Claim: Broadcast News was written by a man.

James Lawrence `` Jim '' Brooks -LRB- born May 9 , 1940 -RRB- is an Academy Award - , Emmy - and Peabody Award-winning American television and movie director , producer and screenwriter . Growing up in North Bergen , New Jersey , Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing . After dropping out of New York University , he got a job as an usher at CBS , going on to write for the CBS News broadcasts . He moved to Los Angeles in 1965 to work on David L. Wolper 's documentaries . After being laid off he met producer Allan Burns who secured him a job as a writer on the series My Mother the Car .   Brooks wrote for several shows before being hired as a story editor on My Friend Tony and later created the series Room 222 . Grant Tinker hired Brooks and Burns at MTM Productions to create The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970 . The show , one of the first to feature an independent working woman as its lead character , was critically acclaimed and won Brooks several Primetime Emmy Awards . Brooks and Burns then created two successful spin-offs from Mary Tyler Moore in the shape of Rhoda -LRB- a comedy -RRB- and Lou Grant -LRB- a drama -RRB- . Brooks left MTM Productions in 1978 to co-create the sitcom Taxi which , despite winning multiple Emmys , suffered from low ratings and was canceled twice .   Brooks moved into feature film work when he wrote and co-produced the 1979 film Starting Over . His next project was the critically acclaimed film Terms of Endearment , which he produced , directed and wrote , winning an Academy Award for all three roles . Basing his next film , Broadcast News , on his journalistic experiences , the film earned him a further two Academy Award nominations . Although his 1994 work I 'll Do Anything was hampered by negative press attention due to the cutting of all of its recorded musical numbers , As Good as It Gets -LRB- co-written with Mark Andrus -RRB- earned further praise . It was seven years until his next film , 2004 's Spanglish . His sixth film , How Do You Know , was released in 2010 . Brooks also produced and mentored Cameron Crowe on Say Anything ... -LRB- 1989 -RRB- and Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson on Bottle Rocket -LRB- 1996 -RRB- .   In 1984 , Brooks founded the television and film company , Gracie Films . Although he did not intend to do so , Brooks returned to television in 1987 as the producer of The Tracey Ullman Show . He hired cartoonist Matt Groening to create a series of shorts for the show , which eventually led to The Simpsons in 1989 . The Simpsons won numerous awards and is still running . Brooks also co-produced and co-wrote the 2007 film adaptation of the show , The Simpsons Movie . In total , Brooks has received 47 Emmy nominations , winning 20 of them .