Lousy Smarch Weather

The weather may be hellacious around the country, but down here, in the confines of los Diez Sur, it's been between the sixties and the eighties for months. Ryan Talyat, an old running mate, was visiting and reminded us of the perfect Simpsons line, "Lousy Smarch Weather," with a photograph of the thermometer of his automobile's center console: 91. It was March 7th and he was in northern San Diego county.

Anyway, in another sense, this has been a lousy Smarch, in that we lost Sam Simon:

(Not my picture; thanks photographer!)

Sam Simon was one of the three forces behind the cultural phenomenon and comedy institution we call The Simpsons. 

Cartoonist Matt Groening sold a pitch he made up at the last minute while waiting for his meeting with the Fox executives, James L. Brooks used his storytelling savvy to find the emotional heart of any episode he was asked to participate in the production of, and Sam Simon was the leader that flushed out the other characters, the town, and was instrumental in hiring the original staff that gave the show that edge from the start. 

Oh, and Sam Simon used his own cartoonist background to smooth out Groening's sketches into the more recognizable characters we have today.

His relationship with Groening was, eh, "strained". He never felt like he got enough credit. In a paraphrase of an anecdote from a fantastic oral history of the origin of the show, somebody was trying to give Simon some perspective. They told him that Groening's story was better, and who's to argue that? One one side you have talented and successful rich-kid television writer and producer who scores another hit; but the other side? Smarty cartoonist goes from searching the couch for change to buy burgers to King of Television. That's America, baby!

Anyway, after the fourth season, in 1993, Simon was out, but was given a piece of the lucrative syndication, VHS, and DVD  rights. He'd been making in the ballpark of $10 million a year from the Simpsons. From 1993 until this March when he died. 

Cancer.

He'd spent plenty of time finding charities to donate his Simpsons cash to. Near the very end he was making plans to get rid of it all. Very public plans. He has vegan food plans for inner city kids and he supports PETA and anti-whaling organizations among very many other things.

Anyway, during an interview conversation near the end, he discussed his life. To paraphrase, he said he never felt cheated by cancer, that he'd spent the last thirty years doing whatever he wanted wherever he wanted while being supplied with a nearly endless supply of money.

Not too bad.

On the The Simpsons "138th Episode Spectacular", a clipshow episode from season 7, there is a scene where they show fakey photos of the three co-creators: Groening, Brooks, and Simon. Groening was shown as a skinny eye-patch-wearing gun-holstered whacko saluting some unseen thing; Brooks was a portly mustachioed man in a top had, smiling and clenching bags of cash. 

The producers, many of whom had been hired by Simon and had remained close, told him they were going to put a slide in for him saying "File Lost" or some other joke in that vein.

He sent them the drawing they used in the episode: