James L. Brooks was interviewed by Jeffrey Brown on Macneil Lehrer NewsHour, on e of the show's pleasingly rare showbiz spots. Damn, that Brooks is charming. Freaky to look at him and think that he's pivotal in both The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Terms of Endearment and The Simpsons. Brown and Brooks had this exchange, which I love:
JEFFREY BROWN: ...You've had this show through 9/11.
You've had all kinds of things happen in the world. Are there things
that you, in writing these shows, your team has felt are off-limits, or
do you just want to address whatever you can?
JAMES BROOKS: You know, we've been guilty of good taste occasionally.
JEFFREY BROWN: Guilty of good taste, huh? How does that feel?
JAMES BROOKS: (Big shit-eating grin)Responsible.
When Brown asked about The Simpsons' enduring appeal Brooks told a story about watching the show with his rather stuffy in-laws and everyone in the room laughing-at different things. "We got everyone on their own level," he said. I encountered Matt Groening once when The Simpsons crew had their Christmas party at a restaurant I was working at in Los Angeles. I was pretty tongue tied but managed to tell Groening that it was the only show my whole family could sit down and enjoy together. I must have muttered or something because he said, "What?" And I said "School play enjoyed by all," and slunk away. To quote Jerri Blank, "It's just more shame."
Meanwhile, on the other side of Gotham City, Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Jacobs posed with giant pictures of their Simpsonsized selves from Harper's Bazaar.