James L. Brooks’ Fluke

Last week I watch the Criterion Collection DVD of Broadcast News that was written and directed by James L. Brooks. Despite the 1987 film being Brooks was nominated seven Oscars and not winning any, I think it is one of the finest films of the 80s. And almost 25 years after it was released, it is still a screenwriting and acting feast.

Holly Hunter, William Hurt and Albert Brooks have so wonderful moments in this film that it I just want to keep watching this film over and over. And Brooks is brilliant—and he has a long history to prove it: The Simpsons, Terms of Endearment, As Good As It Gets, Taxi, Mary Tyler Moore, Room 222. But there was a time when Brooks was just somebody starting out in the media business, in awe of the talents of others:

“I was at CBS News on a fluke. I replaced somebody who was on vacation. I worked as a copy boy, then became a news writer. This was at the end of the glory days there. You’re looking at somebody who actually saw Edward R. Murrow. He’d go get a drink at this bar, and I’d get a table and have coffee just so I could keep looking at him.”
James L. Brooks
 The Atlantic interview

And it was that fluke that helped serve as the foundation for Broadcast News. May we all be blessed at least once in our lives with a fluke of ours resulting in something one tenth as good as Broadcast News.

Scott W. Smith