I think you have a pact with an audience in every picture, and I think the pact is to try and be truthful and to be real.

James Brown of the Museum of Broadcast Communications said it "explore[d] a knotty issue facing media people in contemporary society focusing on how investigating and reporting those issues impact on the layers of personalities populating a complex newspaper publishing company. It plays differently with each audience. " Although he dropped out of a New York University public relations course Brooks' sister got him a job as an uJames L. Brooksr at CBS in New York City a job usually requiring a college education as James L. Brooks was friends with a secretary there.

Brooks and Burns then created two successful spin-offs from Mary Tyler Moore in the shape of Rhoda (a comedy) and Lou Grant (a drama). It was seven years until his next film 2004's Spanglish. In total Brooks has received 47 Emmy nominations winning 20 of them.