the hell’s _that_ supposed to mean?
    • Deep Space Homer: At the end, when they’re back sitting on the couch, the painting of the sailboat behind them is different.. the sails are billowing out and are out of place
    • In the episode where Homer is arrested for driving impaired, that one of the other students in the driver’s education class was the next door neighbour that Marge had the girl’s night out with?
    • Did you notice that Selma is always leaving the toilet seat _up_?
    • 4F18: Kirk and Luanne Van Houten are sitting together at the Church, even though they divorced earlier in the season.
    • In the “Last Temptation of Krust” episode, did anyone notice Disco Stu in the background when Homer threw his pants?
    • …Homer’s car is shown to have electric windows in at least two episodes; “Lady Bouvier’s Lover” and “Daredevil Bart”, but there’s a window crank visible on the passenger door?
    • Worst Episode Ever: At the point where Milhouse says “I marked down all the Poochie stuff”, the CC reads ” I marked down all the South Park stuff”. A post production audio edit, or a CC shot at
      Comedy Central?
    • Simpsons Comics #7 from 1994 [Bongo Beat] mentioned alt.tv.simpsons newsgroup as “gigantic compendium of Simpsons folklore, criticism, and crazed but loveable ranting”.
    • On the movie “Never Been Kissed” [1999] school’s orchestra is playing The Simpsons theme.
    • Bart-shaped key ring appears on the movie “Basic Instinct” near the end of the film.
    • Band called ‘Bloodhound Gang’ cover single ‘Relax, don’t do it’ contains Homer’s ‘Holy Macaroni’ sample in the end.
    • The show is watched by 70 million people in 70 countries worldwide each week.
    • The Simpsons was never intended for a kids audience. The Simpsons grew out of Tracey Ullman Show which was created in part by James L. Brooks, who is famous for work Taxi, Cheers, Broadcast News and most recently As Good As It Gets. These are not kids audience.
    • Matt Groening cartoon prior to The Simpsons was Life in Hell and that’s not a kids cartoon. It deals about basically living single in Los Angeles and everything from sex to drugs.


    Copy of revided table draft from the episode 9F02 Mr. Plow.

    • One episode costs about 1.5 million dollars.
    • Show is still done with traditional cel painting and it’s one of the last shows to still do it that way.
    • One episode takes about 9 months to do it. They are working 7-8 episodes different episodes at same time.
    • The Simpsons is famous for current world issues. They are able to change jokes up to about week before the show airs even if actual episode is created 9 months ago. In terms of blackboard gags at the beginning of the show, those are usually done right before air time. They can write that day before it airs.
    • It takes one day to record voices for the characters.
    • In Los Angeles about 100 animators work on the show.
    • Animator of The Simpsons uses soft pen to sketch the scenes.
    • There are also about 120 animators who work for the show in South Korea.
    • Every episode contains over 25,000 drawings except early episodes which contain about half. It takes six months to animate it.
    • In the episode where Homer gets the gun and Marge takes the kids to the sleep easy motel, when Bart and Lisa are racing the beds in the background it shows a painting. That painting is one of Marges paintings of Ringo Starr.
    • The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular has new material from 9F19: Krusty Gets Cancelled, 1F04 THOH IV, 1F08 $pringfield, 1F10 Homer and Apu, 3F06 Mother Simpson, 1F16 Burns’ Heir and alternate ending to an episode 2F20 Who Shot Mr. Burns pt2.
    • Directors on the Simpsons do mostly visual stuff. The producers and the head writers, they write the script and they supervise the recording session and director pick it up from there. Script will break into individuals scenes, like on a comic strip, close ups and pans and medium shots.
    • Producer on the Simpsons is a writer who has contributed an enermous amount of work in the episode.
    • There are eight to ten staff writers working same time for one single episode.
    • Gyorgi Peluci gave the Simpsons their distinctive yellow color. She was colour stylist in the first season and she is from Hungary.
    • Remember that David Mirkin is now the producer of The Simpsons. He used to be involved with Chris Elliott’s wonderfully demented Get A Life. One of the classic episodes of that short-lived series revolved around a community theatre production of that beloved Broadway musical classic: “Zoo Animals On Wheels”.
    • The Simpsons are made without computers on season 1-13. They have tried to use computer on one episode, Radioactive Man: The Movie but problem with it is The Simpsons has a long production schedule. If train is already moving it’s pretty hard to refine the engine for it. It’s too complex but nowdays from season 14 they are using digital ink.
    • Matt Groening’s another cartoon, Futurama uses computers on animation.
    • Matt Groening has famously admitted to creating the award-winning cartoon featuring the dysfunctional Simpsons family in just 15 minutes.
    • When they did episode where Homer was going to die and he is getting ready for the death, he listens Bible on tape, originally they we’re going to get William Shatner to read the Bible.
    • There are over 500 minutes of unused Simpsons footage just lying around somewhere that we may never see.

    brands on the simpsons

    You must have seen big corporations on the Simpsons many times but you have probaply forgot them after you seen it. This page focuses on ‘big names’ which are also on real life selling their product’s for people around the world. Not all of them are not yet listed here but I hope to have this list much up-to-date in the future.

    1. Canon or Nikon?On the episode ‘Lost Our Lisa (5F17)’ where Lisa drives a bus to Russian part of Springfield, Marge has a camera which is very similar to Nikon or Canon products.
    2. Mercedes BenzOn the episode ‘A Milhouse Divided (4F04)’ where Milhouse parent’s divorce, Milhouse drives a toy car which is Milhouse 500 SL. If you look carefully the red car you can find Mercedes Benz’s logo on the front. Car is similar to Mercedes Benz SL series.
      On the episode ‘Bart vs. Australia (2F13)’ where family visits on the Australia. Adolf’s old car is Mercedes Benz classic from the 40’s.
      On the episode ‘Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield (3F11)’ where Marge is trying to fit to Springfield Country Club. Marge’s old schoolmate, Evelyn owns a Mercedes Benz station wagon.
      On the episode ‘The Curse of the Flying Hellfish (3F19)’ where Granpa Simpson and Bart are seeking lost treasury and in the end where they lost it again to German Baron who drives Mercedes Benz SL cabriolet, probaply one of the SL 500 or SL 600.
    3. Bang & OlufsenOn the episode ‘The Homer They Fall (4F03)’ where Homer start boxing career, family is visiting on Miscellaneous, Etc. gadget store. Behind clerk there are Bang & Olufsen’s BEOSOUND 3000 CD and radio system. Name is not presented, but you regonize it if you are familiar to stylish B&O stuff.
    4. Levi’sOn the episode ‘A Milhouse Divided (4F04)’ where Homer and Marge we’re just married and they are sitting near the road, big truck goes by with a large sign of Levi’s.

    maggie
     maggie and her pacifier. maggie collapsed on the escalators once but nothing happened so…

    sketches

    Promo cards, also known as Simpsons Publicity Images are pictures which are used highly by media. Promo card supports one episode at a time by providing art from the particular episode.


    Homer Simpson’, 1990’s production sketch.

    creation theory

    So how is each Simpsons episode created? Mike Scully explains the process of how a vague story idea is transformed into a broadcastable episode. Also including some rare producing photos bottom of the page, timing sheets and original animation from the show.

    Executive Producer Mike Scully: “This show is far more complicated to produce than a live-action show because there are so many diverse aspects that go into one episode, “Scully begins. “The majority of the day is spent writing. We work as a group for the most part. There’s about 14 writers, and we all work in a room together. “It all starts off with one guy who has basic story idea. He then goes to the group who flesh everything out. Next, the writer goes back and comes up with fisrt draft. Then, the group takes the draft and rewrites it.” Surely that causes a few arguments? “Well, from time to time, but we all respect each other’s work. There are very few fist fights.” He pauses, before adding with a grin, “We don’t allow guns into the room. “After that, the script is recorded, then it goes to the artist and they produce a storyboard. A few months later, we get what’s called an animatronic – a very rough black-and-white version of the show: that’s kind of our rehearsal stage. We watch that, and then do another rewrite. Then, it’s at least another two months until we see a rough coloured version: that’s our dress rehearsal, and it’s our final chance to correct any mistakes. “once we’ve made any changes, it’s drawn properly, the music is added, and that’s that. The whole process takes six to nine months – usually nine. A typical episode has a budget of around $ 1.8 million. We record the shows here [in LA], and they are drawn at a studio about ten miles away. From there, they’re shipped to Korea where they’re animated and the music is added at another studio. “It’s a huge project to oversee, because the animation takes so long , there’s a lot of planning ahead. You tend to be working on the Halloween show in January, and the Xmas show in May.”

    krusty
     krusty is another great user of submay. he appeared on every station and even with balloons!

    visual process

    The first step in ‘visual’ production on The Simpsons is the storyboard process. The script (and then the dialogue recording) is done by the writers and voice talent before it reaches the storyboard process, as well as a few musical cues by Alf Clausen… but visualisation is also big part.

    The three Storyboard Artists (per episode) read the script and listen to the soundtrack (if available at the time) before they start drawing rough basic pencil drawings to establish the rough composition of included characters, camera angles, and any camera moves. The completed 3 storyboards (one per Act) totals over 200 pages, each page containing up to four small drawings. All script dialogues & actions are transferred below each drawing for easy reference. The Animation Director will usually draw one of the storyboard Acts themself. When all three Acts are complete, they are sent to Gracie Films…the writers’ production group located on the 20th Century Fox studio lot. The executive producers and others assistants will make notes to it and since all this is rough, it’s easy to change things.

    When all the board notes are received back at Film Roman and revised by the Storyboard Artists roughly, six character layout artists receive the storyboard for Act 1 and a voice-track of the show which is about 12-15 minutes of dialogue. The Director, AD (Assistant Director), and the Timer now have to figure out how much time the episode takes by listening the voice track & guessing how long non-dialogue actions will take. The typical limit for the show is about 22.5 minutes. More dialogue means less time for nonverbal action. They will “red-line” (or “slug”) the X-Sheets (large timing sheets that have every blank frame for the show listed in order). They do a rough ‘guesstimate’ to give them an idea of how lenient or strict their final timing later on will have to be.

    The Character Layout artists use the storyboard drawings as reference when they draw the “key” animation poses (all the ones that are needed for the Korean animators to follow and draw the in-between poses later on). These are hand-drawn onto 10.5″ x 14.5″ white paper, usually rough, but eventually cleaned up a bit. (In Korea, they are re-drawn with a fine line accuracy. Each drawing is held in place by three little pegs on the animation light board. The light shines through the pages from under the disks’ glass so the artists can see the multiple characters and the rough background they’ve drawn, and to make sure they have a solid composition, and that no lines are ‘tangent’ (or touching) each other awkwardly. characters. Flipping back and forth the drawings, the artists can check the characters’ movements between their various poses, erase and redraw any movements that don’t seem to work. This is actual basis of the episode.

    This process takes about 6 weeks for all three Acts to be drawn out. It’s far from done, but now there’s enough visual information to be quickly shot on video (along with the dialogue track) to be shown to the Executives at Fox so they can see how the show ‘looks’ so far.

    This is called an “Animatic”. The Cameramen shoot every drawing onto video (according to the red-lined X-sheets). The camera bed has the same registration pegs as the animation disks that the artists used for all their drawings, so the image doesn’t jump from place to place all the time. After they add the sound track, they have a basic, b/w animated video called an animatic, a kind of rehearsal stage. Usually many changes are made. Many hysterical jokes are sacrificed in order to preserve the storyline, and to keep within that 22.5 minute timeline. Meanwhile other artists (such as ‘lip assignment’) have to make sure the shape of Bart’s mouth when he says “Eat my shorts” looks believable, and the Color department using Photoshop to give colors for backgrounds, characters and props must make sure that there aren’t any conflicting colors which could ‘hide’ an object in the background when it’s supposed to be very visible to the audience.

    Color is assigned to every area of the zeroxed drawings by number codes, only having a total palette of 68 colors to choose from (computer animated animation has over 2,000 colors to choose from) plus many other artists to get everything ready so it works well in the end. Drawings used be shipped off to Korea, transferred to acetate celluloids (cels) and painted and when it’s done it is ready to be shipped off to Korea to be Xeroxed and painted. Now that is all done on computers, and there are no more cels in production as of the middle of production season 12 last year.


    The automated console at the Simpsons dubbing session.

    What does go to Korea are the layout scenes that were drawn at Film Roman, the backgrounds, and also the X-sheets for each particular scene.

    Three animation scenes of Homer heads The Simpsons are 100 % hand painted. One second of animation needs 12 to 24 pieces of art and when show is 22.5 minutes long, it needs approximately 17,000 to 34,000 hand painted cels per episode. That’s why the tedious clean in-between animation is done in Korea… it’s cheaper to produce it there, at either Akom or Rough Draft (the Korean animation studios). Then they shoot it all onto film and ship it back to Fox Studios, where the Director, AD and Timer will meet with the execs for a “1st color” screening. Now they’re watching a fully animated color workprint of the show, and of course in the 2 months it’s been in Korea, every executive producer has changed their minds on what works and what doesn’t. So it’s back to Film Roman for final fixes, and it’s also Alf Clausens’ time to finish the musical scores. That’s why Bart’s chalkboard writings are so up-to-date to what goes on in the real world sometimes. They can change and add little stuff in the end process before it airs.

    Alf Clausen, musical composer of The Simpsons comes to work rain or shine and scores the music for the episode with his 35 piece orchestra, not to mention the sound effects guys who create all the weird sounds in the backgounds. The whole process of one episode from start to finish takes 6 to 8 months. And they are creating multiple episodes at the same time, like a conveyor belt in a huge factory. It’s a huge project to oversee, because the animation takes so long, and there’s a lot of planning involved.

    Special thanks to Sarge Morton, layout and character artist from Film Roman for adding detailed, technical information about the visual process.

    kirk
     kirk van houten hnags out with homer on the station. bit lost in my opinion.

    portland allusions

    Matt Groening did more than name “Simpsons” characters after Portland streets. The names for many of the show’s oddball characters came from family members, old friends and other obscure personal reference.

    The name Homer came mostly from Groening’s late father but also from the lead character in a favorite book, “The Day of the Locust” by Nathanael West. Lisa and Maggie Simpson were named for Groening’s sisters, while Bart’s aunt, Patty Bouvier, has the same first name as another Groening sister. Margaret Groening, Matt’s mother, has never gone by the name Marge. “It doesn’t bother me if people call me Marge, but I’m nothing like her,” she said. “Homer (her husband) used to really get a kick out of being associated with Homer Simpson.” Matt’s paternal grandfather is named Abraham, just like Grandpa Simpson. Springfield Police Chief Clancy Wiggum shares Margaret Groening’s maiden name.

    Dolph, a schoolyard bully who is among the local thugs who torture Bart, is named for Dolph Timmerman, a Lincoln classmate of Matt Groening’s. Timmerman wasn’t a bully at all, Groening said, but a “really cool guy.” Miss Hoover, Lisa’s second-grade teacher, is named after Groening’s first-grade teacher at Ainsworth Elementary School, Elizabeth Hoover, who recognized Groening’s drawing talent early after seeing his picture of a boat.

    marge
     marge did terrific job keeping homer on the sitting bench.

    There is no 742 Evergreen Terrace the Simpsons’ address in Portland.

    One of Groening’s high school films was called “Drugs: Killers or Dillers?” In its climactic scene, the filmmakers dangled an old wheelchair off the Vista Bridge in an apparent metaphor for what happens when kids take drugs. “That movie was very funny and very clever, but amateurish,” Margaret Groening said. Margaret Groening’s favorite Simpsons character is Apu, who operates the Kwik-E-Mart convenience store. “I just love his accent,” she said. More Portland street names may show up, and Groening would like to work in the Rose Festival fun center because he has fond memories of counting all the fistfights from high atop the rides. Krusty the Clown is loosely based on Rusty Nails, a popular Portland TV kiddie clown in the 1960s. Rusty (whose real name is James Allen) is sincere and loving, a devout Christian who shared Bible stories with children. Krusty is a lusty hedonist and fallen Jew. As a boy, Groening once watched Rusty’s show from the studio audience.

    Characters in the Simpsons take their names from important people and places in Groening’s life

    • Lisa – Lisa Groening (Matt Groening’s sister)
    • Marge – Margaret Groening (his mother)
    • Homer – Homer Groening (his father and one of his sons)
    • Maggie – Maggie Groening (one of his sisters)
    • Bart – an anagram for “brat”
    • Abraham – Matt Groening’s grandfather
    • 742 Evergreen Terrace is the address of the place where Matt Groening grew up.
    • Chief Wiggum – Groening’s college love’s last name was “Wiggum”
    • Seymour Skinner – behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner
    • Miss Hoover (Lisa’s teacher) – one of his primary school teachers
    • Apu (Kwik-E-Mart owner) – reference to one of his favourite movies
    • Ned Flanders – In Groening’s hometown, there is a street called NE Flanders St. (from which one could deduce – Ned Flanders, Saint)
    • Maude, Rod and Todd Flanders – they all rhyme with “god”
    • Kang and Kodos (aliens) – In the , Kang is a Klingon, and Kodos (“The Executioner”) is a human villain
    • Barney Gumble (Homer’s drinking buddy) – Barney Rubble from The Flintstones
    • Troy McClure (actor) – B-movie actors Troy Donohue and Doug McClure
    • Dr. Nick Riviera (enterprising physician) – Elvis Presley’s physician, George C. Nichopoulos, was called Dr. Nick
    • Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening says it’s a coincidence, but Sideshow Bob Terwilliger, Krusty the Clown’s murderous and felonious former sidekick and evil nemesis of the Simpson son, Bart, carries the name of the Southwest Portland parkway.
    • Northwest Quimby Street Inspired the name of Diamond Joe Quimby, Springfield’s corrupt, philandering mayor.
    • Northwest Flanders Street Inspired the name of Ned Flanders, the Simpsons’ annoying next-door neighbor.
    • Northwest Kearney Street Source of name of Kearney, one of the schoolyard bullies who torments Bart.
    • North Van Houten Avenue Milhouse Van Houten, Bart’s best friend and foil, has the same name as this North Portland street. Again, Groening says it’s a coincidence.
    • Montgomery Park Used to name Montgomery Burns, the evil owner of the Springfield Nuclear Plant. Groening remembered how Lawrence Shlim, a childhood friend, saw what was then the Montgomery Ward sign from his bedroom window at night and thought that¹s where his prayers were heading.
    • Columbia River Gorge The much larger Columbia River Gorge inspired the Springfield Gorge, known in Springfield as the state’s second most beautiful.
    • Springfield, Ore. Helped inspire the name of the Simpsons’ hometown. Growing up in Portland, Groening thought Springfield, the Anderson family’s hometown on TV’s “Father Knows Best,” was the Springfield in Oregon. Also chosen because of the name’s ubiquity.

    more about portland

    • For more information about Portland from the Simpsons point of view, please view this map
    • Place of Birth Search at IMDB
    • Map of Portland
    • News results for Portland
    • Portland State University


    Akbar and Jeff on the famous Apple advertisement poster.

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