Trivia: One of the few producer/director/writers to handle both movie and TV assignments with equal aplomb, James L. Brooks was born in Brooklyn and spent his college years in New York City. Following an apprenticeship with CBS news, Brooks went to work for documentary producer David L. Wolper. In 1969, Brooks broke into the non-documentary end of the business with his TV series drama Room 222, which, though dated and obvious when viewed today, was an important stepping stone in improving the racial balance on prime time television. Room 222 was a "serious" effort; thus, Hollywood insiders were surprised when Brooks formed a partnership with writer Allan Burns, formerly of such raucous projects as The Bullwinkle Show and My Mother the Car, to develop sitcoms. Brooks and Burns knew what sort of programs they wanted to do, but they were forced to fight tooth and nail with the CBS higher-ups to get what they wanted on the air. Nobody, they were told, wanted to see a show about a single woman working at a television station. Further, nobody wanted to see anyone on TV who was Jewish, had a mustache, or came from New York City. All these "unwanted" elements would be present in the Brooks/Burns project The Mary Tyler Moore Show; the show that nobody wanted ran from 1970 through 1977, earning its production team a multitude of awards. Brooks would later be on the ground floor of such TV hits as Cheers and Taxi, which more than compensated for such relative failures as The Associates. Moving into films as a producer/scripter (Starting Over, 1979) and even an occasional actor (Albert Brooks's Modern Romance, 1981), Brooks would end up director/producer/writer of Terms of Endearment, the Academy Award winner of 1983. He went on to direct Broadcast News (1987), a truer but no less hilarious and poignant glance at the cutthroat network news business than Mary Tyler Moore Show had been. He also found great success as a producer on such films as Big (1988), ...Say Anything (1989), and Jerry Maguire (1996). During the '90s, Brooks has had equal parts success and failure. Among the winning projects was The Simpsons, the first successful prime time cartoon series since The Flintstones. Brooks' less spectacular efforts have included I'll Do Anything (1994); conceived and filmed as a return to the Big-Budget Musical genre, it tested so poorly that it was released with all the songs cut out. In 1997, however, Brooks had a major success with the Jack Nicholson/Helen Hunt vehicle As Good As It Gets, a caustic comedy with a heart of gold that provided both Hunt and Nicholson best acting kudos from the Oscars and Golden Globe ceremonies. The film won a Golden Globe for Best Picture and was nominated for several more. It also received several more Oscar nominations, including one for Best Screenplay. He took seven years before making his next feature, Spanglish, a movie about a marriage on the rocks that Brooks undertook around the time he and his own wife split. Three years later he was one of the producers of The Simpsons Movie, and in 2010 he returned with the romantic comedy How Do You Know.

Trivia: He put the "d'oh!" in the Oxford English Dictionary, the Canyonero on the road, and he's put The Simpsons in your living room every week. Born February 25th, 1954, Matt Groening has managed to capture a realistically outrageous family dynamic in one of television history's longest-running shows that had been awarded 18 Emmy Awards by 2003. Born February 15, 1954, the Portland, OR, native was encouraged to draw by his father, who was also a cartoonist. He doodled his way through school, working for the newspaper and also forming a political party called Teens for Decency. With the slogan of "If You're Against Decency, What Are You For?," he mischievously won the student body presidency. After graduating from Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, in 1977, he headed out to L.A. To keep friends and relatives informed on how his life was progressing -- or actually, was not -- his letters home detailed his jobs at a sewage treatment plant and as a chauffeur in comic strip form. And thus, Life in Hell was born. The adventures of lead character Binky, his wife Sheba, and Akbar and Jeff, among others, made their way into the Los Angeles Reader in 1980 and can now be found in 250 newspapers worldwide. His next venture would also prove to be long lasting. What started out as animated segments aired during Fox's The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987, The Simpsons got its own timeslot in December 1989. Groening and his team of writers and producers crafted the not-so-atypical family and their friends and neighbors in a comedic light, keeping them all just on the edge of ridiculousness. One episode captures America's favorite under-achieving dad Homer in one of his many schemes as he gains enough weight to be considered medically obese, thus excusing him from having to actually go to work. He instead stays home wearing a muumuu hollering at local kids who come by for a laugh at his expense. As is common, yet trivial Simpsons knowledge, the characters on the series have been named after Groening's family members, as Homer and Marge truly are his parents' names, and so on. As one to pay homage to his beginnings, Groening has the littlest Simpson, Maggie, lugging around a rabbit stuffed animal, which is one of his Life in Hell characters. Creating the sarcastic landscape that is Springfield, he infused his witty outlook on life and said when people watch The Simpsons, they are rewarded for paying attention with inside and/or well-placed jokes. Case in point, Homer decries cartoon writers for their unrealistic story lines; meanwhile, another Homer walks by the window in quite an unfathomable manner. Such humor is lost on some, but has been impressed on enough hearts and minds to keep people tuning in every Sunday night. Groening also dabbled in album cover art design, which can be found on the 1987 self-titled album from Crazy Backwards Alphabet. In 1993, he formed Bongo Comics, which publishes Simpsons-related Itchy & Scratchy, Radioactive Man, Lisa, and Krusty comics. He also started Zongo Comics in 1995. Books and guides giving detailed information on The Simpsons series have been published, including The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. Games, both board and video, have also been produced involving the famous inhabitants of 742 Evergreen Terrace and Groening has also written books featuring his Life in Hell characters, including Childhood Is Hell, Love Is Hell, School Is Hell, and The Big Book of Hell. His next venture was into the future with the appropriately titled Futurama. Premiering in March 1999 and featuring the voice of Ren and Stimpy, Billy West, the sci-fi cartoon series started with the main character, Fry, delivering a pizza to a cryogenics lab. He ends up being frozen and when he wakes up in the year 3000, he's stuck marveling at the future while lamenting about his lost past with the likes of a one-eyed love interest, a robotic best friend, and a crab as a doctor. In 2000, he helped produce the animated adaptation of the book Olive, the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh. The film's main character, Olive, is the voice of Drew Barrymore and also features Simpsons' regular Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer, Krusty the Clown, and other Springfieldians), and former Saturday Night Live cast member Tim Meadows. July 2007 finally saw the release of a long-awaited Simpsons' movie (cleverly titled as such). The collaborative effort includes direction by David Silverman and writing credits for Groening and James L. Brooks, among many others. Futurama began airing new episodes on Comedy Central in 2010, nearly 7 years after its initial cancellation.

Trivia: Executive producer Richard Sakai began his career in 1977, working as a gofer for James L. Brooks at John Charles Walters Productions. Before the decade's end, he had become a producer and director on the popular comedy Taxi. He continued his affiliation with Brooks in 1984, when Brooks invited him to helm his newest production company, Gracie Films, which at the time was producing two popular series for the newborn Fox television network, The Tracey Ullman Show and The Simpsons. Gracie Films was also responsible for a number of major features. Those produced by Sakai include the Oscar-winners Jerry Maguire (1996) and As Good As It Gets (1998).

Trivia: TV writer and producer Sam Simon is perhaps best known as one of the original creators of the landmark animated series The Simpsons. A veteran of the writer's room, Simon began his career writing and producing shows like Cheers, Taxi, and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. When The Simpsons debuted in 1989, the show proved to be a huge success, but even as he continued writing and producing the series, Simon continued to take on new projects. He wrote, produced, and even directed the The George Carlin Show and The Drew Carey Show, but The Simpsons would remain important in Simon's career, and he would eventually take home seven Emmys for his work with the series (he won another two for his work on The Tracey Ullman Show). After being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2012, Simon dedicated much of his time and vast wealth to helping animals, including starting the Sam Simon Foundation, which rescued dogs and assisted with medical attention for animals. He died in 2015, at age 59.