He started by being a news writier for CBS and then started writing for sitcoms for CBS. He was responsible for the Mary Tyler Moore Show which was a massive success and also introduced realism into sitcoms. This led to the spin off series Rhoda and Lou Grant, and was followed by Taxi. Tarting over was his move into feature films and or wrote and produced the film. Working with Alan J Pakula he learnt the differences between television and films. From this he went on to write, produce and direct Terms Of Endearment. He brought a sense of realism into how people deal with cancer into the film. This film won him his Best Director Oscar. His next film, which he also wrote and directed was Broaccast News and based on his time working in CBS news. Unusually for a rom-com the female lead does not end up with either of the men and each goes their separate ways. In 1987 he started working on the television series The Ullman Show which was a series of sketches. We want to add some animated sketches and Matt Groening produced the first Simpsons sketches from which the full animated series was developed, which was the first of the adult cartonn series. Say Anything was the directorial ebut of Cameron Crowe. James L Brooks was known for finding an supporting new talent, including bringing Wes ANderson and Owen Wilson to Hollywood to make their first feature length film, Bottle Rocket. He worked again with Cameron Crowe in the very successful Jerry Maguire. He wrote, directed and produced the quirky comedy that has a different twist to most rom-coms, that is all about the characters. Spanglish is about families, culture and language, with a more serious role for Adam Sandler. One of the features of James L Brooks films is the emphasis on dialogue and conversations rather than bif scenes.
