James Burrows
James Burrows | |
---|---|
Born |
December 30, 1940
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
|
Education |
Oberlin College (BA) Yale University (MFA) |
Occupation | Television director |
Years active | 1965–present |
Notable work |
Cheers Will & Grace The Mary Tyler Moore Show Taxi |
Spouses |
Linda Solomon
(m. 1981; div. 1993)Debbie Easton
(m. 1997) |
Children | 4 |
Parent | Abe Burrows |
Type | Joint venture |
---|---|
Industry | Television production |
Founded | 1995 |
Founder | James Burrows and NBC Productions |
Divisions | 3 Princesses and a P |
James Edward Burrows (born December 30, 1940), sometimes known as Jim "Jimmy" Burrows, is an American television director who has been working in television since the 1970s. Burrows has directed over 50 television pilots and co-created the 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.
In 2016, Burrows directed his 1,000th TV episode, on NBC's Crowded.
Early life
Burrows was born to a Jewish family in Los Angeles, California, the son of Ruth (Levinson) and Abe Burrows, a well-known composer, director and writer. James has one sister, Laurie Burrows Grad. When James was still a young child, his family moved to New York where James attended New York’s High School of Music & Art. Burrows is a graduate of Oberlin College and the graduate program of the Yale School of Drama.
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. Burrows then took a job as an assistant stage manager on the play Holly Golightly, an adaptation of the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's. The production was unsuccessful, but the job served as Burrows' introduction to its star, Mary Tyler Moore. Early on, Burrows also worked for the road company of Cactus Flower and the Broadway production of Forty Carats. He also went to direct the short lived Broadway play The Castro Complex.
Burrows continued working in theater as a stage manager and transitioned into directing plays. Burrows directed traveling plays and a production at a Jacksonville, Florida dinner theater.
Television director
While working in theater, Burrows wrote Moore and her then husband Grant Tinker seeking a job at their production company, MTM Enterprises. 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. 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.
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.
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. Burrows and the Charles brothers wanted to create a show where they could have more control. Cheers premiered on NBC on September 30, 1982. Although Cheers initially struggled in the ratings, the series became a hit, running 275 episodes over eleven seasons. Burrows directed all but 35 of those 275 episodes.
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), The Neighborhood
- 2020s – B Positive, Frasier
Burrows directed every episode of Will & Grace during its initial eight-year run. Additionally, by 2012 Burrows had directed over 50 pilots for television series.
Burrows has directed over 1,000 episodes of television, a milestone he achieved in November 2015 with the NBC sitcom Crowded. 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. 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.
Other projects
In 1998, Burrows directed a Chicago-based production of the 1939 comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner starring John Mahoney.
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". He also appears as a television director named Jimmy in the 2005 HBO series The Comeback. 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, 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.
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. Burrows has won eleven Emmy Awards and five 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.
Personal life
Burrows is married to celebrity hairstylist Debbie Easton; the couple lives in Manhattan. Burrows was previously married to Linda Solomon. He has three daughters and one stepdaughter.
Selected filmography
Acting
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 |
|
1994 | Friends | Director |
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2005, 2014 | The Comeback | Himself |
|
2020 | Will & Grace | Himself | Episode: “Filthy Phil, Part II” |
Non-acting
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1978 | More Than Friends | Director | Comedy film |
1982 | Partners | Gay-themed buddy comedy film |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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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:
|
||
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 | Director | Short comedy television film |
Roosevelt and Truman | |||
Calling Doctor Storm, M. D. | |||
Busting Loose | Director | 5 episodes | |
Lou Grant | Episode: "Christmas" | ||
We've Got Each Other | Episodes:
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||
The Betty White Show | Episode: "John's Mother" | ||
Rhoda | 4 episodes from 1977–78 | ||
1978 | The Plant Family | Director | Short comedy television film |
The Betty White Show | Director | Episode: "Play Misty for John" | |
Free Country | Episodes:
|
||
Taxi | 75 episodes from 1978–82 | ||
1979 | Butterflies | Director | 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:
|
|
Good Time Harry | Episode: "The Wally Smith Story" | ||
1981 | Every Stray Dog and Kid | Director | Short television film |
Best of the West | Director | 3 episodes | |
1982 | Cheers | Producer/executive producer/director |
|
Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever | Director | Television film | |
1984 | Night Court | Director | Episode: "All You Need Is Love" |
At Your Service | Director | Television film | |
1985 | Big Shots in America | Director | Television film |
1986 | Valerie | Director | Episode: "Old Enough" |
All Is Forgiven | Episodes:
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||
1987 | The Tortellis | Executive producer | Short-lived comedy |
Director | Episode: "Pilot" | ||
CBS Summer Playhouse | Director | Episode: "In the Lion's Den" | |
1988 | Channel 99 | Director | Television film |
Dear John | Director | Episodes:
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1989 | Out on the Edge | Production manager | Television film |
1990 | Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color | Director | Episode: "Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Celebration" |
The Marshall Chronicles | Director | Episodes:
|
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Wings | Episode: "Legacy" | ||
The Earth Day Special | Director | Cheers segment | |
Down Home | Director | Episodes:
|
|
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:
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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 | Television film |
3rd Rock from the Sun | Director | Episodes:
|
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Pearl | Episode: "Pilot" | ||
Men Behaving Badly | 7 episodes from 1996–97 | ||
1997 | Chicago Sons | Episode: "Pilot" | |
1998 | The Secret Lives of Men | Director/Executive producer | "Pilot" |
Will & Grace | 1998–2006, 2017–20 | ||
2001 | Tikiville | Television film | |
Last Dance | Television film | ||
2006 | The Class | 2006–07 | |
2007 | The Big Bang Theory | 2 episodes: "The Pilot" & the Unaired Pilot | |
Back to You | 2007–08 | ||
2008 | Gary Unmarried | 2008–10 | |
2010 | Romantically Challenged | Short-lived comedy | |
Mike & Molly | 2010–16 | ||
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 | ||
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 | 3 episodes |
Raised by Wolves | Director/Executive producer | ||
2021 | Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "The Facts of Life" and "Diff'rent Strokes" | Executive producer | Television special |
Bibliography
- Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More (Ballantine Books, 2022)