The Simpsons (franchise) In 2008, $750 million worth of "The Simpsons" merchandise was purchased worldwide. Peter Byrne, Fox executive vice-president of licensing and merchandising, called "The Simpsons" "without doubt the biggest licensing entity that Fox has had, full stop, I would say from either TV or film." Matt Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office. Brooks, the producer of the sketch comedy program "The Tracey Ullman Show", wanted to use a series of animated cartoons as bumpers between sketches. Groening had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts, and had intended
The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series Reddy", "Huckleberry Hound" and "Yogi Bear" all of which had bridge animation between the cartoons.) available at the time. For example, WGN-Channel 9 in Chicago ran the three segments in a half-hour timeslot under the name "Wally Gator". In New York, WPIX-TV originally used the segments for a local series, "Cartoon Zoo", featuring Milt Moss as host and "Zookeeper", with life-sized cutouts of the characters in "cages" as a backdrop. The package was originally syndicated by Screen Gems, the TV division of Columbia Pictures. The Hanna-Barbera studio was later purchased by Taft Broadcasting Company, which distributed the studio's product first