Matt Groening first conceived of Bart and the rest of the Simpson family in 1986, while waiting in the lobby of producer James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts for "The Tracey Ullman Show", and had intended to present an adaptation of his "Life in Hell" comic strip. When he realized that animating "Life in Hell" would require him to rescind publication rights, Groening decided to go in another direction. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, naming the characters after members of his own family. For the rebellious son, he substituted "Bart", an anagram of the word "brat", for his own name, as he decided it would have been too obvious for him to have named the character 'Matt'. Bart's middle initial "J" is a "tribute" to animated characters such as Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel from "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show", who received their middle initial from Jay Ward. According to the book "Bart Simpson's Guide to Life", Bart's full middle name is "JoJo".