Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
James L. Brooks put together a remarkable track record of creating television shows. Sure, some of them are spinoffs, but Brooks was responsible, either as a solo creator or co-creator, for shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, and, you know, The Simpsons. However, not even the likes of James L. Brooks can put together a perfect record. After he was already well-established, he did have a show that simply didn’t succeed. It’s been entirely forgotten, and it’s called The Associates.
The show was co-created by Brooks and some of his Taxi compatriots. A legal sitcom, The Associates focused on three young lawyers at a firm on Wall Street. It had quite the cast as well, including the future Mrs. Arnold on The Wonder Years and the future Frank Fontana on Murphy Brown. Oh, and some guy named Martin Short. Yes, the Martin Short was in the cast of The Associates. They even had James Burrows on board to direct the pilot!
However, even with all this cache, The Associates was canceled after nine episodes. So it wasn’t any good, right? Well, not so fast. The show was critically-acclaimed and it earned two Golden Globe nominations. Also, two Emmy nominations for writing. Yes, two of the nine episodes of The Associates to air got Emmy nominations.
So maybe the issue wasn’t with Brooks, the other creators, the writers, or the cast. Maybe The Associates belongs in the “brilliant, but canceled” category. Not to say Brooks does, in fact, have a spotless career. He did direct the movie How Do You Know, after all.
