Glenn Rifkin, writing for The New York Times (gift link):
James Burrows, the genre-shaping master of the television situation comedy who was a creator of “Cheers” and directed more than 1,000 episodes of that show and other TV classics like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Taxi,” “Frasier,” “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory,” died on Friday. He was 85.
James Burrows essentially directed my youth and young adulthood. I’ve watched (and rewatched) Frasier dozens of times, recently rewatched Cheers for the first time since it originally aired, and fondly remember Will & Grace. Reading through his credits, I was struck by just how many of my favorite sitcoms he directed—even if it was only a handful of episodes, or just the pilot (Roc, anyone?). It’s fair to say I’ve seen “Directed by James Burrows” hundreds, maybe even thousands, of times.
Cheers and Frasier, directed by James Burrows.
His theater background was key, he told IndieWire in 2023. “I’m not a film director. The camera, I leave that to Spielberg and Scorsese,” he explained. “I’m a theatre rat. I stage a play every week, a 20- to 25-minute play and then my camera comes in and covers it. I understand characters, I understand what’s funny, I understand the essence of keeping it moving and keeping the energy going. It’s all theatrical. If it doesn’t happen on that stage, it’s never gonna happen on film. You can cut it nine ways to Sunday, but nothing will work unless it works on that stage.”
RIP to a sitcom legend.