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 Dana Carvey Show "The Dana Carvey Show"." In the summer following the show's cancellation, Smigel continued to develop more cartoon ideas which would be used on "SNL"'s "TV Funhouse". Smigel noted that the show had many options in terms of networks. Carvey says that his "first instinct" was to produce the show for HBO, while CBS would have guaranteed several more episodes than the series eventually received. However, the duo was "overly tempted" by the reigning profile of ABC and its primetime offer. The network originally planned in airing 10 episodes and did not interfere with the show's creativity, simply wanting a good