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Sam Simon hasn’t worked on The Simpsons (first episode aired in 1989) since 1993, but his name still appears on the TV screen at the end of the credits listing him as an executive producer. Earlier this year, Sam Simon died after a lengthy battle with colon cancer and many obituaries were quick to discuss his tenure with the long running cartoon. In his four year term with The Simpsons, Simon helped develop the sensibility of the show with writer Ken Levine calling him the “real creative force behind the Simpsons” by developing the tone, storytelling, and level of humor. Levine also commends Simon for adding a three dimensional quality to the characters and letting the humor flow through their characters by making them governed by their emotions.

Sam Simon also utilized a collaborative recording process as all the voice actors would share the same room when recording resulting in a top-notch chemistry similar to that of a great radio program. The Simpsons began as a series of short sketches for The Tracey Ullman Show, a show Simon wrote and produced for. Simon was pivotal in turning The Simpsons into a primetime, half-hour animated sit-com. On top of that, he assembled the show’s first batch of writers like John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, George Myer, Al Jean, and Mike Reiss. Jon Vitti says that “Simon was the guy they all wrote for” displaying the level of respect the group had for Simon.

On top of creating the show’s sensibility, Sam Simon helped to write six episodes from seasons one to three and was the driving force behind the adaption of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven for the first Treehouse of Horror episode. The segment was hailed as a turning point as The Simpsons could now be viewed as not only funny, but also smart. The segment is still recognized as one of the show’s premiere pop culture parodies. Simon left the show contentiously in 1993 and never returned to work on the show again. None the less, Sam Simon was one of the main driving forces behind the early success of The Simpsons and without him, the show probably wouldn’t have lasted a single season, let alone twenty-six.