James L. Brooks On A Career Spanning ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ To ‘Terms Of Endearment’ To ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ And So Much More – Behind The Lens

James L. Brooks is an icon to be sure, a TV and film legend who has been responsible for some of the most beloved movies and television series of all time. As an individual he holds an Emmy record with the most wins (21 and counting) for shows including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, Taxi and the still-running animated juggernaut The Simpsons among others.

For his feature directorial debut, 1983’s Terms of Endearment, he won three Oscars — for Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay. He also received nominations in each of those categories for Broadcast News in 1987, and more noms and acclaim for As Good As It Gets in 1997. Jack Nicholson happened to have appeared in all three of those movies, so maybe he was a good luck charm, and he actually won two of his three acting Oscars under the direction of Brooks whose other films just as a producer include Jerry Maguire, Big, War of the Roses, Say Anything, Starting Over (his first Oscar nomination for screenplay), plus many others he also directed including Spanglish, I’ll Do Anything, and How Do You Know. He is about to embark on a new film, his first directorial outing in several years.

Bottom line: James L. Brooks never slows down. He is currently winning acclaim as producer of the Oscar-buzzed adaptation of Judy Blume’s seminal book Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, which is directed and written by a Brooks protégée Kelly Fremon Craig. He joins me for this special edition of my Deadline video series Behind the Lens where we talk about that film, the 40th anniversary of Terms of Endearment, and the remarkable career that just keeps on turning out the hits, all with one thing in common: genuine humanity and quality. That goes for even the flops along the way including one I mention that could have been a classic TV series had the network not jumped the gun and canceled it right away.

To find out what that is, and to watch our conversation going “behind the lens: with James L. Brooks, click on the video above.

And join me every Friday during Oscar season for another episode of Behind the Lens.