James L. Brooks Filmography

Spanglish

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Adam Sandler, Téa Leoni, Paz Vega, Cloris Leachman, Shelbie Bruce

Synopsis: A Hispanic woman and her young daughter are thrown into the middle of a well-to-do but remarkably dysfunctional family in this comedy drama from writer and director James L. Brooks. Flor (Paz Vega) is a single mother who has struggled to support her daughter Cristina (Shelbie Bruce) working as a Read More

Riding in Cars With Boys

Crew: Producer

Actors: Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, Brittany Murphy, Adam Garcia, Lorraine Bracco, Sara Gilbert, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Synopsis: Penny Marshall directed this serio-comic story, based on the memoir by Beverly Donofrio, about a young woman who finds her life radically altered by an event from her teen years. Born in 1950, Beverly (Drew Barrymore) grew up bright and ambitious in a working-class neighborhood in Connecticut; her Read More

What About Joan [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Joan Cusack, Kyle Chandler, Jessica Hecht, Donna Murphy, Kelli Shanygne Williams

As Good As It Gets

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jesse James, Harold Ramis, Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Skeet Ulrich, Shirley Knight

Synopsis: James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) directed this $50 million-plus romantic comedy, set in Manhattan. Dysfunctional, acid-tongued romance novelist Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson), who suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder, takes pride in his ability to offend. At a nearby Read More

Jerry Maguire

Crew: Producer

Actors: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Renée Zellweger, Kelly Preston, Jay Mohr, Jerry O'Connell, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Lipnicki, Regina King

Synopsis: Combining drama, comedy, and romance, Jerry Maguire was a critical and commercial success built on an original script by writer/director Cameron Crowe and an Oscar-nominated performance by Tom Cruise. Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is an agent with a major sports management firm. He's enthusiastic Read More

Bottle Rocket

Crew: Producer

Actors: Andrew Wilson, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Robert Musgrave, Lumi Cavazos, James Caan

Synopsis: A bright, optimistic caper comedy from first-time director Wes Anderson, Bottle Rocket focuses on a group of young Texans aspiring to become master thieves. Their leader is Dignan (Owen C. Wilson, who also co-wrote the screenplay), an upbeat if naive charmer who convinces his friends Anthony (Wilson Read More

I'll Do Anything

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Nick Nolte, Whittni Wright, Albert Brooks, Julie Kavner, Joely Richardson, Tracey Ullman

Synopsis: James L. Brooks' showbiz comedy I'll Do Anything is "The Musical That Almost Was" (after test screenings Brooks removed all the musical numbers in the film, turning the film into a songless romantic comedy). Matt Hobbs (Nick Nolte) is a hardly working actor who finds himself raising his 6-year-old Read More

The War of the Roses

Crew: Co-producer

Actors: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Marianne Sägebrecht, Sean Astin

Synopsis: Divorce lawyer Danny De Vito warns his prospective client that the story he's about to tell isn't a pretty one, but the client listens with eager intensity -- as do the folks out there in the movie in the audience. The War of the Roses can best be described as a slapstick tragedy concerning the Read More

Say Anything...

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor, Amy Brooks

Synopsis: Ione Skye plays Diane Court, high-school valedictorian on the verge of heading to England on a prestigious scholarship. This is especially thrilling to Diane's divorced father, James (John Mahoney), who has always shared a special relationship with the girl, less father/daughter than Read More

Big

Crew: Co-producer, Producer

Actors: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, John Heard, Jared Rushton, Robert Loggia

Synopsis: More than anything else, 13-year old New Jerseyite Josh (David Moscow) wants to be "big". That's the wish he makes at an odd-looking amusement pier fortunetelling machine. The next morning, Josh wakes up-only to discover that he's grown to manhood overnight! (At this point, the part is taken over Read More

Broadcast News

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: William Hurt, Albert Brooks, Holly Hunter, Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, Jack Nicholson

Synopsis: Writer/director/producer James L. Brooks scores on all counts with this clear-eyed look at the television news business and the dysfunctional types who work in it. Brooks' intelligent script introduces us to Jane Craig (Holly Hunter), an ambitious producer at the network news division's Washington Read More

Terms of Endearment

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, John Lithgow

Synopsis: Terms of Endearment covers three decades in the lives of widow Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter Emma (Debra Winger). Fiercely protected by Aurora throughout childhood, Emma runs into resistance from her mother when she marries wishy-washy college teacher Flap (Jeff Daniels). Read More

Taxi: Season 05

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Although Taxi had earned scores of industry awards and the unflagging loyalty of its fans during its four-year lifespan on ABC, the series had never posted the sort of ratings that would qualify it as a hit. Thus, ABC dropped the show at the end of season four -- but the song wasn't quite over Read More

Taxi: Season 04

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Taxi remained a succès d'estime for ABC as it entered its fourth season, gathering scores of industry awards and garnering the love of its most loyal fans and the respect of Hollywood insiders, while still continuing to post lukewarm ratings. The series hadn't cracked the "Top 25" shows Read More

Modern Romance

Actors: Albert Brooks, Kathryn Harrold, Bruno Kirby, Jane Hallaren, James L. Brooks

Synopsis: Opening well past the point favored by most romantic comedies, director/co-writer/star Albert Brooks' take on the genre begins with a breakup. After exchanging harsh words in a diner, Brooks and Kathryn Harrold go their separate ways. Brooks then spends the next few days attempting to forget his Read More

Taxi: Season 03

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Although Taxi had built up a loyal band of followers and accumulated several industry awards during its first two seasons on ABC, the ratings had steadily declined, prompting the network to mark the series' third season by moving the show from Tuesdays at 9:30 to Wednesdays at 9:00, opposite NBC's Diff'rent Strokes Read More

Taxi: Season 02

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Judd Hirsch, Jeff Conaway, Danny DeVito, Marilu Henner, Tony Danza

Synopsis: Securely imbedded as the ninth most popular program on American television, Taxi inaugurated its second season on the same network (ABC), but in a new timeslot (Wednesday rather than Thursday). A few changes had been made in the cast as well. Randall Carver, who spent all of season one playing Read More

Real Life

Actors: Charles Grodin, Frances Lee McCain, J.A. Preston, Matthew Tobin, Albert Brooks

Synopsis: Albert Brooks made his feature-length debut as a writer and director with this wickedly funny satire, in which Albert Brooks plays "Albert Brooks," an arrogant and self-centered comedian who has decided to make a documentary film. Following the lead of the infamous pre-Real World PBS series An Read More

Starting Over

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen, Charles Durning, Frances Sternhagen

Synopsis: Scripted by James L. Brooks from Dan Wakefield's novel, Alan J. Pakula's romantic comedy follows the tribulations of a freshly divorced man as he looks for love with a wary single woman. Phil Potter (Burt Reynolds sans mustache) can't quite believe it when his aspiring songbird wife Jessica (Candice Bergen Read More

Taxi: Season 01

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: The classic sitcom Taxi spent all of one episode establishing its premise and characters -- then proceeded forward with the confidence of a series that had been on the air for years. In episode one, the viewer was swiftly and economically introduced to the personnel of New York's Sunshine Cab Read More

Cindy

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Synopsis: Obviously inspired by The Wiz, Cindy is a musical adaptation of "Cinderella" with an African-American cast. In 1943 Harlem, Cindy (Charlaine Woodard), fresh from the south, is treated harshly by her stepmother (Mae Mercer) and nasty stepsisters (Nell-Ruth Carter, Alaina Reed). In a departure from Read More

Taxi [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer, Show Creator

Synopsis: A true classic of the "ensemble sitcom" genre, Taxi ran for five years on two different networks, accumulating dozens of industry awards (including several Emmys) and a comparatively small but intensely vocal corps of loyal and loving viewers along the way. Most of the action took place in the Read More

Taxi: Like Father, Like Daughter

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Taxi's very first episode gets under way as would-be art dealer Elaine Nardo (Marilu Henner) strolls into the offices of New York's Sunshine Cab company, looking for a job. After a typically hostile "screening" by dispatcher Louie DePalma (Danny DeVito), Elaine is introduced to her co-workers Read More

Lou Grant [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Last Show

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: It is a testament to the brilliance of The Mary Tyler Moore Show that the series' 168th and final episode earned an Emmy Award for Best Comedy Writing. When WJM-TV is taken over by new owners, everyone in the newsroom is certain that he or she will be given the pink slip -- none more so than Read More

Thursday's Game

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Bob Newhart, Gene Wilder

Synopsis: James L. Brooks' Thursday's Game is a witty made-for-television comedy about two businessmen (Bob Newhart and Gene Wilder) who meet every Thursday night to play poker and discuss their professional and personal problems. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Good-Time News

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Season three of The Mary Tyler Moore Show was launched with a spoof of a then-current broadcasting trend: "Happy Talk" TV newscasts. Ordered by station management to lighten up the format of WJM-TV's six o'clock news report, Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) is stuck with the responsibility of Read More

Thursday's Game

Crew: Producer, Teleplay By

Synopsis: Gene Wilder and Bob Newhart star as husbands who have some explaining to do in this made-for-television comedy. Wilder stars as Harry Evers and Newhart as Marvin Ellison, two friends who decide to keep up their Thursday night escapades after their weekly poker game breaks up. When their wives find Read More

The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Just a Lunch

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) is swept off her feet by dashing, romantic foreign correspondent John Corcoran (Monte Markham). He'd like to get serious with her and she wants to reciprocate. There's only one problem: Corcoran is married. Joyce Bulifant makes her first series appearance as Marie Read More

The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Love Is All Around

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Originally telecast September 19, 1970, "Love Is All Around" is the classic opening episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Newly arrived in Minneapolis, Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) rents an apartment from airheaded Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman), then manages to get off on the wrong foot Read More

The Mary Tyler Moore Show [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: One of the best network sitcoms to emerge from the 1970s (and it was a crowded field indeed during that remarkable decade!), The Mary Tyler Moore Show starred the titular actress as Mary Richards, a single, slightly insecure woman in her early thirties who worked as associate producer for the Read More

The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Big-hearted Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) offers to substitute for the WJM-TV employee who normally mans the studio's newsroom on Christmas Eve. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but before long, she is desperately lonely for human companionship. Henry Corden, longtime voice of cartoon character Read More

The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Support Your Local Mother

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Nancy Walker makes her first series appearance as Ida Morganstern, the guilt-dispensing, impossible-to-please mother of Rhoda Morganstern (Valerie Harper). Arriving in Minneapolis, Ida unexpectedly shows up at the doorstep of her daughter's friend, Mary (Mary Tyler Moore). The reason? Rhoda isn't Read More

The Andy Griffith Show: Emmett's Brother-in-Law

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Paul Hartman, Dub Taylor, Jack Dodson

Synopsis: Dub Taylor guest-stars as Ben, the brother-in-law of Mayberry's fix-it man Emmett Clark. Conspiring with Emmett's wife Martha (Mary Lansing), Ben tries to convince Emmett to go into the insurance business. Soon, however, Martha realizes that Emmett will never be happy without a hammer or Read More

The Andy Griffith Show: The Mayberry Chef

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Don Keefer

Synopsis: At Andy's urging, Aunt Bee becomes the star of a cooking show on Silver City television station WZAZ. Scoring a hit as "The Mayberry Chef", Bee worries that she is neglecting her duties at home, but Andy and Opie assure her otherwise-even though their own attempts at cooking are, to put it Read More

The March of Time: The Enterprise In Action

Crew: Screenwriter