Sam Simon

At Stanford, he served as a cartoonist for the college newspaper, but was denied admission to a drawing class for not being talented enough. He majored in psychology.

While still at Stanford, Simon got his first job as a newspaper sports cartoonist for The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner. After graduating, he worked as a television storyboard artist at Filmation Studios. There he worked on several animated shows, including Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1979). Simon recalls Filmation approving of his work because he was "self-taught and unschooled." Read Less

The cartoons were developed into a full series two years later. For The Simpsons, Simon served alongside Matt Groening (who conceived the show and the five main characters) and Brooks as showrunner for the show's first (1989-1990) and second (1990-1991) seasons, and was creative supervisor for the first four seasons. He assembled and led the initial team of writers, consisting of John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, George Meyer, Jeff Martin, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky.

Simon has been credited as "developing show's sensibility". Former The Simpsons director Brad Bird has described him as "the unsung hero" of the show. Writer Ken Levine calls him "the real creative force behind The Simpsons The tone, the storytelling, the level of humor – that was all developed on Sam's watch." Levine says that Simon "brought a level of honesty to the characters" and made them "three-dimensional", adding that his "comedy is all about character, not just a string of gags. In The Simpsons, the characters are motivated by their emotions and their foibles. 'What are they thinking?'—that is Sam's contribution. The stories come from the characters." Simon designed the models for several of the show's recurring characters, including Mr. Burns, Dr. Hibbert, Chief Wiggum and Eddie and Lou, as well as many of the one-time and guest star roles, such as Bleeding Gums Murphy. One of his contributions to the show's character development was his proposal that Waylon Smithers should be gay, but that this should never have too much attention drawn to it; Smithers' sexuality became one of the show's longest-running gags. Read Less