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James L. Brooks

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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 at the Springfield, Vermont premiere of The Simpsons Movie in August 2007
Born
James Lawrence Brooks

(1940-05-09) May 9, 1940 (age 80)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation
  • Director
  • producer
  • screenwriter
Years active1965–present
Spouse(s)
Marianne Catherine Morrissey
(m. 1964; div. 1972)

Holly Beth Holmberg
(m. 1978; div. 1999)
Children4
Websitehttp://www.graciefilms.com/

James Lawrence Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is an American director, producer and screenwriter, who helped create a string of acclaimed productions in television and the movies, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Simpsons, Broadcast News, 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 1984, 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. 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[edit]

James Lawrence Brooks was born on May 9, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, United States, 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[edit]

Television[edit]

A smiling women wearing a black and white dress holds a golden statuette.
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 for ABC the series Room 222, 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[edit]

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]

A man wearing a suit looks down at the peace of paper he is signing for the person who is out of shot.
Cameron Crowe at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival promoting Elizabethtown. Brooks produced two of Crowe's films.

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, winning two, both 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 was poorly received 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 1984.[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[edit]

A man in glasses sits in front of a microphone
Matt Groening originally intended to pitch Life in Hell to Brooks

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 almost 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 removed his names 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[edit]

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]

Filmography[edit]

Films[edit]

Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
1979 Starting Over No Yes Yes
1983 Terms of Endearment Yes Yes Yes
1987 Broadcast News Yes Yes Yes
1988 Big No No Yes
1989 Say Anything... No No Yes Executive producer
The War of the Roses No No Yes Co-producer
1994 I'll Do Anything Yes Yes Yes
1996 Bottle Rocket No No Yes Executive producer
Jerry Maguire No No Yes
1997 As Good as It Gets Yes Yes Yes
2001 Riding in Cars with Boys No No Yes
2004 Spanglish Yes Yes Yes
2007 The Simpsons Movie No Yes Yes
2010 How Do You Know Yes Yes Yes
2012 The Longest Daycare No Yes Yes Simpsons Short film
2016 The Edge of Seventeen No No Yes

Television[edit]

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

Acting Credits

Year Title Role Notes
1972 The Mary Tyler Moore Show Rabbi Episode: Enter Rhoda's Parents
1974 Rhoda Subway Passenger Episode: Rhoda's Wedding
1976 Saturday Night Live Paul Reynold Episode: Elliott Gould/Anne Murray
1979 Real Life Driving Evaluator Film
1981 Modern Romance David Film

Awards and Nominations[edit]

Film Awards[edit]

Year Ceremony Award Work Result
1983 Academy Awards Best Picture Terms of Endearment Won
Best Director Won
Best Adapted Screenplay Won
1983 Golden Globe Award Best Director Nominated
Golden Globe Award Best Screenplay Won
1983 Directors Guild of America Outstanding Director - Feature Film Won
1983 Writers Guild of America Best Adapted Screenplay Won
1983 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Director Won
1983 Best Screenplay Won
1983 National Board of Review Best Director Won
1987 Academy Award Best Picture Broadcast News Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Nominated
1987 Golden Globe Award Best Director Nominated
Best Screenplay Nominated
1987 Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directing - Feature Film Nominated
1987 Writers Guild of America Best Original Screenplay Nominated
1987 Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear Nominated
1987 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Director 2nd place
1987 New York Film Critics Circle Best Director Won
1987 Best Screenplay Won
1997 Academy Awards Best Picture As Good as it Gets Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Nominated
1997 Golden Globe Award Best Director Nominated
Best Screenplay Nominated
1997 Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directing - Feature Film Nominated
1997 Producers Guild of America Best Theatrical Motion Picture Nominated
1997 Writers Guild of America Best Original Screenplay Nominated
1987 Chicago Film Critics Association Best Director Nominated
1987 San Diego Film Critics Society Best Original Screenplay Won
1987 Satellite Award Best Film Won
1987 Southeastern Film Critics Association Best Original Screenplay Won
1987 Saturn Award Best Fantasy Film Big Nominated
1996 Academy Award Best Picture Jerry Maguire Nominated
2007 Saturn Award Best Animated Film The Simpsons Movie Nominated

Television Awards[edit]

Primetime Emmy Awards

Year Category Work Result
1971 Outstanding Comedy Series The Mary Tyler Moore Show Nominated
Outstanding New Series The Mary Tyler Moore Show Nominated
Outstanding Writing - Comedy Series Support Your Local Mothers,
The Mary Tyler Moore Show 		Won
1972 Outstanding Comedy Series The Mary Tyler Moore Show Nominated
1973 Outstanding Comedy Series The Mary Tyler Moore Show Nominated
Outstanding Writing - Comedy Series The Good-Time News,
The Mary Tyler Moore Show 		Nominated
1974 Outstanding Comedy Series The Mary Tyler Moore Show Nominated
1975 Outstanding Comedy Series The Mary Tyler Moore Show Won
Outstanding Comedy Series Rhoda Nominated
Outstanding Writing - Comedy Series Rhoda's Wedding, Rhoda Nominated
1976 Outstanding Comedy Series The Mary Tyler Moore Show Won
1977 Outstanding Comedy Series The Mary Tyler Moore Show Won
Outstanding Writing - Comedy Series The Last Show, Mary Tyler Moore Show Won
1978 Outstanding Drama Series Lou Grant Won
1979 Outstanding Comedy Series Taxi Won
1980 Outstanding Comedy Series Won
1981 Outstanding Comedy Series Won
1982 Outstanding Comedy Series Nominated
1983 Outstanding Comedy Series Nominated
1987 Outstanding Variety Series The Tracy Ullman Show Nominated
Writing for a Variety Series Nominated
1988 Outstanding Variety Series Nominated
Writing for a Variety Series Nominated
1989 Outstanding Variety Series Won
Writing for a Variety Series Nominated
1990 Outstanding Variety Series Nominated
Writing for a Variety Series Won
Outstanding Variety Special The Best of the Tracy Ullman Show Nominated
Outstanding Animated Program Life on the Fast Lane, The Simpsons Won
Outstanding Animated Program Roasting on an Open Fire, The Simpsons Nominated
1991 Outstanding Animated Program Homer v. Lisa and the 8th Commandment, The Simpsons Won
1992 Outstanding Animated Program Radio Bart, The Simpsons Nominated
1995 Outstanding Animated Program Lisa's Wedding, The Simpsons Won
1996 Outstanding Animated Program Treehouse of Horror VI, The Simpsons Nominated
1997 Outstanding Animated Program Homer's Phobia, The Simpsons Won
1998 Outstanding Animated Program Trash of the Titans, The Simpsons Won
1999 Outstanding Animated Program Viva Ned Flanders, The Simpsons Nominated
2000 Outstanding Animated Program Behind the Laughter, The Simpsons Won
2001 Outstanding Animated Program Homr, The Simpsons Won
2002 Outstanding Animated Program She of Little Faith, The Simpsons Nominated
2003 Outstanding Animated Program Three Gays of the Condo, The Simpsons Won
2004 Outstanding Animated Program The Way We Weren't, The Simpsons Nominated
2005 Outstanding Animated Program Future Drama, The Simpsons Nominated
2006 Outstanding Animated Program The Seemingly Neverending Story, The Simpsons Won
2007 Outstanding Animated Program The Haw-Hawed Couple, The Simpsons Nominated
2008 Outstanding Animated Program Eternal Moonshine of the Simpsons Mind, The Simpsons Won
2009 Outstanding Animated Program Gone Maggie Gone, The Simpsons Nominated
2010 Outstanding Animated Program Once Upon a Time in Springfield, The Simpsons Nominated
2011 Outstanding Animated Program Angry Dad: The Movie, The Simpsons Nominated
2012 Outstanding Animated Program Holiday's of Future Past, The Simpsons Nominated
2013 Outstanding Animated Program Treehouse of Horror XXIII, The Simpsons Nominated
2015 Outstanding Animated Program Treehouse of Horror XXV, The Simpsons Nominated
2016 Outstanding Animated Program Halloween of Horror, The Simpsons Nominated
2017 Outstanding Animated Program The Town, The Simpsons Nominated
2018 Outstanding Animated Program Gone Boy, The Simpsons Nominated
2019 Outstanding Animated Program Mad About the Toy, The Simpsons Won

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Nominations Search". Emmys.com. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Horace Newcomb. "Brooks, James L." The Museum of Broadcast Communications. 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ^ a b c d e Diamond, Jamie (January 30, 1994). "Film; Bringing You a Musical ... With No Music". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
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External links[edit]

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