The Simpsons Writing Room.
Above is a photograph that was taken in the writing room of the show, The Simpsons. The image is from 1992 and features the comedy writers for the show enjoying a meal together.
This was most likely one of the writing rooms in Fox Studios as that was where the show was created at the time. Another interesting feature of this picture is that Conan O’Brien is among the group. O’Brien had been a writer on Saturday Night Live for around four years before being hired on to write for and produce The Simpsons. The show was created by comedian Matt Groening and started out as short sketches on The Tracey Ullman Show. After gaining substantial fame as merely a sketch, Fox offered to make it into a full show with a primetime slot.
In order to create characters for his series, Groening looked at people in his own life, especially his family. Many of his family members became main characters with he himself being Bart in the show. The animation team behind the show’s early cartoons was Klasky Csupo, a team also responsible for Spongebob Squarepants. Writers throughout the show’s long run have usually been in teams of sixteen. Sam Simon, a man who co-created the series, was the one who would actively seek out new writing talents. At any one time, there would be sixteen writers working on the show, trying to cram as many laughs and satirical notions in each episode as possible. Thanks to these men and women, The Simpsons would go on to become the longest running American scripted primetime show.