A Quote by Matt Groening

I grew up completely overwhelmed by TV, and part of the reason why I have gone into television is as a way to justify to myself all those wasted hours of watching TV as a kid. I can now look back and say, 'Oh, that was research.'
Now, all America sits in front of television sets and those television sets exude, I am sorry to say, a considerable amount of radioactive material. It's not huge, you know, but it's enough so that people who have made a habit of watching TV ... get the TV radiation.
When I did TV shows and movies, the studios did demographic research. They were shocked to find that my audience isn't just men who are too drunk to turn off the TV after football. It's women, too. I don't know exactly why, other than that I've tried to remain true to myself for all these years. I have gone through a lot, and I've been open about it. Maybe they look at me and can see how you can grow up, have children, continue to be sexy, get married and divorced and, though you grew up poor, live the American dream. I'm very blessed. I'm happy for it all.
TV is such a success nowadays because it gives back in a way that features can't. If you go to a film, you only get two hours of great storytellers and performers, and you pay top dollar for that. If you're subscribing to premium channels and you're getting all of these amazing TV shows, and you're watching them as you want, where you want, when you want, on what you want, I think that is the "the golden era of TV" in what television shows are offering to audiences. We're giving them a lot more. It's quality.
Oh wow, you know what's wrong with all these families on TV? All these kids say stuff no kid would say. Stuff grown-ups want them to say. Man, I'd make a really realistic family. Where kids get spankings. On TV parents say, 'Oh, you shouldn't do that ever again. Now you can have ice cream.' Forget it.
How I learned to read was by reading the captions on TV, and I grew up from a really young age watching tons of movies and television. Also, at the same time, I was a pretty hyperactive kid, kind of ADD.
I was facing players I grew up watching on TV. At times, you can overwhelm yourself with stuff like that. I still find myself doing it now with some of the big-name guys - Zack Greinke, Max Scherzer and those guys that are really good. You have to pinch yourself and remember you belong here, that you're here for a reason and that they're human beings too.
I was never that kid who grew up in New York and was always at the arthouse watching important films. I was the kid who grew up in the Midwest where there weren't any art films, and I watched TV. And that was really the medium that affected me and that I fell in love with.
Usually, when you are an ethnic person or a trans person, in your average, everyday, unsophisticated television show, you are there for that reason. And they clearly justify and overexplain why. You very rarely see a transgender actor playing the part of a grocery-store clerk without having to say, 'Oh, look at that trans person.'
I'm part of that generation that grew up watching TV, and being an actor was all about being on TV or being in films.
Early, I wanted to fight against things: 'Oh, I feel like a background dancer here in the back of the Wyatts.' Man, looking back now, I wish we could still be doing that. I'm on TV every week, plenty of TV. You've got to look at some of the positives of the situation.
I grew up not watching TV and I enjoy TV but it kind of takes my brain away from me.
I grew up in a town with no movie theater. TV was my only link to the outside world. Film wasn't such a big deal to me. It was TV. So much so, that when I meet TV stars now... Not my co-workers, but real TV stars, I get nervous. I freak out around them.
I grew up going to the movies, not watching them on television, so I'm still a bit resistant to TV as a medium.
Well, do I think watching 35 hours of TV a week is a terrific thing to do? Not particularly. But do I think you're shutting yourself off from a lot of American culture if you are so completely isolated from what goes on, on popular TV? Yeah, you are!
When I was a kid, I just devoured TV 24 hours a day. Now that it's actually available 24 hours a day, I'm usually busy doing other stuff. But I do watch TV when I can.
I still see myself on TV and think, 'Oh my God, I'm on a television, and there are millions of people watching,' and I get really nervous and embarrassed and insecure.
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