Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
How 'Simpsons' Co-Creator With Terminal Cancer Diagnosis Plans To Give Away Vast TV Fortune
Sam Simon at a fundraiser benefiting Mercy For Animals at Private Residence on June 8, 2013. (Photo by Araya Diaz/Getty Images for Mercy for Animals)
()
Sam Simon, the co-creator of The Simpsons, has a lot of money but he doesn't have a lot of time.The 58-year-old television writer-producer was diagnosed with colon cancer this year, and he told Marc Maron in May that doctors only gave him three to six months to live. Simon, who became a showrunner for Taxi, maintains an executive producer credit on The Simpsons and directed The Drew Carey Show, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how he plans to spend his vast TV fortune in the remaining months of his life.
Simon has no children, but he says he's taken care of his family financially. Now he's focusing on giving the rest away: "One thing is, I get pleasure from it. I love it. I don't feel like it is an obligation."
Simon isn't new to the world of philanthropy—he's been an avid supporter of animal rights groups including PETA, Save the Children and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. He also founded the Sam Simon Foundation in 2002 that rescues strays and feeds hungry people—although he insists on feeding them with cruelty-free vegan food. His foundation created a canine haven that rescues dogs from shelters and trains them as companions for the deaf. And it also supports a mobile clinic that goes into neighborhood and offers free surgeries for pets (as long as the surgeries aren't too complicated). He told The Hollywood Reporter, "The Sam Simon Foundation is going to be very well endowed, and there's a lot of stuff I want them to do."
Simon has hired consultants from the Rockefeller Foundation and trustees that he says will continue doing the work that he's passionate about long after he's gone.
Support for LAist comes from
During his years of giving, Simon tried to focus on giving to charities that do direct good:
One of the things about animal rights, which is not the only thing that I care about in this world, is that your money can bring success. I see results. There is stuff happening, really good stuff, every week. I'm not sure you get that with a lot of disease charities. If you were donating to environmental causes for the past 20 years, do you think your money is doing anything? Because I don't, and I used to support some conservationist stuff -- Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund. They're treading water. Climate change is a big part of their problem. The environment has been destroyed, basically.
He complains that philanthropists in Hollywood and New York sometimes lose sight of what they're actually doing: "...I don't think the spirit of Hollywood is such a spirit of generosity. I think people really begrudge giving. In New York, it's like that. A lot of charities spend a million dollars on a fundraiser to make $15,000. It's a social swirl. They do some great stuff and then -- it's called mission drift. It becomes more about the parties."Simon also started buying zoos and circuses in December in coordination with PETA so that he could free the animals in those roadside shows: "They are some of the most abused animals in the country. Freeing those animals, that's something I'm not sure I would do if it weren't for the cancer."
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist