James L. Brooks (director and producer)

Episode overview

James L. Brooks (Ella McCay, The Simpsons, Taxi) is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer. James joins the Armchair Expert to discuss being an industrious high school reporter interviewing Louis Armstrong and Anne Bancroft, his lucky break as a studio page bringing Edward R. Murrow coffee, and co-creating the Mary Tyler Moore Show with Alan Burns. James and Dax talk about why there’s no better job in the world than on a television show that’s working, seeing Andy Kaufman perform as the vile Tony Clifton for the first time, and that he thinks you go legally insane when directing. James explains what it was like giving notes to Jack Nicholson, starting The Simpsons which is still the longest-running scripted show in history, and what makes a contemporary female heroine in his new screwball comedy Ella McCay.

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Short transcript highlights

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1. 0:00Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, Experts on Expert. I'm Jan Shepard.
2. 58:47charact this female character this and and catch something and it's like if you build it, will she come? You know, and
3. 1:59:42for the time. For the time. Yeah. That's it. That's everything. That's it for Jim Brooks.