And now here's something we hope you'll really like!

[Sal]

In this interview, Simpsons creator Matt Groening reveals how the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon series inspired him to create his own characters.

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'Simpsons' creator into classic 'toons

By BILL HARRIS - Sun Media




The long-running series The Simpsons kicks off its 20th season tonight.

Matt Groening's early dreams of being a cartoonist got off to a Rocky start.

Groening, of course, went on to create a little show called The Simpsons, which kicks off its 20th season tonight on Global and Fox. But in a conversation with Sun Media, Groening acknowledged one of his biggest inspirations was The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show.

"I definitely was influenced by Rocky & Bullwinkle," said Groening, 54. "I looked at Rocky & Bullwinkle as a kid, and I thought to myself, 'Here's a show that's well-written, it has great voices and it has great music. But the animation is not so good.'

"So I thought, 'That's my ticket, because I can't draw all that well, but I can draw well enough to do something.' So that was my motivation."

Certainly in terms of smart-ass tone, one can see how The Simpsons is a direct descendant of Rocky & Bullwinkle. By the way, Rocky & Bullwinkle still can be seen daily on the excellent cable channel Teletoon Retro.

For younger readers who might not be familiar, Rocky (a flying squirrel) and Bullwinkle (a moose) regularly battled evil spies Boris and Natasha back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. And the supporting features in the Rocky & Bullwinkle stable -- Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Peabody, Aesop & Son, etc. -- helped contribute to the show's popularity, especially as it lived on in reruns.


The animation was rudimentary at best. Visually, the modern-era Simpsons don't look much like Rocky & Bullwinkle. But remember how The Simpsons looked when it debuted in the late 1980s? It wasn't exactly Fantasia, either.

And both shows are famous for their irreverent vibe. Rocky & Bullwinkle put some big cracks in the wall of adult prejudice against cartoons, before The Simpsons knocked it down completely.

"My biggest worry about The Simpsons when it first started was that adults wouldn't bother with it," Groening said. "But I naively thought the show would be a hit from the very beginning with kids, because kids watched Garfield. And if kids could watch Garfield, then there certainly was room for another cartoon show at night."

While Groening is thankful to pioneers like Rocky & Bullwinkle, he believes the cartoon world is in better shape today than it ever has been.

"The great thing about animation is, I'm a print cartoonist, I just draw 2-D drawings, then they come to life and I don't have to do the hard work," Groening said. "I'm not an animator, but I love the medium.

"I grew up watching cartoons, I love them. But they all used to look the same, kind of like Hanna-Barbera, or Filmation, whatever, very low-budget cartoons. Some beautiful ones, but mostly low-budget.

"It's so much fun now that all these cartoons on the air, on cable and on network, don't look the same. They're all creator-driven. They're all visually distinctive. If you go back 25 years, that did not exist. I love that."

[Wreckless]

Good read, thanks..

[tv star collector]

Am I imagining it or didn't Peabody and Sherman once make a cameo appearance in a Simpsons episode?

[The Great One]

Great article!!!

[Chocoholic]

Originally Posted by tv star collector

Am I imagining it or didn't Peabody and Sherman once make a cameo appearance in a Simpsons episode?

Yes! I think it was the Halloween episode when Homer travels back in time.