Gracie Films

Last updated
Gracie Films
Company type Private
Industry Film and television animation production
Predecessor John Charles Walters Company
Founded1986;38 years ago (1986)
Founder James L. Brooks
Headquarters
FOX Studios lot, 10201 West Pico Boulevard Bldg 41/42, Los Angeles CA 90064 [1]
,
United States
Key people
Richard Sakai (President) [2]
Products The Simpsons
Website graciefilms.com

Gracie Films is an American film and television production company founded by James L. Brooks in 1986. The company is primarily responsible for producing its long-running flagship animated series The Simpsons .

Contents

The Gracie Films headquarters is located on the Fox Studios lot at 10201 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. [3]

Overview

James L. Brooks, who had previously founded John Charles Walters Company, founded Gracie Films at 20th Century Fox in 1986, with Polly Platt as executive vice president. Named for comedian Gracie Allen, the company was established to "provide real writers with a vehicle to get their movies made". [4] Its primary distributor is currently Sony Pictures Entertainment, though it continues to produce The Simpsons at Fox's studio in Century City, Los Angeles.

According to Simpsons Confidential, Brooks gave The Simpsons' writing staff free rein, as he firmly believed they were the most important part of the process, [5] and "in the legal battles over The Simpsons, it was Fox that was being sued, not Gracie Films". [6] The company also coordinates international distribution and dubbing for The Simpsons, [7] "[finding] voices for dubbing that would match those of the original American actors as closely as possible." [8] Gracie Films’ main production office is at the Sidney Poitier building on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California. In 1989, Gracie Films had struck a deal with ABC. [9]

Gracie Films' production logo depicts noisy patrons in a movie theatre (which were the voices of then-CEO of Fox Garth Ancier and music composer Jeffrey Townsend double-tracked to sound like there were more people) being shushed by a woman in the back row (with the shush sound being done by Tracey Ullman). The company's name appears on the screen, accompanied by a brief passage played on keyboard. Audio variations exist on The Simpsons, often with dialogue from the episode or characters such as Homer responding to the shush. The most common audio variation is on the Treehouse of Horror episodes (excluding "Treehouse of Horror" which used the original logo audio and "Treehouse of Horror II" and "Treehouse of Horror III" which has the organ theme only), where the shushing sound was replaced by a woman screaming and the logo's music is played in a minor key on a synth-emulated pipe organ. Originally, the Roland D-50 PN-D50-01 Pipe Organ preset was used for that particular variant and was composed by Danny Elfman. The music was composed by Jeffrey Townsend and Alf Clausen on a tiny Korg synth rack using a custom programmed preset. Starting from Treehouse of Horror XXVIII, the music was rearranged by Bleeding Fingers Music.

Filmography

Television

Years activeTitleCreator(s)Co-production company(s)Distributor(s)
1987–1990 The Tracey Ullman Show James L. Brooks
Jerry Belson
Ken Estin
Heide Perlman
Klasky Csupo 20th Television
1989–present The Simpsons Matt Groening 20th Television / 20th Television Animation [10]
1991–1992 Sibs Heide Perlman Columbia Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television
1993–1994 Phenom Sam Simon
Dick Blasucci
Marc Flanagan
Columbia Pictures Television / ELP Communications
1994–1995
2000–01 (revival)
The Critic Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Columbia Pictures Television
2001 What About Joan? Ed. Weinberger Columbia TriStar Television
2014"The Simpsons Guy" Seth MacFarlane Fuzzy Door Productions 20th Television

Films

YearTitleDirectorCo-production company(s)Distributor(s)Box officeRef.
1987 Broadcast News James L. Brooks 20th Century Fox $67.3 million [11]
1988 Big Penny Marshall $151.7 million [12]
1989 Say Anything... Cameron Crowe $20.7 million [13]
The War of the Roses Danny DeVito $160.2 million [14]
1994 I'll Do Anything James L. Brooks Columbia Pictures Sony Pictures Releasing $10 million [15]
1996 Bottle Rocket Wes Anderson $560,069 [16]
Jerry Maguire Cameron Crowe TriStar Pictures / Vinyl Films $273.6 million [17]
1997 As Good as It Gets James L. BrooksTriStar Pictures$314.1 million [18]
2001 Riding in Cars with Boys Penny MarshallColumbia Pictures$35.7 million [19]
2004 Spanglish James L. Brooks$55 million [20]
2007 The Simpsons Movie David Silverman 20th Century Fox / 20th Century Fox Animation 20th Century Fox$536.4 million [21]
2010 How Do You Know James L. BrooksColumbia PicturesSony Pictures Releasing$48.7 million [22]
2016 The Edge of Seventeen Kelly Fremon Craig H. Brothers / Tang Media Productions / Virgin Produced STX Entertainment $19.4 million [23]
2018IceboxDaniel SawkaEndeavor Content / HBO Films HBO TBA [24]
2023 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. Kelly Fremon Craig Lionsgate $21.5 million [25]
TBA Ella McCay James L. Brooks 20th Century Studios Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
TBAA Guilty Conscience Greta Gerwig
Kelly Fremon Craig
Amblin Entertainment / Edko Films A24

Theme park

YearTitleDirectorCo-production company(s)Distributor(s)Notes
2008 The Simpsons Ride Mike B. Anderson
and John Rice
Blur Studio / Film Roman / Reel FX Creative Studios Universal Creative Located in Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood.

Shorts

YearTitleDirectorCo-production company(s)Distributor(s)Notes
2012 The Longest Daycare David Silverman 20th Century Fox Animation / AKOM / Film Roman 20th Century Fox Shown with Ice Age: Continental Drift .
2020 Playdate with Destiny 20th Century Studios / 20th Century Animation / AKOM Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Shown with Onward .
2021 The Force Awakens from Its Nap 20th Television Disney+ Exclusive Disney+ short film.
The Good, the Bart, and the Loki 20th Television Animation / AKOM
Plusaversary
2022 When Billie Met Lisa 20th Television Animation
Welcome to the Club
The Simpsons Meet the Bocellis in "Feliz Navidad"
2023 Rogue Not Quite One Walt Disney Pictures (logo only) / 20th Television Animation

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References

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  2. "Richard Sakai / Variety". Variety. 17 December 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
  3. Gracie Films official website with headquarters address (Retrieved 24 December 2022)
  4. Alisa Perren, Indie, Inc.: Miramax and the Transformation of Hollywood in the 1990s , p. 159, at Google Books
  5. John Ortved, Simpsons Confidential , p. 30, at Google Books
  6. John Ortved, Simpsons Confidential: The uncensored, totally unauthorised history of the world's greatest TV show by the people that made it , p. 126, at Google Books
  7. Michela Ardizzoni, Chiara Ferrari (eds.), Beyond Monopoly: Globalization and Contemporary Italian Media , p. 101, at Google Books
  8. Chiara Francesca Ferrari, Since When Is Fran Drescher Jewish?: Dubbing Stereotypes in The Nanny, The Simpsons, and The Sopranos , p. 73, at Google Books
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