James Burrows, the legendary director behind some of America's most beloved sitcoms, has died aged 85. Attorney Tom Hoberman confirmed his death “with great sadness” to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner. In a statement shared with People, his family said: “We celebrate the extraordinary life and enduring legacy of James ‘Jimmy’ Burrows, who passed away peacefully today surrounded by his loving family. For more than five decades, Burrows was one of the most influential and beloved directors in television history.”
Best known as co-creator of the sitcom Cheers, Burrows directed more than 1,000 episodes of other TV comedy classics including Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and Will & Grace. Born in Los Angeles in 1940, he spent much of his childhood in New York before attending the graduate programme at the Yale School of Drama, where he got his first experience of directing. After several years behind the camera, he co-created Cheers alongside brothers Glen and Les Charles, and the show quickly became a 1980s hit in both the US and UK.
“James Burrows, co-creator of Cheers and director of over 1,000 sitcom episodes, dies aged 85.”
In a career spanning more than 50 years, Burrows won 11 Emmy Awards and five Directors Guild of America Awards. The Directors Guild, which gave him a lifetime achievement award in television direction in 2015, described him as “an incredibly generous colleague” who shared his “wisdom, and warm humor with his fellow Guild members and all he worked with.” He was nominated 48 times for a Primetime Emmy.
Tributes poured in from actors he directed. Jon Cryer, who starred in the 1995 sitcom Partners directed by Burrows, recalled a pivotal moment on Threads: “There was a moment on a show I did with Jim called Partners where we realized the third act didn’t work so we had to, on the fly, completely rewrite and restage it in front of the audience. As we threw out ideas he told me to ‘do a Newhart’ and I knew he meant for me to do those great perplexed stutters that Bob Newhart used to do and I realized I was getting shorthand from the greatest director of sitcoms to ever do it. He trusted me to give him what he knew would work. And he was right.” Cryer added: “I looked around the studio and realized I was where I always wanted to be. And how lucky I was. I will never forget that feeling. Thank you, Jim. It was an honor to know you.”
Eric McCormack, who played Will in Will & Grace, wrote on social media that Burrows left “an incredible legacy. The 800 lb gorilla of television comedy for fifty years, he was beloved by everyone, and has left not a mark but a footprint.” Actress Beth Behrs, who worked with Burrows on 2 Broke Girls, shared a memory: “Dear Jimmy, I’ll never forget @katdenningsss and I becoming absolutely convinced you hated us during rehearsals for the pilot of 2 Broke Girls. We marched up to your podium like two fourth-graders called into the principal’s office and asked you point-blank. I’ll never forget the belly laugh. ‘Oh girls, of course not.’” Lisa Kudrow, best known as Phoebe from Friends, wrote on Instagram: “Thank you Jimmy. I mean, for everything…” Burrows directed Kudrow in Friends and played a version of himself opposite her in HBO’s The Comeback. Ted Danson, star of Cheers, said in a statement: “Jimmy was my show business father, my mentor and my friend. For 11 years his laughter taught me what was funny and what was not. Nothing made me happier than to make him laugh. I can only imagine that there are thousands of actors who feel the same way. Mary and I send all our love to his family. He will be in our hearts and our funny bones forever.” A spokesperson for NBC, which aired many of Burrows’ shows, called him “the man behind the curtain” whose loss to the television and comedy world would be immense.