James Burrows

James Edward Burrows (born December 30, 1940), sometimes known as Jim Burrows,[1] is an American television director who has been working in television since the 1970s.[2] Burrows has directed over 50 television pilots and co-created the long-running television series Cheers. He has also formed 3 Sisters Entertainment, a joint venture with NBC that is known for Will & Grace as well as the CBS Productions show Caroline in the City.

James Burrows
Born	James Edward Burrows December 30, 1940 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	Oberlin College (BA) Yale University (MFA)
Occupation	Television director
Years active	1974–present
Spouse(s)	Linda Solomon ​ ​ (m. 1981; div. 1993)​ Debbie Easton ​ ​ (m. 1997)​
Children	4
Parent(s)	Abe Burrows

3 Sisters Entertainment

Type	Joint venture
Industry	Television production
Founded	1995
Founder	James Burrows and NBC Productions
Divisions	3 Princesses and a P

In 2016, Burrows directed his 1,000th TV episode, on NBC's Crowded.[3]

Early life

Burrows was born to a Jewish family[4][5] in Los Angeles, California, the son of Ruth (Levinson) and Abe Burrows, a well-known composer, director and writer.[6] James has one sister, Laurie Burrows Grad.[7] When James was still a young child, his family moved to New York where James attended New York’s High School of Music & Art.[8][9] Burrows is a graduate of Oberlin College and the graduate program of the Yale School of Drama.[8]

Career

Early career

After Yale, Burrows returned to California where he became employed as a dialogue coach on O.K. Crackerby!, a television series starring Burl Ives and created by Burrows' father, Abe.[10] Burrows then took a job as an assistant stage manager on the play Holly Golightly, an adaptation of the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's.[11] The production was unsuccessful, but the job served as Burrows' introduction to its star, Mary Tyler Moore.[11] Early on Burrows also worked for the road company of Cactus Flower and the Broadway production of Forty Carats.[12]

Burrows continued working in theater as a stage manager and transitioned into directing plays.[13] Burrows directed traveling plays and a production at a Jacksonville, Florida dinner theater.[13][14]

Television director

While working in theater, Burrows wrote Moore and her then husband Grant Tinker seeking a job at their production company, MTM Enterprises.[11] In 1974, Tinker hired Burrows as a director for MTM Enterprises where he directed episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show.[11][15] Tinker asked director Jay Sandrich, known for his work directing The Mary Tyler Moore Show and later The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls, to serve as a mentor to Burrows.[16]

Burrows is best known for his comic timing, complex blocking for actors, and incorporating more sophisticated lighting in television studio shoots. He is also credited as being one of the first sitcom directors to increase the typical multi-camera television shoot from three to four cameras.[15]

Cheers

Burrows co-created Cheers with brothers Glen and Les Charles. The Charles brothers were also former employees of MTM Enterprises and served as producers on the series Taxi where Burrows worked as in-house director for 76 episodes.[11][15][17] Burrows and the Charles brothers wanted to create a show where they could have more control.[17] Cheers premiered on NBC on September 30, 1982.[17] Although Cheers initially struggled in the ratings, the series became a hit, running 275 episodes over eleven seasons.[17] Burrows directed all but 35 of those 275 episodes.[11]

Other television series

Burrows has directed for many series, including:

• 1970s – Phyllis, Rhoda, Laverne & Shirley, Busting Loose, The Ted Knight Show, The Associates, On Our Own
• 1980s – The Hogan Family, Dear John, Night Court
• 1990s – Wings, Frasier, Friends, NewsRadio, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Pearl, Dharma & Greg, Caroline in the City, Will & Grace, George and Leo
• 2000s – The Class, Courting Alex, Two and a Half Men, Back to You, The Big Bang Theory, Gary Unmarried, Hank
• 2010s – Romantically Challenged, Mike & Molly, Better with You, $#*! My Dad Says, 2 Broke Girls, Partners, The Millers, Sean Saves the World, Friends with Better Lives, Crowded, Man with a Plan, Superior Donuts, Disjointed, Will & Grace (revival)

Burrows directed every episode of Will & Grace during its initial eight-year run.[18] Additionally, by 2012 Burrows had directed over 50 pilots for television series.[19]

Burrows has directed over 1,000 episodes of television, a milestone he achieved in November 2015 with the NBC sitcom Crowded.[20] To celebrate Burrows' achievement, NBC aired a special tribute on February 21, 2016, titled Must See TV: An All-Star Tribute to James Burrows featuring cast reunions from many of the series Burrows has directed such as Cheers, Taxi, Friends, Frasier, The Big Bang Theory, Will & Grace and Mike & Molly.[21] In January 2020, Andy Fisher and Burrows won the Directors Guild of America Award for Variety/Talk/News/Sports - Specials for Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's All in the Family and The Jeffersons.[22]

Other projects

In 1998, Burrows directed a Chicago-based production of the 1939 comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner starring John Mahoney.[14]

In front of the camera

Burrows has had cameo appearances in several of the shows for which he has directed. In the first season of Friends, Burrows appeared in the episode "The One with the Butt" as the director of the film in which the character Joey Tribbiani is cast as Al Pacino's "butt double".[23] He also appears as a television director named Jimmy in the 2005 HBO series The Comeback.[24] Burrows played himself on the series. An episode of Scrubs, "My Life in Four Cameras", had a character named Charles James in honor of Cheers creators Burrows and Glen and Les Charles. It was previously asserted in Sitcoms: the 101 Greatest TV Comedies of All Time (2007) that Burrows served as the silhouette of the customer who knocks on the door in the final scene of Cheers,[15] but Burrows himself refuted this claim on episode 9 of the NewsRadio-themed podcast Dispatches from Fort Awesome, revealing that the actual "Man Who Knocks" was agent Bob Broder.[25]

Awards

Over the course of his career, Burrows has been nominated for fifteen Directors Guild of America awards, and for an Emmy Award every year between 1980 and 2005, excluding 1997.[18] Burrows has won ten Emmy Awards and four Directors Guild of America Awards. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences celebrated Burrows' forty-year career by hosting a panel in his honor on October 7, 2013.[18]

Personal life

Burrows is married to celebrity hairstylist Debbie Easton; the couple lives in Manhattan.[26] Burrows was previously married to Linda Solomon.[27][28] He is a father to three daughters and a stepdaughter.[24]

Selected filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	Rhoda	Agent	Episode: "The Lady in Red"
1975	Phyllis	Telephone Man	Episode: "Up for Grabs"
1977	The Bob Newhart Show	Maintenance Man	Episode: "Halls of Hartley"
1989	Cheers	Man Standing in the Bar	Uncredited Episode: "The Art of the Steal"
1994	Friends	Director	Uncredited Episode: "The One with the Butt"
2005, 2014	The Comeback	Himself	Recurring 2005, 2014

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	More Than Friends	Director	Comedy film[29]
1982	Partners		Gay-themed buddy comedy film[30]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	The Mary Tyler Moore Show	Director	4 episodes from 1974–76
1975	Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers		Episode: "From Russia with Lust"
	Fay		Episodes: "Not with My Husband You Don't" "Lillian's Separation"
	Phyllis		19 episodes from 1975–76
	The Bob Newhart Show		11 episodes from 1975–77
1976	The Tony Randall Show		4 episodes from 1976–77
	Laverne & Shirley		8 episodes from 1976–77
1977	Bumpers[31]	Director	Short comedy television film
	Roosevelt and Truman[32]
	Calling Doctor Storm, M. D.[33]
	Busting Loose	Director	5 episodes
	Lou Grant		Episode: "Christmas"
	We've Got Each Other		Episodes: "Pilot" "The Long Vacation"
	The Betty White Show		Episode: "John's Mother"
	Rhoda		4 episodes from 1977–78
1978	The Plant Family	Director[34]	Short comedy television film
	The Betty White Show	Director	Episode: "Play Misty for John"
	Free Country		Episodes: "Citizenship" "Special Delivery"
	Taxi		75 episodes from 1978–82
1979	Butterflies	Director[35]	Short comedy television film
	A New Kind of Family	Director	Episode: "I Do"
	The Associates		4 episodes from 1979–80
1980	The Stockard Channing Show		Episodes: "Life Begins at 30" "Punt, Pass and Kick"
	Good Time Harry		Episode: "The Wally Smith Story"
1981	Every Stray Dog and Kid	Director[36]	Short television film
	Best of the West	Director	3 episodes
1982	Cheers	Producer/executive producer/director	Co-Creator of series Producer from 1982–84 Executive producer from 1985–93 Directed 237 episodes from 1982–93
	Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever	Director[37]	Television film
1984	Night Court	Director	Episode: "All You Need Is Love"
	At Your Service	Director[38]	Television film
1985	Big Shots in America	Director[39]	Television film
1986	Valerie	Director	Episode: "Old Enough"
	All Is Forgiven		Episodes: "On Air Commitment" "With Child"
1987	The Tortellis	Executive producer	Short-lived comedy
		Director	Episode: "Pilot" (S 1:Ep 1)
	CBS Summer Playhouse	Director[40]	Episode: "In the Lion's Den"
1988	Channel 99	Director[41]	Television film
	Dear John	Director	Episodes: "Pilot" "Ralph's Curse"
1989	Out on the Edge	Production manager[42]	Television film
1990	Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color	Director	Episode: "Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Celebration"
	The Marshall Chronicles	Director	Episodes: "Pilot" "Night of the Chopped Liver"
	Wings		Episode: "Legacy"
	The Earth Day Special	Director	Cheers segment
	Down Home	Director	Episodes: "Pier Pressure" "By the Book"
	The Fanelli Boys		Episode: "Pilot"
1991	Roc		Episode: "Pilot"
	Pacific Station		Episode: "Pilot"
	Flesh 'n' Blood		Episode: "Blood Is Thicker Than Arlo"
1992	Flying Blind		Episode: "Pilot"
1993	Café Americain		3 episodes
	Frasier		32 episodes from 1993–97
1994	Monty		Episode: "Here Comes the Son"
	The Boys Are Back		Episode: "Pilot"
	Madman of the People		Episodes: "Pilot" "All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Mad Boy"
1995	The Preston Episodes		Episode: "Pilot"
	Hudson Street		Episode: "Pilot"
	Partners		10 episodes from 1995–96
	NewsRadio		7 episodes from 1995–96
1996	The Nerd	Director[43]	Television film
	3rd Rock from the Sun	Director	Episodes: "Brains and Eggs" "Post-Nasal Dick"
	Pearl		Episode: "Pilot"
	Men Behaving Badly		7 episodes from 1996–97
1997	Chicago Sons		Episode: "Pilot"
1998	The Secret Lives of Men	Executive producer	Short-lived comedy
1998	Will & Grace (original)		1998–2006
2001	Tikiville		Television film
	Last Dance		Television film
2006	The Class		Short-lived comedy from 2006–2007
2007	Back to You		Short-lived comedy from 2007–2008
2008	Gary Unmarried		Comedy from 2008–10
2010	Romantically Challenged		Short-lived comedy
	Mike & Molly		Comedy from 2010–12, 2016
2013	The Millers		16 episodes from 2013–15
2016	Crowded		9 episodes
	Man with a Plan	Director/Executive producer	9 episodes
2017	Superior Donuts	Director	8 episodes
	Disjointed		2 episodes
	Will & Grace (revival)		2017–20
2018	The Neighborhood		Episode: "Pilot"
2019	Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons"	Segment director	Television special
	Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times"	Executive producer	Television special
2020	B Positive	Director	Episode: "Pilot"
	Raised by Wolves	Director/Executive producer

References

1. "Of course Matthew Perry can't go to the Friends reunion". RadioTimes. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
2. Stated in interview on Inside the Actors Studio
3. "James Burrows Marks Directing Milestone as Sitcoms Lose 'Must See' Label". Variety. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
4. Interfaith Family: "Somebody Put Baby in a Dance Competition" September 14, 2010
5. Jewish Journal: "The Heroes of Jewish Comedy" by Tom Teicholz July 3, 2003
6. James Burrows Biography (1940-)
7. Rosemberg, Jasmin (19 March 2015). "Stars Sing Broadway Tunes for Alzheimer's at Sardi's Benefit". Variety. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
8. "James Burrows - Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in Television Direction". Directors Guild of America. 23 December 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
9. "Notable Alumni". Alumni & Friends of LaGuardia High School. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
10. The Deadline Team (4 December 2014). "James Burrows & Robert Butler To Receive DGA Lifetime Achievement Award For Television". Deadline. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
11. Rosenberg, Howard (Summer 2007). "The Jimmy Show". Directors Guild of America. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
12. Du Brow, Rick (19 March 1995). "He Pilots the Pilots : How to succeed in television without really trying? Call James Burrows. He's the sitcom director with the golden touch. (Say "Cheers.")". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
13. Lembeck, Michael. "Visual History with James Burrows". Directors Guild of America. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
14. Weber, Bruce (28 April 1998). "ARTS IN AMERICA; A Winding Path of Laughter From Stage to TV and Back". New York Times. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
15. Bloom, Ken; Blastnik, Frank (2007). Sitcoms: the 101 Greatest TV Comedies of All Time. New York, NY: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-57912-752-7.
16. Littlefield, Warren (2012). Top of the Rock, Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV (1st ed.). New York, NY: Doubleday. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-0-385-53374-4.
17. Raftery, Brian (2012). "The Best TV Show That's Ever Been". GQ. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
18. Tepper, Allegra (8 October 2013). "Director James Burrows Feted by TV Academy". Variety. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
19. Ulaby, Neda (4 September 2012). "Making A Comedy Pilot? You Might Want To Call James Burrows". NPR. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
20. Andreeva, Nellie (17 November 2015). "Veteran Sitcom Director James Burrows Hits 1,000 TV Episodes Mark". Deadline. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
21. Eng, Joyce (13 January 2016). "NBC Plans Friends Reunion and Hairspray Musical, Defends Donald Trump Appearances". TV Guide. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
22. "'1917' Director Takes Home Top Prize At DGA Awards". www.patch.com. Patch. January 26, 2020. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
23. "Friends". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
24. Martel, Ned (29 September 2005). "Time to Pause the Laugh Track". New York Times. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
25. Jason Klamm and Allen Rueckert (30 August 2016). "Dispatches From Fort Awesome: A NewsRadio Podcast". stolendress.com (Podcast). StolenDress Entertainment. Event occurs at 47:25. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
26. Doge, Annie (5 March 2015). "James Burrows, Go-To '90s Sitcom Director, Buys Handsome Greenwich Village Apartment for $4.2M". 6sqft.com.
27. "James Burrows". Celebrity Images. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
28. "Burrows, James 1940- (Jim Burrows, Jimmy Burrows)". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
29. "More Than Friends". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
30. "Partners". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
31. "Bumpers". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
32. "Roosevelt and Truman". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
33. "Calling Doctor Storm, M. D." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
34. "The Plant Family". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
35. "Butterflies". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
36. "Every Stray Dog and Kid". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
37. "Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
38. "At Your Service". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
39. "Big Shots in America". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
40. "In the Lion's Den". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
41. "Channel 99". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
42. "Out on the Edge". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
43. "The Nerd". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 22, 2016.

External links

• James Burrows at IMDb
• James Burrows at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television