The Simpsons (left) and Ren & Stimpy brought a new, hip tone to television animation. ™ and ©1998 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. CR:FOX (left); © Viacom International, Inc. All rights reserved.

In 1987, producer James L. Books hired LA Weekly underground cartoonist Matt Groening to develop animated interstitials for Fox’s Tracey Ullman Show. At first Fox wanted Groening to use his trademark rabbit, Binky from his regular Life in Hell comic strip, but Groening was reluctant to lose control of his bread-and-butter character. Instead, he developed a dysfunctional family he called The Simpsons. Rather than use typically low-paid TV animation writers, Brooks went into the world of big-time sitcoms and assembled a team of top writers. Groening used a team of brash young independent animators: David Silverman, Wes Archer, and Jim Reardon — anchored by Disney veteran Brad Bird.

When I was packing to go to London to work on Roger, Silverman called me. He was working with Archer at Laser Media, a little company doing laser-light shows of things like The Devil Went Down to Georgia on the walls of Stone Mountain. He told me that he was going on to a new primetime animated show being designed by Groening. He said it would be called The Simpsons. I was skeptical at first because no primetime animated series had done well since Top Cat in the ‘60s. I also thought the name was anything but special. Boy, was I wrong!

The Simpsons became a phenomenon. It was the most successful show on television for more than a decade. Writers Conan O’Brian and Larry Doyle left for other opportunities, but new blood came in and the show kept going. In 1992, when President George Bush, Sr., referred to The Simpsons derogatorily in a speech about family values, “I prefer the family values of the Waltons, not the Simpsons!”, people reacted by voting in droves for his opponent, Gov. Bill Clinton.

A new, hip tone took hold in television animation. The Simpsons, John Kricfalusi’s iconoclastic Ren & Stimpy (1991) and the output of MTV’s independent animated showcase Liquid Television — Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux (1995), Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head (1992) sparked many imitators. Klasky Csupo had produced The Simpsons originally, but after it moved to Film Roman, Klasky Csupo was busy with its creations, The Rugrats and soon The Wild Thornberrys shows.

In the early ‘90s, TV animation boomed with cable fare, Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, which went to 80 countries, 24 hours a day. Johnny Bravo (left) and Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast were part of the new wave. © Cartoon Networ

Cartoon Network started in 1990 and created a new audience for old ‘70s Hanna-Barbera shows like Superfriends and Space Ghost. Fred Seibert organized a shorts program at H&B to foster new properties. This program spawned series from some successful college student films: Dexter’s Lab, Johnny Bravo, Powerpuff Girls (originally the Whupass Girls).

Television boomed with half a dozen primetime and late-night shows in addition to the regular daytime and cable fare. Disney Channel and Nickelodeon went out to 80 countries, 24 hours a day.

The explosion of cable channels meant reduced fees that could be asked of sponsors. Where once the kid audience dependably were all watching Scooby-Doo or He-Man, now they were splintered among dozens of channels, Cartoon Network, Kids’ WB!, Nick, Disney, Boomerang, Discovery Kids, etc. Producers of animated shows could no longer ask the same rates from advertisers.