the magazine. They were very funny guys and unusually polished comedy writers for that age. We were never surprised that they went on to success." Jean has also stated that the duo spent most of their time at the Lampoon, adding that "it was practically my second dorm room." He eventually became vice-president of the publication. Career Early career and The Simpsons The humor magazine National Lampoon hired Jean and Reiss after they graduated in 1981. During the 1980s, the duo began collaborating on various television material. During this period, they worked as writers and producers on television shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, ALF, Sledge Hammer! and It's Garry Shandling's Show. In 1989, Jean was offered a job as a writer on the animated sitcom The Simpsons, a show created by Matt Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon that continues to air today. Many of Jean's friends were not interested in working on The Simpsons because it was a cartoon and they did not think it would last long. Jean, however, was a fan of the work of Groening, Brooks and Simon, and therefore took the job together with Reiss. The duo became the first members of the original Simpsons writing staff and worked on the thirteen episodes of the series' first season (1989–90). While watching the first episode of the show, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", premiering on television in December 1989, Jean opined to himself that the series was the greatest project he had been involved with and desired to continue working on it for the rest of his professional career. What he enjoyed most about The Simpsons at the time was something he recognized from Brooks' previous work: although the show was largely based on humor, it had depth and warmth. Although Jean has been credited as the sole writer of several episodes, he considers the process to be mainly collaborative: "the principal writer [of an episode] has, at most, written 40% of the script. It's a real team effort." The writer credited in the episode's opening credits is the person that came up with the idea for the episode and wrote the first draft, even if he or she only contributed to a small part of the final script. Jean has stated that Lisa Simpson is one of his favorite characters to write for. She is the character he relates