Groening was outspoken about his criticisms of Fox's business practices and its inexplicably shabby treatment of him and his new show. "I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, because this is how everyone is treated [in Hollywood]," he told Mother Jones. "But I thought I would have a little bit more leeway since I made Fox so much money with 'The Simpsons.'"

Sharing one inane series of meetings, he told the magazine, "I said, 'Look, I told you "Futurama" is not going to be bland and boring like "The Jetsons." And it's not going to be dark and drippy like "Blade Runner." And they said, 'Don't make it like "Blade Runner"!' I said, 'It's not going to be like "Blade Runner."' They said, 'Make it like "The Jetsons"! You know, "Meet George Jetson. His son Leroy."' And I said, 'I think it's Elroy.' They said, 'It doesn't make any difference!'"

The pilot episode of "Futurama" was scheduled to air in the coveted slot between "The Simpsons" and "The X-Files" on Sunday night, and was watched by 19 million viewers. Then Fox moved "Futurama" to Tuesday night, and audiences fell to about 8 million. The show, according to Groening, was "buried." Eventually, it was moved to Sundays at 8 p.m., but although Fox recently ordered 18 more episodes for next season, Groening, thinking like the businessman that he is, still feels the show could benefit from more aggressive promotion and a better time slot.

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Still, it's clear that Groening's satire feeds on frustration and the stupidity of others. Were it not for the clueless executives, the inane network decisions, the petty betrayals at the hands of people who benefit from his success, he might have stagnated by now. Despite his status as an ultimate insider, Groening's writing has always been that of an outsider. In interview after interview, he has recalled his youthful vow never to forget what childhood was like -- a gauntlet of petty rules and restrictions that exist only to be broken. When he's not telling the Cinderella story, the story Groening tells about himself is a David and Goliath story; and the older and more powerful he becomes, the bigger and more powerful the lumbering naysayers standing in his way. From teachers who forced him to rip up his cartoons in front of the class, to the petty tyranny of bosses ("I was told that I would never get a job in the Pacific Northwest in journalism after my disgraceful stewardship of the Cooper Point Journal," Groening told the graduating class in a commencement address at his alma mater, Evergreen State College. "Hey, they were right!"), to the narrow mentality of newspaper editors (even "alternative" newpaper editors "hated" his approach to obscure rock criticism) to the "timidness" of network executives trying to subject him to "corporate deflavorizer," to his famous battles with network censors, Groening's life reads like a series of epic adventures more Quixotic than Homeric in their details. He casts himself as the avenging underdog tilting at windmills, but, in the end, he always returns the conquering hero.

Groening's position is an interesting one for a satirist to find himself in. He made a name exploring his own alienation and a fortune exposing the absurdities and hypocrisies of our culture, and nowadays, Groening is as powerful an insider as they come. Groening is a guy who lunches with Rupert Murdoch and finds him congenial. And yet he speaks like the kid who just made it big, who still can't believe his luck. "Do people who don't have cockroaches and can afford their rent, are they happier?" he said in a Mother Jones interview. "I wake up every morning thinking how lucky I am."

When asked by Mother Jones if he has ever considered funding "noncommercial enterprises," he responds, "I knock myself out as a commercial artist, and people come to me all the time with proposals for money-losing endeavors ... I like the idea of trying to be successful on some level, at least reaching an audience enough so that you can sustain it and keep on going." As to his position on the "Simpsons" voice actors' recent contract negotiations, he told Mother Jones, "I have sympathy. They are incredibly talented, and they deserve a chance to be as rich and miserable as anyone else in Hollywood ... Hold out for as much money as you can get, but make the deal."

Groening himself has always made the deal. "The success of the show," he has said, "has gone beyond my wildest dreams and worst nightmares."

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