Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Matt Groening did not particularly like school, which is what originally turned him towards drawing. In the mid-1980s, he moved to Los Angeles and started drawing a comic strip named "Life in Hell" which eventually became published in the newspaper where he worked. In 1988, James Brooks, looking for a filler in the television show "The Tracy Ullman show", turned towards a framed "Life in Hell" strip on his wall and contacted Groening. The animated shorts that Groening created were "The Simpsons".