Gracie Films
Encyclopedia : G : GR : GRA : Gracie Films
Gracie Films is an American film and television production company, created by James L. Brooks in 1986 for The Tracey Ullman Show. Since then, the company has produced many award-winning films and television series, some of which include Broadcast News, and Jerry Maguire, but most notably, The Simpsons. The company is primarily associated with film studio and distributor Sony Pictures Entertainment, but still has an office at the 20th Century Fox lot due to the indefinite contract Gracie Films has had with Fox for the last 19 years for The Simpsons. Their logo, shown at the end of every Simpsons episode, depicts noisy movie patrons at the movie theatre hearing a woman in the back row saying "Shhhhh!" so they can show the title: "Gracie Films."
The melody of the Gracie Films logo theme is very similar to the chorus of the song "King of Wishful Thinking" by Go West (band), but this is most likely a coincidence. In a Simpsons DVD commentary, James says he just came up with this tune. The Gracie Films theme was first heard in 1987 and is credited to Jeffrey Townsend, while "King of Wishful Thinking" was released in 1990 and is credited to Martin Page, Peter Cox, and Richard Drummie.
Different versions of the logo were used on "The Simpsons," such as a "horror" theme (where the "shhh" is replaced by a scream) and a "medieval" theme, but all used the same tune. Sometimes, a quote is heard while the logo sequence is playing. For instance, in one episode in which Homer is heard "cutting" all the producers and crew, he says "you're cut too, shushy!". Another episode features Gil saying "Oh, why did you have to 'shhhh'? You ruined the whole show!". Also in an episode where Simon Cowell guest stars, at the end, he says to the lady "Oh, 'shush' yourself!"
Notable TV Series & Films
- The Tracey Ullman Show (1987-1990)
- Broadcast News (1987)
- The Simpsons (1989-present)
- Sibs (1991-1992)
- The Critic (1994-1995)
- Jerry Maguire (1996)
- What About Joan? (2001-2002)
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.