Matt Groening Protected Life Ownership

In 1985, producer James L. Brooks contacted American cartoonist Matt Groening about adapting his comic strip "Life in Hell" for animated segments on "The Tracey Ullman Show." Groening feared he would lose ownership rights to the comic if the TV version failed, so he created a new family of characters instead. That last-minute decision produced the Simpson family, whose shorts later spun off into "The Simpsons."

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