One of television’s most successful and innovative writers and producers, James L. Brooks made one of the most impressive directorial debuts in film history with Terms of Endearment (1983), for which he took home three Oscars®, for Best Picture, Writing, and Directing. Acclaimed for character-driven, writer-centric projects that deftly combine comedy and poignancy, James is a TV and film icon responsible for some of the most beloved movies and television series of all time.
Born in New Jersey, James started out as a writer with CBS News in New York—a background from which he would mine material for two of his signature successes, CBS’s The Mary Tyler Moore Show and 20th Century Studios’ Broadcast News (1987). In 1965, he moved to Los Angeles to work for David L. Wolper’s documentary studio. After being suddenly laid off, a chance meeting with established writer Allan Burns led to James’ writing for comedies before creating the groundbreaking ABC series, Room 222 in 1969, which received the Emmy® for Best New Series.
In turn, television executive Grant Tinker hired James and Allan Burns to create The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970. Praised as one of the most sharply written and endearingly acted series in television history, the program showcased Mary Tyler Moore’s comedic gifts as an independent career woman. But incorporating a feminist theme was the furthest thing from James’ mind. “Anybody who’s self-conscious about doing something revolutionary will never [do something revolutionary]. We were very lucky in our timing, in feminism coming to a crucial point just at the time we did the show. It’s just one of those breaks, that the timing was perfect.” The show also received a Peabody Award in 1977. The hits would not end there, however, as James later co-created the much-admired sitcom Taxi for ABC, which was selected for the Emmy as Outstanding Comedy Series three years in a row. In 1998, James received the Writer Guilds of America’s Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement.
After his remarkable string of career hits across several groundbreaking television series, James turned his unique writing sensibilities to feature films. Following the great success of Terms of Endearment (1983), some of his later films like Broadcast News (1987) and As Good as It Gets (1997), would gain further acclaim as comedies with dramatic overtones—or are they dramas with comedic overtones? Either way, these slice-of-life movies about offbeat eccentrics won audiences and awards. James was nominated for Academy Awards® for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for Broadcast News, while As Good as It Gets received a total of seven Academy Award nominations, and won two, for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Jack Nicholson, and Best Actress in a Leading Role for Helen Hunt, with Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nominations for James. In 2018, he once again received the WGA’s Laurel Award but this time for Screenwriting Achievement.
In 1986, James founded his production company, Gracie Films. “I came to 20th Century Fox to do movies,” he says, “and then they started a fourth network and asked me to do a show as part of their starting what became the Fox network. This was a time when 20th Century Fox was in shaky financial trouble; I think they were sort of on the verge of going under several times. And, in that environment, somebody made me aware of Tracey Ullman, and we did a sort of loose, crazy show, with this wildly talented woman.” At James’ invitation, Matt Groening created animated interstitials for The Tracey Ullman Show featuring a dysfunctional family with mom and dad, Marge and Homer, and kids, Bart, Lisa, and baby Maggie, which led to a full-fledged animated series—the first since the 1960s—The Simpsons debuted in 1989. The Simpsons exploded into a cultural phenomenon in 1990 and it is now the longest-running primetime scripted show in television history.
Currently in its 35th season, The Simpsons has won 37 Emmy Awards. James says, “We’re always attempting something new.” James continues to serve as executive producer. And as showrunner, Matt Selman, continues on an exciting course to use the show’s popularity on Disney+ as the opportunity to shake things up and allow the excitement and change that brings to the show. “We always appreciate the challenge of keeping the series alive with change.” There is actually a core of blessed souls who are bingeing all 747 episodes.
James says, “One of the fundamentals in writing comedy is that there is no place to hide, no way to trick yourself or rationalize if they are not laughing. That fact keeps everyone a little jumpy. That fact rules the game: if they don’t laugh, you die; if they laugh, you live.”
But in producing his comedic creations, whether for television or the movies, whether in live-action or animation, the works of James L. Brooks express a unique funniness and a distinctive poignancy. According to James, that is, simply, “Life. I mean, that’s what real life is, isn’t it? Somewhere in there.”