THE CREATIVE FORCE BEHIND TV’S MOST BELOVED COMEDIES HAS LEFT THE STAGE CQ

James Burrows.Credit: 

Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty

James Burrows, one of the most important and prolific television directors in the history of the medium, died on Friday at the age of 85.

“We celebrate the extraordinary life and enduring legacy of James ‘Jimmy’ Burrows, who passed away peacefully today surrounded by his loving family,” the Burrows family shared in a statement. “For more than five decades, Burrows was one of the most influential and beloved directors in television history. As a legendary director, mentor, and creative force, he helped shape generations of comedy and brought immeasurable joy to audiences around the world.”

The 11-time Emmy winner helped to shape the look and feel of modern TV comedy, along the way amassing a staggeringly impressive array of credits. Among them: He directed the pilot episodes of Taxi, Cheers, Friends, Frasier, Will & Grace, and The Big Bang Theory.

Networks turned to Burrows, hoping to exploit his remarkable track record, and in addition to helming more than 50 pilots, he directed more than 1,000 TV episodes over his over-five-decade-long career. As former NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield once told NPR: “There’s no one on the planet that has had that level of success.”

A graduate of Oberlin College and Yale School of Drama, Burrows began his Hollywood career as a dialogue coach on mid-’60s sitcom O.K. Crackerby!, which was created by his Tony Award-winning father, Abe Burrows. He toiled for several years as Abe’s stage manager, and, as an assistant stage manager of the Broadway flop Breakfast at Tiffany’s, he crossed paths with Mary Tyler Moore; in the 70s, he would be hired by MTM Productions to direct episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show. He proceeded to helm episodes of Laverne & Shirley and Rhoda, as well as Taxi, the latter of which he directed 75 episodes.

In the early 80s, he co-created Cheers with Glen and Les Charles, directing 237 of the show’s 275 episodes. And in the 90s, he was key in the rise of NBC’s powerhouse Must-See TV line-up, helming 15 episodes of Friends, 32 episodes of Frasier, and all of Will & Grace‘s original run, during which he would oversee prime time’s first same-sex kissing scene. “I’ll never forget on the pilot, one of the NBC executives came over to me and said, ‘Too many gay jokes,'” Burrows recalled. “I said, ‘If not here, then where?'”

Burrows also lorded over episodes of other popular NBC comedies such as NewsRadio, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and Caroline in the City. As most networks turned to single-camera comedies over multi-camera comedies in the 2000s, Burrows kept busy on CBS, serving as a director on such multi-camera comedies as Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly, The Class, 2 Broke Girls, The Millers, and Man With a Plan; he also returned to Will & Grace and directed all 34 episodes of the revival.

His most recent directing credit was the first two episodes of the 2023 revival of Frasier.

In front of the camera, Burrows made a handful of cameos on his shows, including Friends and Scrubs. He played a fictionalized version of himself on HBO’s The Comeback three times in 2005, 2014, and in the most recent 2026 revival.

Burrows was not just highly praised but also highly decorated for his efforts. In addition to his 11 Emmys, he nabbed 42 Emmy nominations and won six Directors Guild of America awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

The following year, NBC aired the special Must See TV: An All-Star Tribute to James Burrows, which reunited the casts of Cheers, Friends, Frasier, and more to sing his praises as a master of timing and set-up-and punchline delivery. He also helped to popularize the use of four cameras instead of three. “We owe our careers to you,” declared Kelsey Grammer during the special.

Burrows attributed his massive success to “kindness, which I learned from my father.” He told The Hollywood Reporter, “I’m not a martinet or a dictator. I don’t come in for the day of rehearsal knowing where my actors are going to be on the stage. I sit with my cast, and I talk to them about their characters, and I try to get them to like one another because if they do, that’s going to come across onscreen.”

Burrows is survived by his wife, celebrity hairstylist Debbie Easton, and his four children.

“He will be profoundly missed and forever remembered,” said the Burrows family. “Our thoughts are with Debbie, his children and grandchildren, his family, friends, collaborators, and all those whose lives he touched. May his memory be a blessing.”