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If you follow the stories about the beginnings of The Simpsons, chances are you’re heard of Army Man. But just as likely, chances are you haven’t read it. Army Man exists mainly in lore, a rare, brilliant, short-lived moment of a magazine that, as one of the show’s former producers called it, was “the father of The Simpsons.” Army Man was started by George Meyer in 1988. At the time, Meyer was a 32-year-old former writer for Letterman and SNL who had grown tired of New York and television and fled to Boulder, Colorado. He wrote the first issue mostly himself, with help from some college friends.

He typed up, Xeroxed, and assembled the pages on his bed: two hundred copies, which he gave away. The mountain location and do-it-yourself production have become key details to the magazine’s now legendary beginnings: Army Man was born of frustration and exile. Having worked on the Harvard Lampoon and the defunct National Lampoon, Meyer has said he was motivated in part by the lack of truly funny publications in circulation in the late 80s. He determined to fix it with a homemade zine.

The humble status of the project was acknowledged in a note: “Submissions Policy. Due to the tiny volume of mail we receive, we are able to acknowledge every submission with a heartfelt personal note, and occasionally even a gift. Wuthering Heights 1992 Hd Torrent. ” Of course this didn’t last long. Meyer stopped publication after only three issues, once the volume of submissions had grown too large to handle, as he hated rejecting people.

Meanwhile, Army Man had become an underground hit, and photocopies began making their way through Hollywood. Sam Simon saw a copy and was so taken he offered Meyer a job on his upcoming show, an expansion of some shorts from The Tracy Ullman Show into its own animated series. Meyer didn’t think the show had potential, and turned him down. Simon tried again, and this time he accepted.

Many of Army Man’s contributors came along, and these writers formed the core of the Simpsons’ writing staff for its classic years. (As the New Yorker noted in a on George Meyer: “ The Simpsons today probably shares more genetic material with Army Man than it does with those shorts [from the Tracy Ullman Show], or even with the earliest episodes on Fox.”) Perhaps more impressive than listing the contributors that got hired for The Simpsons would be to list some of the contributors who weren’t: Andy Borowitz. Andy Breckman. Bob Odenkirk.

Meyer, of course, became The Simpsons’ “behind-the-scenes genius among geniuses,” a ruler of the rewrite room who contributed more jokes to classic episodes than anyone else, a force that (to quote the New Yorker again) “so thoroughly shaped the program that by now the comedic sensibility of The Simpsons can be seen as mostly his.” Ian Maxtone-Graham, “I would rather make George Meyer laugh than get an Emmy.” These words of unrestrained praise can be found in any profile or interview with Meyer (and there are, ). His success and influence on The Simpsons has in turn transformed Army Man into a mystery, almost an object of worship, like some pined-after rare live Japanese bootleg double-length Radiohead CD that only initiates — we’re way beyond talking about “fans” now — know how to truly appreciate. Has it been built up too much? Meyer himself even seems to be taking a step back now when discussing Army Man’s formative importance.