Sam Simon

Samuel Michael Simon (June 6, 1955 – March 8, 2015) was an American television producer and animal rights activist who co-developed the television series The Simpsons.

While at Stanford University, Simon worked as a newspaper cartoonist and after graduating became a storyboard artist at Filmation Studios.

Simon submitted a spec script for the sitcom Taxi, which was produced, and he later became the series' showrunner.

Samuel Michael Simon was born on June 6, 1955, in Los Angeles, California.

He grew up in Beverly Hills and Malibu.

Simon's family lived opposite Groucho Marx.

Simon's father was a clothing manufacturer and was of Estonian-Jewish heritage.

Simon had a childhood which has been described as "comfortable" and "privileged".

Although his parents wanted Simon to become a lawyer, he was interested in art from a young age, appearing on televised local art programs as young as the age of five.

He once was told by Walt Disney that he would one day work at his studio.

Simon attended Beverly Hills High School, where he was on the football team and served as a cartoonist for the school newspaper.

He was named "Most Humorous" and "Most Talented" in his senior yearbook.

He later attended Stanford University, graduating in 1977.

Simon had not wished to attend college, but Stanford persuaded him to apply due to his sufficient grades and proficiency at football; Simon quit the football team after one day.

Simon Drew comics for The Stanford Daily, a college newspaper, but was denied admission to a drawing class for not being talented enough.

As he recalled to the Stanford alumni magazine, he was told, "You'd be taking the space of a student who has talent."

Simon majored in psychology, but did not focus on his academics.

While still at Stanford, Simon's first job was a newspaper sports cartoonist for The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner.

After graduating, he worked as a television storyboard artist, and later a writer, at Filmation Studios.

There he worked on several animated shows, including The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1979).

Simon recalls Filmation approving of his work because he was "self-taught and unschooled," but Simon felt the majority of what the studio produced was "awful".

On the suggestion of Filmation producer Lou Scheimer who was impressed by Simon's writing ability, Simon submitted a spec script for the series Taxi which was produced as "Out of Commission" and aired in 1981 during its third season.

Simon also wrote and produced for Best of the West (1981), Barney Miller (1982) and It's Garry Shandling's Show (1987–1988), and wrote the 1991 film The Super.

Simon next worked as a writer and producer on Cheers from seasons one to three (1982–1985), writing five episodes: "Endless Slumper", "Battle of the Ex's", "Fairytales Can Come True", "Cheerio Cheers" and "The Bartender's Tale".

Simon was hired as a writer, quickly becoming showrunner for its fifth and final season in 1983.

Simon created, wrote and produced the short-lived sitcom Shaping Up in 1984, alongside Ken Estin; the show starred Leslie Nielsen as a gym owner and ran for five episodes on ABC.

The premise for the series originated as a series of short cartoons airing in 1987 as part of The Tracey Ullman Show, on which Simon was a writer and executive producer alongside James L. Brooks, with whom Simon had worked on Taxi.

The cartoons were developed into a full series two years later.

Simon co-developed the animated series The Simpsons, which premiered on the Fox network in 1989 and has remained on air ever since.

The show is regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time, with Time magazine naming it the 20th century's best series.

Over the next few years, Simon wrote and produced for Cheers, It's Garry Shandling's Show and other programs, as well as writing the 1991 film The Super.

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 founded the Sam Simon Foundation, which consists of a mobile veterinary clinic that goes into low-income neighborhoods offering free surgeries for cats and dogs several days per week, as well as a program that rescues and trains shelter dogs.

He also funded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel MY Sam Simon.

Simon was engaged at the time of his death, having been previously twice married, including to the actress Jennifer Tilly.

Following 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."

Simon was diagnosed with terminal colorectal cancer in 2012 and given only three to six months to live.

He bequeathed his $100 million estate to various charities that he actively supported during his lifetime.

He died on March 8, 2015.