Today is the birthday
… of actor Allan Arbus. Major Sidney Friedman on M*A*S*H is 90.
… of Harvey Korman. Hedley Lamarr (that’s Hedley) and Carol Burnett’s buddy is 81.
… of Melissa Manchester. She’s 57.
… of Jane Seymour. Dr. Quinn is 57.
… of Matt Groening. He’s 54.
It’s the birthday of cartoonist Matt Groening, . . . born in Portland, Oregon (1954). He decided to move to Los Angel[e]s after college to try to make it as a writer. He lived in a neighborhood full of drug dealers and thieves, and got a job ghostwriting the memoirs of an 88-year-old filmmaker. After that, he worked at a convalescent home, a waste treatment plant, and a graveyard.
He started writing a comic strip based on his daily troubles called “Life in Hell.” When a television producer asked Groening to create a TV show, Groening decided to invent a cartoon family that would be the exact opposite of all the fictional families that had ever been on American television. He named the parents after his own parents, Homer and Marge, and he named the two sisters after his own sisters, Lisa and Maggie. He chose the name Bart for the only son because it was an anagram of the word “brat.”
Critics immediately praised The Simpsons, because it was in some ways more realistic than any other American sitcom. Homer was fat, bald, and stupid; he drank a lot, worked at a nuclear power plant, and occasionally strangled his son. His wife, Marge, was an obsessive-compulsive housewife with a blue beehive hairdo. The characters were frequently selfish, rude, and mean to one another, and the show often took on dark subjects like suicide, adultery, and environmental disaster. The Simpsons went on to become the most popular and longest-running sitcom in America.
Matt Groening said, “Teachers, principals, clergymen, politicians — for the Simpsons, they’re all goofballs, and I think that’s a great message for kids.
The Writers Almanac from American Public Media
Harold Arlen was born Hyman Arluck in Buffalo, New York, on this date in 1905. A short list from the more than 400 tunes written by Harold Arlen:
- Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive
- Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
- Come Rain Or Come Shine
- Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead
- Hooray For Love
- It’s Only A Paper Moon
- I’ve Got the World on A String
- One For My Baby
- Over The Rainbow
- Stormy Weather
- That Old Black Magic
Arlen worked with many lyricists through the years, most notably Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, Johnny Mercer and even Truman Capote. Harburg, for example, wrote the lyrics for the Wizard of Oz songs. Though it’s the lyrics we most remember, it’s the melody that makes a song memorable. That was Arlen.
John Barrymore, Drew’s grandpa, was born on this date in 1882. John is the sibling of Lionel and Ethel Barrymore. Considered the greatest American Shakespearean actor of his time, John Barrymore’s later career was hampered (and shortened) by alcoholism.
“There are lots of methods. Mine involves a lot of talent, a glass and some cracked ice.”
Susan B. Anthony was born on this date in 1820. As The New York Times said in her obituary in 1906, “Susan Brownell Anthony was a pioneer leader of the cause of woman suffrage, and her energy was tireless in working for what she considered to be the best interests of womankind.”
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