THE SIMPSON’S CO-DEVELOPER AN UNSUNG HERO.
Sam Simon, the writerdirector who co-developed The Simpsons and wrote episodes of Cheers and Taxi, has died at age 59.
Simon, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2012, died March 8 of colorectal cancer at his home in Los Angeles. Al Jean, a Simpsons executive producer, confirmed the news to Variety.
“For those of us who knew him, his voice will forever echo in our minds; his sense of humour will continue to make us laugh; and his compassion and generosity will continue to impact in our lives,” the Sam Simon Foundation told gossip website TMZ.
In November last year Simon said he would be giving away his multimillion-dollar fortune to animal rights organization PETA and other humanitarian charities.
At various points in his career, Simon was a director, producer, writer, boxing manager and philanthropist. While at Stanford University, Simon worked as a newspaper cartoonist and after graduating became a storyboard artist at Filmation Studios. He submitted a spec script for the sitcom Taxi, which was produced, and later became the series’ showrunner.
Over the next few years, Simon wrote and produced for Cheers, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and other TV shows, as well as writing the 1991 feature movie The Super, starring Joe Pesci and Vincent Gardenia.
In 1989 he developed the animated sitcom The Simpsons with Matt Groening and James L. Brooks, with whom he had worked on Taxi.
Simon assembled the show’s first writing team, cowrote eight episodes and has been credited with “developing (the show’s) sensibility.” Former Simpsons director Brad Bird has described Simon as “the unsung hero” of the show, while writer Jon Vitti has said that to “leave out Sam Simon” is to tell “the managed version” of The Simpsons’ history, because “he was the guy we wrote for.” Writer Ken Levine calls him “the real creative force behind The Simpsons … The tone, the storytelling, the level of humour — that was all developed on (Simon’s) watch.”
Simon crafted much of the world of Springfield and designed the models for many 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 Mr. Burns’ sidekick 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.
Simon’s relationship with Groening was strained and he left the show in 1993, negotiating a payoff that saw him receive tens of millions of dollars from the show’s revenue each year. The following year he co-created The George Carlin Show, before later working as a director on shows such as The Drew Carey Show. Simon won nine Primetime Emmy Awards for his television work.
Simon turned to fields outside television in his later years. He regularly appeared on Howard Stern’s radio shows, managed boxer Lamon Brewster and helped guide him to the World Boxing Organization Heavyweight Championship in 2004 and was a regular poker player and six-time in the money finisher at the World Series of Poker.
Simon ran the Sam Simon Foundation, which rescues and trains stray dogs, and he funded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel the MY Sam Simon, which was named after him.
He had been married twice, including to the actress Jennifer Tilly, and was engaged at the time of his death.
After a profile of Simon on 60 Minutes in 2007, CBS writer Daniel Schorn wrote in an online article that Simon was “perhaps the Renaissance man of the baffling, uncertain age we live in.”
Born Samuel Michael Simon on June 6, 1955 in Los Angeles, he grew up in Beverly Hills and Malibu. At one point his family lived opposite Groucho Marx. Simon’s father was a cheap clothing manufacturer of Estonian heritage. Although his parents wanted him to become a lawyer, Simon was interested in art from a young age, appearing on televised local art programs at the age of five.
He attended Beverly Hills High School and later Stanford University, graduating in 1977. Simon had not wished to attend university, but Stanford persuaded him to apply due to his sufficient grades and proficiency at football. He quit the football team after one day. He served as a cartoonist for the college newspaper but was denied admission to a drawing class for not being talented enough.