His followers were part of the first fad of the '90s, according to Time Magazine as it recalled the zealotry with which tykes and teenagers first embraced pint-sized anarchist Bart Simpson. Eleven years after The Simpsons clan first put the fun back in dysFUNctional family, the FOX animated sitcom has become the longest-running cartoon comedy in television history.

When creator Matt Groening first envisioned a hyper-naughty rascal who could make Dennis The Menace seem like a choir boy, he was a 32-year-old newspaper cartoonist. With the premiere of his new animated sitcom Futurama, set in Y3K, Groening tries his hand at comedy outside the confines of Springfield, every state. Entertainment Asylum spoke to Groening (rhymes with complaining) about life before and after Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and little Maggie and what the future will look like.

Entertainment Asylum: Before Bart was even a mischievous twinkle in your eye, you wrote a comic strip called "Life Is Hell."

Matt Groening: Yep, and I still do it. It's in about 250 papers around the country and on the Internet. I don't know why, but I still do it. I started "Life Is Hell" in 1980. So I've been doing it for 18 years, every week.

EA: And you've also published a blitz of books … "Life Is Hell," "Love Is Hell" and "Work Is Hell." So tell me, what exactly is so hellish about being Matt Groening?

MG: Well, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and it's so beautiful up there that I thought that's what the rest of the world was like. When I first moved to Los Angeles, I was unpleasantly surprised at how dirty things were and how, on every level, life in Los Angeles was uglier than the Northwest.

EA:The Simpsons really renewed my faith in television. What do you think accounts for its success and Simpson-mania?

MG: We were exactly in the right place at the right time. The FOX network was brand new; they were trying to find an identity and willing to take chances. I don't think a show as wild and uncompromising as The Simpsons could get on the air on any other network and, certainly, would even have trouble getting on FOX today. I know that because I'm doing a new TV show, Futurama, and I'm [encountering] all sorts of attempts by the bigwigs to try to water down the show.

EA: How did you first conceive of The Simpsons characters?

MG: I grew up watching way too much television. I figured the only way I could justify all those wasted hours was by actually going into television. So then I could say that that was research. I loved all those old family sitcoms like Father Knows Best, Donna Reed Show, Leave It To Beaver, Ozzie And Harriet. And I always fantasized about having my own TV show. On Leave It To Beaver, my favorite character was Eddie Haskell, Wally's evil friend. Dennis The Menace started out with this animated version; I was very excited when that show first came on and very disappointed with what was actually shown because it was so mild. And I thought it would be neat to do a show about a kid who really was a brat. So The Simpsons is basically a result of watching all those bland family sitcoms and doing my mutant twist to them.

EA: So what exactly is Futurama?

MG: Futurama is a comedy set 1,000 years from now in new New York City, which is built on the ruins of present-day New York. Many things are different in the future: pigeons are extinct, but owls are an incredible problem. The future in some ways is very much like right now. It's a mix of great things and really horrible things. The story is about a guy named Fry, a pizza delivery boy who inadvertently gets frozen for 1,000 years. And we see the world through his eyes. He gets a job as a delivery boy in the future, but for a company that will deliver any package basically anywhere throughout the universe. So we have all the components of science fiction TV shows, movies and books: we have robots, ray-guns and rocket ships but with a sort of Simpsons twist.

EA: How will life be different in the future?

MG: Well, the future is full of big promises. But gadgets don't always deliver as expected, so there's a lot of faulty gadgets. High-definition is still just around the corner ....What we're trying to do is tell science fiction stories which both honor the genre and have fun with it. The Simpsons has basically two kinds of characters: very feisty kids and a lot of somewhat tired, middle-aged grown-ups. We completely left out teenagers and young adults in The Simpsons, and that's what Futurama is populated with as well as aliens and corrupt robots.

EA: So what's different about the animation on Futurama?

MG: Well, Futurama is very similar to The Simpsons. It has a similar sensibility, but the animation is far more sophisticated. Futurama is the result of all those years of apprenticeship on The Simpsons.

EA: Can you talk more about FOX wanting to water down some of the elements?

MG: Oh, water down is not the right word. They're just a lot more nervous than they used to be. They chew their nails a lot more in 1998 than they did in 1987 when I first started with The Simpsons on the Tracey Ullman Show.

EA: What were the initial reactions to The Simpsons? Bart was no doubt considered a horrible role model.

MG: Yeah, he was a bad role model. But there's that age-old idea: should the artist paint the world as he would like it to be or the way he really sees it? And, well, I do a comic strip called "Life Is Hell," so I do come down on the "paint the world as I see it" side. I don't think Bart is a good role model, and I don't think Homer is a good role model. What is good for kids is good storytelling, and I'm proud of the storytelling.

EA: Do you have children of your own?

MG: Yes.

EA: Do they watch the show?

MG: Yeah, they love the show. They love it way too much. I have two boys, aged seven and nine. When I get up in the morning and come down to breakfast, they're watching tapes of the show. And the rule now is "no Simpsons before breakfast."