Know how we’re always talking about the need for writers to be able to get along with everybody, especially suits and stars, not necessarily in that order? Well, it wasn’t always that way. Here’s a unique remembrance of a unique and very, very talented writer, as volatile as he was creative. We think it’s safe to say that Sam Simon never went down without a fight, right to the very end:
Sam Simon’s Fractious Four Years With THE SIMPSONS Changed TV History
by Jeet Heer
ollaborating on a masterpiece might be heaven, but arguing over credits can be hell. The television writer and producer Sam Simon, who died March 8, was best known as a co-creator of “The Simpsons.” Working with cartoonist Matt Groening, producer James L. Brooks, and a boatful of others, Simon was as responsible as anyone for the unique “Simpsons” sensibility, that combination of gleeful impudence and populist courtesy, which has made the show a pillar of global pop culture. Yet Simon’s tenure at the show lasted only its first four seasons, from 1989 to 1993. A tumultuous battle with Groening over the show’s direction and its acclaim marked his brief but groundbreaking stint. Without that rocky marriage, “The Simpsons” as we know it might never have been. The final product grew out of their competing designs, as well as their very wrangling.
“Brilliantly funny,” Groening said of Simon in 2001, “and one of the smartest writers I’ve ever worked with, although unpleasant and mentally unbalanced.” The dismissal was mutual, going back to the earliest days of the show. In a 1990 interview, Simon curtly defined Groening’s role as “the show’s ambassador” rather than a hands-on creator. “That’s a little bit condescending,” Groening responded in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, adding, “There’s definitely a power struggle here. There’s a scramble to claim credit for the show now that it’s become successful.”