David Bianculli on James L. Brooks
from The Lives They're Living Hosted by Ben Yagoda
David Bianculli is the first return guest to The Lives They're Living. (We talked about Mason Williams in one of the first episodes.) David has been the TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross since its inception, and has been writing about television since 1975, notably at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Daily News. He's written four books: The Platinum Age Of Television: From I Love Lucy to The Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific (2016); Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 2009); Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously (1992); and Dictionary of Teleliteracy (1996). Bianculli is professor of Television Studies at Rowan University in New Jersey. His subject on this episode is the great writer, director, and producer James L. Brooks, who got his start some sixty years ago in an unexpected place. Since then, among many other achievements, Brooks co-created The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Simpsons, and wrote and directed the Oscar-winning Terms of Endearment. Conan O'Brien talks about Brooks's laugh. Clips of Brooks laughing. Albert Brooks speech from Broadcast News. Photo of Brooks by Bob Marshak, 2004.
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