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LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 James Burrows, who helped create volumes of laughter as director of more than a thousand episodes of such classic television comedies as \u201cCheers,\u201d \u201cTaxi,\u201d \u201cFriends\u201d and \u201cWill and Grace,\u201d died Friday. He was 85.<\/p>\n
His family confirmed his death in a statement to People, saying he \u201cpassed away peacefully today surrounded by his family.\u201d No location or cause of death was provided.<\/p>\n
Burrows spent his career behind the camera specializing in situation comedies. Few viewers recognized him or knew his name, other than to see it flash quickly on the screen in the opening credits. But they knew his work.<\/p>\n
Burrows got his start in television relatively late at age 35 in 1974, directing episodes of \u201cThe Mary Tyler Moore Show,\u201d \u201cThe Bob Newhart Show,\u201d and \u201cLaverne & Shirley.\u201d<\/p>\n
He co-created \u201cCheers,\u201d directing 243 of the 273 episodes, as well as all 246 episodes of \u201cWill and Grace.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also helmed multiple episodes of such hits as \u201cFrasier,\u201d \u201cFriends\u201d and \u201cMike & Molly,\u201d and the pilots of \u201cTwo and a Half Men\u201d and \u201cThe Big Bang Theory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I direct a television show, I try to reach that sweet spot where the best script meets the best performance and the best chemistry between performers,\u201d Burrows wrote in his 2022 memoir \u201cDirected by James Burrows.\u201d \u201dHitting that exact moment, where these factors land in combination, results in the sweetest and most enduring laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n
His family said, \u201cBurrows understood that great comedy was never simply about laughter. It was about humanity, connection, and truth. That understanding became the foundation of a career that forever changed television.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut beyond his remarkable achievements, Burrows will be remembered for something even greater: his kindness, generosity, and unwavering belief in the people around him. He possessed a rare ability to make everyone better and was known for remembering every person he met by name, making colleagues at every level feel seen, valued, and appreciated,\u201d the family statement said.<\/p>\n
Born James Edward Burrows on Dec. 30, 1940, in Los Angeles, he moved to New York when he was 5 years old. He spent five years in the Metropolitan Opera Children\u2019s Chorus until his voice started to change. He attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art.<\/p>\n
His father was writer, director and producer Abe Burrows, whose Broadway hits included \u201cGuys and Dolls\u201d and \u201cCan-Can.\u201d The elder Burrows also mentored Larry Gelbart, future creator and producer of the TV show \u201cM(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H.\u201d<\/p>\n
The younger Burrows spent hours of his youth in theaters and studios watching his father work, dining with him at such famed New York haunts as Sardi\u2019s and Gallagher\u2019s and meeting celebrities who attended his father\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve parties.<\/p>\n
After earning a bachelor\u2019s degree from Oberlin College, Burrows attended the graduate program of the Yale School of Drama, where his classmates included actor-comedian Robert Klein, playwright John Guare and film director John Badham.<\/p>\n
At Yale, he was required to take directing classes and he got hooked.<\/p>\n
Burrows\u2019 first sitcom experience was as Burl Ives\u2019 dialogue coach on \u201cO.K. Crackerby!\u201d which was directed by his father and ran for one season on ABC in 1965.<\/p>\n
From there, he was an assistant on \u201cThe Patty Duke Show.\u201d He moved back to New York and worked for Broadway producers Lee Guber, Frank Ford and Shelly Gross. He first met actor Moore while working on the Broadway production of \u201cHolly Golightly,\u201d an adaptation of \u201cBreakfast at Tiffany\u2019s\u201d that was directed by his father.<\/p>\n
Burrows eventually worked as a stage manager for various road productions, where he met such actors as Hugh O\u2019Brien, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Julie Harris.<\/p>\n
By 1974, after working in dinner theater and summer stock, he turned on his television and saw Moore\u2019s eponymous TV show. He wrote her a letter asking if there was any opening \u201csmall or smaller\u201d at her production company that he could fill, according to his memoir.<\/p>\n
Moore\u2019s husband and business partner, Grant Tinker, invited Burrows to Los Angeles to direct an episode of the comedy. He apprenticed for MTM Enterprises, which had four sitcoms on the air at the same time.<\/p>\n
Burrows cited his theater background for learning how to give actors direction and block out scenes. He\u2019s credited for being one of the first sitcom directors to increase the typical multi-camera television shoot from three to four cameras.<\/p>\n
The common thread between Burrows\u2019 shows were the bonds between friends and unrelated families, whether it was the motley crew of regulars meeting at the bar in \u201cCheers\u201d or the drivers working toward a better life in \u201cTaxi\u201d or the 20-somethings sharing the same apartment building in \u201cFriends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best sitcoms transcend the screen and reach out and grab the audience by the throat and by the heart,\u201d Burrows wrote in his memoir.<\/p>\n
He relished discovering new acting talent while directing more than 75 pilots that were picked up as series.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving directed over a thousand shows means that almost any night you can turn on your television or go online and find a show that I directed. I\u2019m very proud of that,\u201d he wrote in his memoir.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Burrows was an executive producer on live productions of \u201cAll in the Family\u201d and \u201cThe Jeffersons\u201d with famous actors re-creating episodes of those 1970s comedies.<\/p>\n
Burrows was married in 1997 to Debbie Easton, whom he met when she worked as a hairstylist on \u201cFrasier.\u201d Daughters Kat Schatzow, Ellie Gluck and Maggie Burrows, who followed her father into directing, are from his first marriage to Linda Solomon, who died in 2004. His stepdaughter Paris is from his wife\u2019s previous marriage. He has a sister, Laurie Burrows Grad, and seven grandchildren. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 James Burrows, who helped create volumes of laughter as director of more than a thousand episodes of such classic television comedies as \u201cCheers,\u201d \u201cTaxi,\u201d \u201cFriends\u201d and \u201cWill and Grace,\u201d died Friday. He was 85. His family confirmed his death in a statement to People, saying he \u201cpassed away peacefully today surrounded … Continue reading James Burrows, director of classic TV comedies including \u2018Cheers\u2019 and \u2018Friends,\u2019 dies at 85<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1516854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1451],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1516853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-entertainment-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-21 15:47:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1516853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1516855,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516853\/revisions\/1516855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1516854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1516853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1516853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1516853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}