James L. Brooks
A video camera is being pointed at a bearded man who is wearing glasses. Some other people stand in the background.
Brooks in 2007
Born
James Lawrence Brooks

(1940-05-09) May 9, 1940
New York City, U.S.
Occupations
  • Director
  • producer
  • screenwriter
Years active1965–present
Political partyDemocratic
Spouses
  • Marianne Catherine Morrissey
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1964; div. 1972)​
  • Holly Beth Holmberg
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1978; div. 1999)​
Children4
Awards3 Academy Awards (1984)
22 Primetime Emmy Awards (1971, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2019, 2023)
Websitegraciefilms.com

James Lawrence Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is an American director, producer, screenwriter and co-founder of Gracie Films. His television and film work includes The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, The Simpsons, Broadcast News, As Good as It Gets, and Terms of Endearment.

While growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the CBS News broadcasts. He moved to Los Angeles in 1965 to work on David L. Wolper's documentaries. After being laid off he met producer Allan Burns who secured him a job as a writer on the series My Mother the Car. Brooks wrote for several shows before being hired as a story editor on My Friend Tony and later created the series Room 222. Grant Tinker hired Brooks and Burns at MTM Productions to create The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970. The show, one of the first to feature an independent working woman as its lead character, was critically acclaimed and won Brooks several Primetime Emmy Awards. Brooks and Burns then created two successful spin-offs from Mary Tyler Moore: Rhoda (a comedy) and Lou Grant (a drama). Brooks left MTM Productions in 1978 to co-create the sitcom Taxi which, despite winning multiple Emmys, suffered from low ratings and was canceled twice.

Brooks moved into feature film work when he wrote and co-produced the 1979 film Starting Over. His next project was the critically acclaimed film Terms of Endearment, which he produced, directed and wrote, winning an Academy Award for all three roles. Basing his next film, Broadcast News, on his journalistic experiences, the film earned him a further two Academy Award nominations. Although his 1994 work I'll Do Anything was hampered by negative press attention due to the cutting of all of its recorded musical numbers, As Good as It Gets (co-written with Mark Andrus) earned further praise. It was seven years until his next film, 2004's Spanglish. His sixth film, How Do You Know, was released in 2010. Brooks also produced and mentored Cameron Crowe on Say Anything... (1989) and Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson on Bottle Rocket (1996).

In 1986, Brooks founded the television and film company, Gracie Films. Although he did not intend to do so, Brooks returned to television in 1987 as the producer of The Tracey Ullman Show. He hired cartoonist Matt Groening to create a series of shorts for the show, which eventually led to The Simpsons in 1989. The Simpsons won numerous awards and is still running after 30+ years. Brooks also co-produced and co-wrote the 2007 film adaptation of the show, The Simpsons Movie. In total, Brooks has received 53 Emmy nominations, winning 21 of them.[1]

Early life

James Lawrence Brooks was born on May 9, 1940, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, and raised in North Bergen, New Jersey.[2][3][4] His parents, Dorothy Helen (née Sheinheit) and Edward M. Brooks, were both salespeople (his mother sold children's clothes; his father furniture).[4][5] The Brooks family was Jewish; Edward Brooks changed his surname from Bernstein and claimed to be Irish.[6] Brooks's father abandoned his mother when he found out she was pregnant with him,[7] and lost contact with his son when Brooks was twelve.[8] During the pregnancy, Brooks' father sent his wife a postcard stating that "If it's a boy, name him Jim."[7] His mother died when he was 22.[7] He has described his early life as "tough" with a "broken home, [and him being] poor and sort of lonely, that sort of stuff",[9] later adding: "My father was sort of in-and-out and my mother worked long hours, so there was no choice but for me to be alone in the apartment a lot." He has an older sister, Diane, who helped look after him as a child and to whom he dedicated As Good as It Gets.[4][10][11][12]

Brooks spent much of his childhood "surviving" and reading numerous comedic and scripted works,[4] as well as writing; he sent comedic short stories out to publishers, and occasionally got positive responses, although none were published,[12] and he did not believe he could make a career as a writer.[4] Brooks attended Weehawken High School, but was not a high achiever. He was on his high school newspaper team and frequently secured interviews with celebrities, including Louis Armstrong.[4][13] He lists some of his influences as Sid Caesar, Jack Benny, Lenny Bruce, Mike Nichols and Elaine May,[12] as well as writers Paddy Chayefsky and F. Scott Fitzgerald.[4]

Career

Television

Brooks won several Emmy Awards for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

In 1987, the Chicago Sun-Times described Brooks's career as "a non-stop crescendo."[9] Although he dropped out of a New York University public relations course,[4][5][7][8] Brooks' sister got him a job as a host at CBS in New York City, a job usually requiring a college education, as she was friends with a secretary there.[4] He held it for two and a half years. For two weeks he filled in as a copywriter for CBS News and was given the job permanently when the original employee never returned. Brooks went on to become a writer for the news broadcasts, joining the Writers Guild of America and writing reports on events such as the assassination of President Kennedy. He moved to Los Angeles in 1965, to write for documentaries being produced by David L. Wolper, something he "still [hasn't] quite figured out how [he] got the guts to do,"[12] as his job at CBS was secure and well-paid. He worked as an associate producer on series such as Men in Crisis, but after six months he was laid off as the company was trying to cut back on expenses.[4] Brooks did occasionally work for Wolper's company again, including on a National Geographic insect special.[12]

Failing to find another job at a news agency, he met producer Allan Burns at a party. Burns got him a job on My Mother the Car where he was hired to rewrite a script after pitching some story ideas.[12] Brooks then went on to write episodes of That Girl,[12] The Andy Griffith Show[7] and My Three Sons before Sheldon Leonard hired him as a story editor on My Friend Tony.[4] In 1969 he created the series Room 222 for ABC, which lasted until 1974. Room 222 was the second series in American history to feature a black lead character, in this case high school teacher Pete Dixon played by Lloyd Haynes.[2] The network felt the show was sensitive and so attempted to change the pilot story so that Dixon helped a white student rather than a black one, but Brooks prevented it. On the show Brooks worked with Gene Reynolds who taught him the importance of extensive and diligent research, which he conducted at Los Angeles High School for Room 222, and he used the technique on his subsequent works. Brooks left Room 222 as head writer after one year to work on other pilots and brought Burns in to produce the show.[4][12]

Brooks and Burns were hired by CBS programming executive Grant Tinker to create a series together with MTM Productions for Tinker's wife Mary Tyler Moore which became The Mary Tyler Moore Show.[2] Drawing on his own background in journalism, Brooks set the show in a newsroom. Initially the show was unpopular with CBS executives who demanded Tinker fire Brooks and Burns. However the show was one of the beneficiaries of network president Fred Silverman's "rural purge"; executive Bob Wood also liked the show and moved it into a better timeslot.[12][14] Brooks and Burns hired all of the show's staff themselves and eventually ended it of their own accord.[12] The Mary Tyler Moore Show became a critical and commercial success and was the first show to feature an independent-minded, working woman, not reliant on a man, as its lead.[15] Geoff Hammill of the Museum of Broadcast Communications described it as "one of the most acclaimed television programs ever produced" in US television history.[15] During its seven-year period it received high praise from critics and numerous Primetime Emmy Awards, including for three years in a row Outstanding Comedy Series.[15] In 2003 USA Today called it "one of the best shows ever to air on TV".[16] In 1997 TV Guide selected a Mary Tyler Moore Show episode as the best TV episode ever and in 1999, Entertainment Weekly picked Mary's hat toss in the opening credits as television's second greatest moment.[17][18]

With Mary Tyler Moore going strong, Brooks produced and wrote the TV film Thursday's Game,[2] before creating the short-lived series Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers in 1974.[19] He and Burns moved on to Rhoda, a spin-off of Mary Tyler Moore, taking Valerie Harper's character Rhoda Morgenstern into her own show.[20] It was well received, lasting four years and earning Brooks several Emmys.[1] The duo's next project came in 1977 in the shape of Lou Grant, a second Mary Tyler Moore spin-off, which they created along with Tinker. Unlike its source however, the series was a drama starring Edward Asner as Grant. James Brown of the Museum of Broadcast Communications said it "explore[d] a knotty issue facing media people in contemporary society, focusing on how investigating and reporting those issues impact on the layers of personalities populating a complex newspaper publishing company." The show was also critically acclaimed, twice winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series and also a Peabody Award.[21]

Brooks left MTM Productions in 1978 and formed the John Charles Walters Company along with David Davis, Stan Daniels and Ed Weinberger. They decided to produce Taxi, a show about a New York taxi company, which unlike the other MTM Productions focused on the "blue-collar male experience".[22] Brooks and Davis had been inspired by the article "Night-Shifting for the Hip Fleet" by Mark Jacobson, which appeared in the September 22, 1975 issue of New York magazine.[23] The show began on ABC in 1978 airing on Tuesday nights after Three's Company which generated high ratings and after two seasons it was moved to Wednesday. Its ratings fell and in 1982 it was canceled; NBC picked it up, but the ratings remained low and it was dropped after one season. Despite its ratings, it won three consecutive Outstanding Comedy Series Emmys.[22] Brooks' last TV show produced before he began making films was The Associates (1979–1980) for ABC. Despite positive critical attention, the show was quickly canceled.[24]

Alex Simon of Venice Magazine described Brooks as "[bringing] realism to the previously overstated world of television comedy. Brooks' fingerprints can now be seen in shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, Ally McBeal and numerous other shows from the 1980s and 1990s."[12] Brooks' sitcoms were some of the first with a "focus on character" using an ensemble cast in a non-domestic situation.[2][12]

Film

When I broke into movies, it was hard for anyone who had previously worked in television to break into the movies. It's easier now, but was almost impossible back then.

—Brooks in 2000[25]

In 1978, Brooks began work on feature films. His first project was the 1979 film Starting Over which he wrote and co-produced with Alan J. Pakula.[25] He adapted the screenplay from a novel by Dan Wakefield into a film The Washington Post called "a good-humored, heartening update of traditional romantic comedy" unlike the "drab" novel.[26]

Brooks' next project came in 1983, when he wrote, produced and directed Terms of Endearment, adapting the screenplay from Larry McMurtry's novel of the same name.[27] It cost $8.5 million and took four years to film.[12] Brooks won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay.[9]

Brooks was fearful of the attention Oscar success would bring as he would be "deprived of a low profile", finding it "hard to work with the spotlight shining in your eyes." He added: "There's a danger of being seduced into being self-conscious, of being aware of your 'career'. That can be lethal."[9] He also grew more concerned of the "threatening" corporate influence into the film industry at the expense of "the idea of the creative spirit".[9] He channeled this ambivalence into Broadcast News. As a romantic comedy, Brooks felt he could say "something new ... with that form" adding "One of the things you're supposed to do every once in a while as a filmmaker is capture time and place. I was just glad there was some way to do it in a comedy."[9] He cast William Hurt, Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks (no relation) in the three main roles.[9]

He wished to set the film in a field he understood and opted for broadcast journalism. After talking with network journalists at the 1984 Republican National Convention, Brooks realised it had "changed so much since I had been near it", and so "did about a year and a half of solid research," into the industry.[9] When he began writing the screenplay, Brooks felt he "didn't like any of the three [main] characters", but decided not to change them and after two months had reversed his original opinion. Brooks stated that this also happens to the audience: "You're always supposed to arc your characters and you have this change and that's your dramatic purpose. But what I hope happens in this film is that the audience takes part in the arc. So what happens is that the movie doesn't select its own hero. It plays differently with each audience. The audience helps create the experience, depending on which character they hook onto."[9] He did not decide on the ending of the film until the rest of it had been completed. Brooks was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for Broadcast News.[12] At the 38th Berlin International Film Festival, the film was nominated for the Golden Bear and Holly Hunter won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.[28]

His 1994 film I'll Do Anything, starring Nick Nolte, was conceived and filmed by Brooks as an old-fashioned movie musical and parody of "Hollywood lifestyles and movie clichés", costing $40 million.[29] It featured songs by Carole King, Prince, and Sinéad O'Connor, among others, with choreography by Twyla Tharp.[5][29] When preview audience reactions to the music were overwhelmingly negative, all production numbers from the film were cut and Brooks wrote several new scenes, filming them over three days and spending seven weeks editing the film down to two hours.[5] Brooks noted: "Something like this not only tries one's soul – it threatens one's soul." While it was not unusual for Brooks to edit his films substantially after preview screenings on this occasion he was "denied any privacy" because the media reported the negative reviews before its release and "it had to be good enough to counter all this bad publicity."[29] It was a commercial failure,[12] and Brooks attempted to produce a documentary about it four years later but was scuppered by failing to obtain the rights to Prince's song.[7]

Brooks agreed to produce and direct Old Friends, a screenplay by Mark Andrus. Andrus' script "needed you to suspend disbelief" but Brooks realised "my style when directing is that I really don't know how to get people to suspend disbelief." Brooks spent a year reworking the screenplay: "There were changes made and the emphasis was changed but it's the product, really, of a very unusual writing team," and the project became As Good as It Gets, taking a year to produce after funding had been secured.[12] According to The New York Times, Brooks "was constantly experimenting, constantly reshooting, constantly re-editing" the film, changing its ending five times and allowing the actors to improvise the film's tone.[30]

The film garnered more praise than I'll Do Anything and Brooks was again nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. As Good as It Gets received a total of seven Academy Award nominations and won two, for Best Actor for Jack Nicholson and Best Actress for Helen Hunt.[31] Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader labelled it Brooks' best film, stating "what Brooks manages to do with [the characters] as they struggle mightily to connect with one another is funny, painful, beautiful, and basically truthful—a triumph for everyone involved."[32] It also ranked 140 in Empire's 2008 list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time".[33] Brooks cast Jack Nicholson in both Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets with the actor taking an Academy Award for each role.[34]

Brooks did not direct and write a film again for seven years until 2004's Spanglish. Filming took six months, ending in June with three days of additional filming in October; Brooks produced three endings for the film, shooting several scenes in "15 to 25 takes" as he did not feel the film was tonally complete, although the script did not change much during filming. He opted to cast Adam Sandler in a more dramatic role than his usual goofball comedy parts based on his performance in Punch-Drunk Love and Sandler's relationship with his family. Describing the length of production, Brooks said: "It's amazing how much more perverse you are as a writer than as a director. I remember just being so happy that I'd painted myself into some corners [while writing]. I thought that would make it interesting. When I had to wrestle with that as a director, it was a different story." Brooks's directing style "drove [the cast] bats", especially Téa Leoni, with Cloris Leachman (who replaced an ill Anne Bancroft a month into filming) describing it as "free-falling. You're not going for some result. It's just, throw it in the air and see where it lands."[7] The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box-office failure,[35] grossing $55 million worldwide on an $80 million production budget.[36]

His next film, entitled How Do You Know, was released December 17, 2010; Brooks produced, directed and wrote it. The film stars Reese Witherspoon as a professional softball player involved in a love triangle. Brooks began work on the film in 2005, wishing to create a film about a young female athlete. While interviewing numerous women for hundreds of hours in his research for the film he also became interested in "the dilemmas of contemporary business executives, who are sometimes held accountable by the law for corporate behavior of which they may not even be aware." He created Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson's characters for this concept.[37] Filming finished in November 2009,[38] although Brooks later reshot the film's opening and ending.[39] The New York Times described it as "perhaps the most closely guarded of Columbia's movies this year."[37] Brooks was paid $10 million for the project, which cost $100 million.[39][40] The film was negatively received.[41] Patrick Goldstein wrote in the Los Angeles Times that "the characters were stick figures, the jokes were flat, the situations felt scarily insular." He felt the film showed Brooks had "finally lost his comic mojo" concluding "his films used to have a wonderfully restless, neurotic energy, but How Do You Know feels like it was phoned in from someone resting uncomfortably on his laurels."[35] Variety's Peter Debruge also felt the film showed Brooks had lost his "spark".[42] Richard Corliss of Time was more positive, writing "without being great, it's still the flat-out finest romantic comedy of the year," while "Brooks hasn't lost his gift for dreaming up heroes and heroines who worry amusingly."[43]

Brooks started his own film and television production company, Gracie Films, in 1986.[2] He produced Big (1988) and The War of the Roses (1989).[5][12] Brooks mentored Cameron Crowe and was the executive producer of Crowe's directorial debut Say Anything... (1989) and produced his later film Jerry Maguire (1996).[12] Brooks also helped Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson after their feature-length script and short film version of Bottle Rocket (1996) were brought to his attention. Brooks went to Wilson and Anderson's apartment in Dallas after agreeing to produce the film. Wilson stated: "I think he felt kind of sorry for us". Despite having "the worst [script] reading [Brooks] had ever heard", Brooks kept faith in the project.[44] Brooks produced and directed Brooklyn Laundry, his first theatrical production, in 1990. It starred Glenn Close, Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern.[12] In 2007 Brooks appeared—along with Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher and others in Dreams on Spec, a documentary about screenwriting in Hollywood.[45]

Return to television

Brooks smiling onstage
Brooks in 2009

Although Brooks "never meant" to return to television, he was helping Tracey Ullman start The Tracey Ullman Show and when she could not find another producer, he stepped in.[25] On the suggestion of friend and colleague Polly Platt, who gave Brooks the nine panel Life in Hell cartoon entitled "The Los Angeles Way of Death" which hangs outside Brooks' Gracie Films office,[7][46][47] Brooks asked Life in Hell cartoonist Matt Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts to appear on The Tracey Ullman Show. Groening initially intended to present an animated version of his Life in Hell series. However, when Groening realized that animating Life in Hell would require the rescinding of publication rights for his life's work, he chose another approach and formulated his version of a dysfunctional family in the lobby of Brooks' office.[48] After the success of the shorts, the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1989 commissioned a series of half-hour episodes of the show, now called The Simpsons, which Brooks produced alongside Groening and Sam Simon. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content.[49] According to writer Jon Vitti, Brooks contributed more to the episode "Lisa's Substitute" than to any other in the show's history.[50] The Simpsons garnered critical and commercial acclaim, winning numerous awards and is still producing original content after 30 years.[51] In a 1998 issue celebrating the 20th century's greatest achievements in arts and entertainment, Time magazine named The Simpsons the century's best television series.[52] In 1997 Brooks was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.[53]

In 1995, Brooks and Groening were involved in a public dispute over the episode "A Star Is Burns". Groening felt that the episode was a thirty-minute advertisement for Brooks' show The Critic (which had moved to Fox from ABC for its second season), and was created by former The Simpsons showrunners Al Jean and Mike Reiss, and whose lead character Jay Sherman appears in the episode. He hoped Brooks would pull the episode because "articles began to appear in several newspapers around the country saying that [Groening] created The Critic", and remove his name from the credits.[54] In response, Brooks said "I am furious with Matt, he's been going to everybody who wears a suit at Fox and complaining about this. When he voiced his concerns about how to draw The Critic into the Simpsons' universe he was right and we agreed to his changes. Certainly he's allowed his opinion, but airing this publicly in the press is going too far. ... He is a gifted, adorable, cuddly ingrate. But his behavior right now is rotten."[54]

The Critic was short-lived, broadcasting ten episodes on Fox before its cancellation. A total of only 23 episodes were produced, and it returned briefly in 2000 with a series of ten internet broadcast webisodes. The series has since developed a cult following thanks to reruns on Comedy Central and its complete series release on DVD.[55] His early 1990s shows Sibs and Phenom, both produced as part of a multi-show deal with ABC, and the 2001 show What About Joan for the same network, were all similarly short-lived.[7][56][57][58][59][60]

Brooks co-produced and co-wrote the 2007 feature-length film adaptation of The Simpsons, The Simpsons Movie.[61] He directed the voice cast for the first time since the television show's early seasons. Dan Castellaneta found the recording sessions "more intense" than recording the television series, and "more emotionally dramatic".[62] Some scenes, such as Marge's video message to Homer, were recorded over one hundred times, leaving the voice cast exhausted.[63] Brooks conceived the idea for, co-produced and co-wrote the Maggie-centric short film The Longest Daycare, which played in front of Ice Age: Continental Drift in 2012.[64] It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2013.[65]

Personal life

Brooks has been married twice. His first wife was Marianne Catherine Morrissey; they have one daughter,[2][8] Amy Lorraine Brooks. They divorced in 1972.[66] In 1978 he married Holly Beth Holmberg; they had three children together:[67] daughter Chloe and sons Cooper and Joseph. They divorced in 1999.[67]

He is also a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.[68] Brooks has donated over $175,000 to Democratic Party candidates.[69] In January 2017, Brooks stated in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that his career was now just focused staying with The Simpsons until the show ends and continuing to run into Steven Spielberg "in the market."[70]

Brooks is an avid fan of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Director Writer Producer
1979 Starting Over No Yes Yes
1983 Terms of Endearment Yes Yes Yes
1987 Broadcast News Yes Yes Yes
1994 I'll Do Anything Yes Yes Yes
1997 As Good as It Gets Yes Yes Yes
2004 Spanglish Yes Yes Yes
2007 The Simpsons Movie No Yes Yes
2010 How Do You Know Yes Yes Yes

Producer

Executive producer

Short film

Year Title Writer Producer
2012 The Longest Daycare Yes Yes
2020 Playdate with Destiny Yes Yes
2021 The Force Awakens from Its Nap No Yes
The Good, the Bart, and the Loki No Yes
The Simpsons | Balenciaga No Yes
Plusaversary No Yes
2022 When Billie Met Lisa No Yes
Welcome to the Club No Yes
The Simpsons Meet the Bocellis in "Feliz Navidad" No Yes

Television

Year Title Writer Creator Producer Notes
1965 Men in Crisis Yes No Yes 2 episodes
October Madness: The World Series Yes No No Television documentary
1965–1966 Time-Life Specials: The March of Time Yes No No 3 episodes
1966 My Mother the Car Yes No No 2 episodes
1966–1967 That Girl Yes No No 3 episodes
1967 Hey, Landlord Yes No No Episode: "Sharin' Sharon"
Accidental Family Yes No No Episode: "Hot Kid in a Cold Town"
1968 The Andy Griffith Show Yes No No 2 episodes
My Three Sons Yes No No Episode: "The Perfect Separation"
The Doris Day Show Yes No No Episode: "The Job"
Good Morning World Yes No No Episode: "Pot Luckless"
Mayberry R.F.D. Yes No No Episode: "Youth Takes Over"
1969 My Friend Tony Yes No No Episode: "Encounter"
1969–1974 Room 222 Yes Yes No 113 episodes
1970–1977 The Mary Tyler Moore Show Yes Yes Yes 168 episodes
1973 Going Places Yes No No TV short
1974 Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers Yes Yes No 15 episodes
Thursday's Game No Yes Yes TV movie
1974–1978 Rhoda Yes Yes Yes 110 episodes
1975–1977 Phyllis No Yes No 48 episodes; Also consultant.[71]
1977–1982 Lou Grant Yes Yes Yes 114 episodes
1978 Cindy No No Yes TV movie
1978–1983 Taxi Yes Yes Yes 114 episodes
1979–1980 The Associates No Yes Yes 13 episodes
1980 Carlton Your Doorman Yes No No TV short
1987–1990 The Tracey Ullman Show Yes Yes Yes 80 episodes
1989–present The Simpsons Yes Developer Yes Also executive creative consultant
1991–1992 Sibs No No Yes 22 episodes
1993 Phenom No No Yes 22 episodes
1994–1995 The Critic No No Yes 7 episodes
2001 What About Joan No No Yes 21 episodes

Acting credits

Year Title Role Notes
1972The Mary Tyler Moore ShowRabbiEpisode: "Enter Rhoda's Parents"
1974RhodaSubway PassengerEpisode: "Rhoda's Wedding"
1976Saturday Night LivePaul ReynoldEpisode: "Elliott Gould/Anne Murray"
1979Real LifeDriving Evaluator
1981Modern RomanceDavid
1985Lost in AmericaParty GuestUncredited
2003The SimpsonsHimself (voice)Episode: "A Star Is Born Again"

Awards and nominations

Brooks has received 8 Academy Award nominations for Terms of Endearment (1983), Broadcast News (1987), As Good as It Gets (1997), and Jerry Maguire (1996). In 1984 Brooks received three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Terms of Endearment (1983). He has also earned 54 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for his work on television. He has won for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Lou Grant, The Tracey Ullman Show, and The Simpsons.

References

  1. 1 2 "Nominations Search". Emmys.com. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Horace Newcomb. "Brooks, James L." The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on September 19, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
  3. ↑ Mann, Virginia (February 4, 1994). "How James Brooks Faced The Music: He Cut Most Of It". The Record. p. 3.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Brooks, James L. (2003). "James L. Brooks – Archive of American Television Interview". Archive of American Television (Interview). Interviewed by Karen Herman. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Diamond, Jamie (January 30, 1994). "Film; Bringing You a Musical ... With No Music". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
  6. ↑ Danaher, Patrick (March 2, 2008). "Simpsons Producer Plans to Take World's Funniest Family to Ireland". Sunday Tribune.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Steve Daly (November 12, 2004). "What, Him Worry?". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on September 29, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2009.
  8. 1 2 3 Diamond, Jamie (February 4, 1994). "Brooks Didn't Want to Direct Same Old Song". Orlando Sentinel. p. 17.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Peter Keough (December 20, 1987). "The 'Broadcast News' report – James L. Brooks comes to terms with his doubts". Chicago Sun-Times. p. Show 1.
  10. ↑ Academy Award acceptance speech
  11. ↑ IMDb
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Alex Simon (December 1997 – January 1998). "James L. Brooks: Laughter That Stings In Your Throat". Venice Magazine.
  13. ↑ Horgan, Richard. "When James L. Brooks Interviewed Louis Armstrong", Adweek, October 27, 2011. Accessed October 23, 2015. "Right off the bat, Pollak wondered if those stories of Brooks having interviewed Louis Armstrong for the Weehawken High School newspaper were Internet hooey. Brooks was happy to confirm a semi-wonderful New Jersey journalism world:"
  14. ↑ "The New South has risen in the post-industrial North". The News Sun. March 31, 2006. p. A6.
  15. 1 2 3 Hammill, Geoff. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on June 30, 2007. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
  16. ↑ Bianco, Robert (April 11, 2003). "Building a better sitcom". USA Today. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  17. ↑ "Mary Tyler Moore: TV Guide News". TV Guide. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
  18. ↑ "The Top 100 Moments In Television". Entertainment Weekly. February 19, 1999. Archived from the original on October 16, 2007. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  19. ↑ Rosenthal, Phil (February 20, 2001). "Name That Show, Part II". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 39.
  20. ↑ Michael H. Kleinschrodt (April 17, 2009). "One Her Own – Second banana rises to the top as 'Rhoda' gives Harper a post-'Mary Tyler Moore' hit". The Times-Picayune. p. 09.
  21. ↑ Brown, James. "Lou Grant". The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on March 23, 2007. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
  22. 1 2 Jason Mittel. "Taxi". The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
  23. ↑ Jeff Sorensen (1987). The Taxi Book. St. Martin's Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-312-00691-8.
  24. ↑ Tom Shales (April 26, 1985). "Martin Short: Madly Manic, I must Say". The Washington Post. p. F1.
  25. 1 2 3 Jackson Burke (May 29, 2000). "James L. Brooks Talks to The D". The Dartmouth Online.
  26. ↑ Gary Arnold (October 5, 1979). "Sweet, Sour & Sorry". The Washington Post. p. B1.
  27. ↑ Michael Blowen (February 3, 1984). "Without Them, There Wouldn't Have Been a Movie". The Boston Globe.
  28. ↑ "Berlinale: 1988 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  29. 1 2 3 Robert W. Butler (February 3, 1994). "Anything to save the movie James L. Brooks dumped the music, rewrote the scenes and did more filming for 'I'll Do Anything'". The Kansas City Star. p. E1.
  30. ↑ James Sterngold (December 8, 1997). "A Happily Baffled Director Lets His Cast Find Its Own Way". The New York Times. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
  31. ↑ "Academy Awards Database". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 16, 2009.
  32. ↑ Jonathan Rosenbaum. "As Good as It Gets". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on January 4, 2011. Retrieved July 16, 2009.
  33. ↑ "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". Empire. September 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2009.
  34. ↑ John Young (June 2, 2009). "Jack Nicholson to reteam with director James L. Brooks?". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on June 6, 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
  35. 1 2 Goldstein, Patrick (December 17, 2010). "'How Do You Know' when a movie's a flop: James Brooks loses his mojo". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
  36. ↑ "Spanglish (2004)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 30, 2009.
  37. 1 2 Michael Cieply (March 22, 2010). "Star-Heavy Big-Budget Love Story Bucks Trend". The New York Times.
  38. ↑ Adam Rosenberg (November 3, 2009). "Reese Witherspoon Sheds Some Light On Her Untitled Project With James L. Brooks". MTV. Archived from the original on March 6, 2010. Retrieved March 31, 2010.
  39. 1 2 Masters, Kim (December 10, 2010). "EXCLUSIVE: 'How Do You Know' Price Tag: $120 Million, $50 Million Just for Talent". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
  40. ↑ Masters, Kim (December 9, 2010). "Star Salaries Account for Half of New Film's Tab". ABC News. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
  41. ↑ "How Do You Know (2010)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
  42. ↑ Debruge, Peter (December 15, 2010). "How Do You Know". Variety.
  43. ↑ Corliss, Richard (December 17, 2010). "How Do You Know: Well, I Like It". Time. Archived from the original on December 19, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
  44. ↑ Los Angeles Daily News (March 8, 1996). "James L. Brooks Lent A Hand To Young Texas Filmmakers". Orlando Sentinel. p. 21.
  45. ↑ Jay A. Fernandez (July 18, 2007). "Scriptland – Producers, writers face huge chasm – Compensation for digital media and residuals for reuse of content are major issues as contract talks begin". Los Angeles Times.
  46. ↑ Keegan, Rebecca (July 28, 2011). "Polly Platt dies at 72; Oscar-nominated art director". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 28, 2011.
  47. ↑ Ortved, John (2009). Simpsons Confidential: The uncensored, totally unauthorised history of the world's greatest TV show by the people that made it (UK ed.). Ebury Press. pp. 42–43. ISBN 978-0-09-192729-5.
  48. ↑ Groening, Matt (February 14, 2003). "Fresh Air". National Public Radio (Interview). Interviewed by David Bianculli. Philadelphia: WHYY. Retrieved August 8, 2007.
  49. ↑ Kuipers, Dean (April 15, 2004). "3rd Degree: Harry Shearer". Los Angeles: City Beat. Archived from the original on March 8, 2008. Retrieved September 1, 2006.
  50. ↑ Vitti, Jon (2002). The Simpsons season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa's Substitute" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  51. ↑ Bill Keveney (September 28, 2008). "'The Simpsons' Hits a Landmark". ABC. Retrieved October 2, 2008.
  52. ↑ "The Best Of The Century". TIME. December 31, 1999. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved June 3, 2007.
  53. ↑ "Hall of Fame Honorees: Complete List". Emmys.org. Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
  54. 1 2 Brennan, Judy (March 3, 1995). "Matt Groening's Reaction to The Critic's First Appearance on The Simpsons". Los Angeles Times.
  55. ↑ Uhlich, Keith (February 3, 2004). "The Critic: The Complete Series". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
  56. ↑ Gary Susman (October 12, 2001). "'Joan' Jettisoned". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 25, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
  57. ↑ Lynette Rice (February 9, 2000). "James' Gang". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on April 27, 2009. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
  58. ↑ Weinman, Jaime (April 10, 2009). "Weekend Viewing: Phenom". Maclean's. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  59. ↑ O'Connor, John J. (October 9, 1991). "Review/Television; In 2 Shows, The Edge Of Humor That Cuts". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  60. ↑ Hill, Michael (September 17, 1991). "'Home Improvement' is great and 'Sibs' ought to be". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  61. ↑ "About the DVD". The Simpsons Movie.com. 20th Century Fox. Archived from the original on March 23, 2013. Retrieved November 29, 2007. On the main page, click on "About the DVD" then on "Production Notes".
  62. ↑ Scott Weinberg (February 1, 2007). "Castellaneta Does Double Duty on "Simpsons Movie"". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on June 10, 2008. Retrieved July 7, 2007.
  63. ↑ Sheila Roberts. "The Simpsons Movie Interviews". Movies Online. Archived from the original on January 4, 2009. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
  64. ↑ Snierson, Dan (May 22, 2012). "'The Simpsons': Exclusive details on the next big-screen adventure (it's short, silent, and in 3-D)!". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  65. ↑ "10 Animated Shorts Move Ahead in 2012 Oscar® Race". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
  66. ↑ Encyclopedia of Television edited by Horace Newcomb
  67. 1 2 "David Carradine sues Time Warner, James L. Brooks asks for a permanent separation ...". Orange County Register. April 28, 1999. p. A2.
  68. ↑ "CONGRATULATING THE ALPHA EPSILON PI INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY – (Extensions of Remarks – August 02, 2013)". Library of Congress. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  69. ↑ "James L Brooks's Federal Campaign Contribution Report". Newsmeat. Archived from the original on December 31, 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
  70. ↑ Galloway, Stephen (January 27, 2017). "James L. Brooks on How Long He'll Stick With 'The Simpsons' and Seeing Spielberg at the Supermarket". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
  71. ↑ "James L. Brooks". October 22, 2017.
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