Any similarities between the irascible Bart Simpson, star of the animated sitcom, The Simpsons, and the pesky little brat just down your street may not be pure coincidence.
In fact, the young man in the producer's chair on the set of The Simpsons, Colin Lewis, was born in Success Village, Laventille, which would have offered him the opportunity to see various manifestations of Bart in the flesh even before his migration to the US in 1970.
Don't blame yourself if you didn't recognize him. Industry experts agree that even after years of viewing a favourite television programme, most people do not recall the names of key personnel involved in the production. Next time those titles come up on the screen, you now have good reason to look for the name Colin Lewis.
In fact, if you caught the 1997 Emmy Awards, television's annual hallmark of excellence, you would have had a rare glimpse of the man himself, as he received his award for "Best Producer of an Animated Sitcom".
But there are other opportunities to view his work on shows still being aired here or on the cable channels. Episodes of The Tracy Ullman Show and Family Matters, shot between 1988 and 1989 will also bear his name as a production assistant.
But for the 1990 fall season, Colin Lewis was hired as a junior executive in the production of The Simpsons. The show continues to enjoy top ratings internationally.
In 1996, Colin was appointed producer of the show, giving him final responsibility for what goes on air and ensuring that it gets there.
His mother, Venice Lewis, who was scheduled to return to New York this morning after a short vacation here, spoke to the Express on Tuesday about her son and his success.
"Oh, he is nothing like Bart," she said.
"In fact, as a boy he was very quiet. Colin did not spend a lot of time outside on the streets. Music was his world. He spent hours at a time playing the guitar in his room. There were days when he would hardly come out.
"During his college years, he used to write for the school paper and do a number of other things in the line of arts and entertainment, that gave us an indication of what his career would eventually be. He was certainly interested in music and television," Venice Lewis said.
"The family had no problem with his wanting to make the grade in the world of television, although it has always been said that it was a tough business. We were confident and supportive when he said he was going to California.
"The children have been brought up in a stable home and we trust their judgment completely, so no one was worried. We also knew he had the talent."
Venice and her husband Cipriani Lewis, who lived in Thomasine Street, Success Village, are justifiably proud of their little boy's achievements and have no regrets about having taken up their roots and moving to the land of milk and money.'
When they lived here, Cipriani was a traffic policeman and Venice, a registered nurse at the Port of Spain General Hospital. Today, mother is retired, father now runs his own real-estate business, and the two girls (Enid and Esther) are both midwives and mothers. Colin's only brother, Clyde, is a detective attached to the NYPD. Colin, 33 and single, is the youngest member of the family.
He got his early elementary education at Eastern Boys Government School and completed at St Mary's School in the Bronx, New York.
Colin attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, then went on to Syracuse University, entering the Newhouse School of Communication to major in that field. At Newhouse, he hosted a radio show, affording him hands-on experience with state-of-the-art production systems and techniques.
When he graduated in 1986, he worked at Actors' Equity for two years, gaining a familiarity that would serve his eventual career.
It was love at first sight. Just two days into a vacation in California in 1988, Colin decided that he would spend his life in television and upon returning home, announced that he was packing up and going west.
"He just went out there on a whim," Venice said. "A friend got him the break on the Tracy Ullman Show and he worked his way to where he is today.
"We just knew he was going to do well, because he always had the drive and we could not be more proud last year when he won what we like to call his first Emmy."
While the girls and their mother are frequently here, Colin has only returned to Trinidad twice in the last 26 years.
"We all love Trinidad, but he is forever busy," she said. "Even at home in the US, while we hear from him regularly, we could only get to see him two or three times per year, because he is either working on the show in California, or flying all over the place."
Even as we spoke, Colin was in New York completing a recording. He had called his mom the previous night.
While the Emmy brought its own superior brand of prestige in the world of television, Colin was also one of five Trinidadians honoured by their countrymen last December, when Hawks Club International handed out its special awards, to mark the organization's 25th anniversary.
Apart from Colin, the club paid special tributes to veteran calypsonian Lord Pretender, Jean G. Leon, executive director of King's County Hospital Centre, Cheryl Byron (artist extraordinaire and English professor at Medgar Evers College) and Concacaf President Austin "Jack" Warner.
Lewis was unable to attend the black-tie gathering, but requested that his parents accept what he described as "this most incredible honour" on his behalf. In a letter to Hawks Club International dated November 23, Lewis described not only the extent of his regret, but gave a brief insight into the world in which he now operates.
"I have been working within what feels like a bubble for the past eight years," he wrote.
"In this environment, it is very easy to lose sight of what is truly important, but after you strip away all the successes and excesses, there will always be family and friends."
And how does mother feel about the sometimes-controversial show her son produces?
"I think it's wonderful," she said. "People who feel otherwise probably do not understand it."
The Simpsons airs Thursdays on Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT).