{"id":734386,"date":"2026-06-19T22:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/james-burrows-will-grace-director-and-cheers-co-creator-dies-at-85\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T22:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:35:21","slug":"james-burrows-will-grace-director-and-cheers-co-creator-dies-at-85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/james-burrows-will-grace-director-and-cheers-co-creator-dies-at-85\/","title":{"rendered":"James Burrows, \u2018Will & Grace\u2019 Director and \u2018Cheers\u2019 Co-Creator, Dies at 85"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n\tJames Burrows, the 11-time Emmy Award winner and prolific television director known for his Midas touch when it came to sitcoms, has died. He was 85.<\/p>\n

\n\tBurrows, who co-created Cheers<\/em> and helmed all 246\u00a0episodes of Will & Grace<\/em> during its two runs, died on Friday, his family confirmed in a statement to People<\/a><\/em>: \u201cWe celebrate the extraordinary life and enduring legacy of James \u2018Jimmy\u2019 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. As a legendary director, mentor, and creative force, he helped shape generations of comedy and brought immeasurable joy to audiences around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA master of comic timing, Burrows was an expert at getting big laughs out of his performers and the material on the page. For more than 40 years, his talents made him one of the most in-demand directors in Hollywood. If you were making a half-hour comedy for television, you wanted Jim Burrows calling the shots.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy mind is never a blank,\u201d Burrows told<\/a> The New York Times<\/em> in a 1995 interview. \u201cIf something isn\u2019t funny, I\u2019ll try nine ways to make it funny. I won\u2019t just quit on it. I\u2019ll change the straight line to get more ideas or find a funny position for the actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tProducers sought to work with Burrows right at the start. He is credited with directing more than 50 sitcom pilots, getting such eventual hits as Friends<\/em>, The Big Bang Theory<\/em>, Frasier<\/em>, Taxi<\/em>, Night Court<\/em>, Wings<\/em>, Two and a Half Men<\/em>, Caroline in the City<\/em>, Third Rock From the Sun<\/em>, Mike & Molly<\/em> and Two Broke Girls<\/em> off on the right foot.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a 2016 interview with Kate Stanhope of The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>, Burrows mused about the secret of his success.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m not a martinet or a dictator,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t 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\u2019s going to come across onscreen. So I\u2019ll try to do lunch together. Sometimes I\u2019ll bring them here for a party, which I did with Mike & Molly<\/em>. With the Friends<\/em> kids, I took them to Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added that he learned kindness from his father, the Tony Award-winning humorist and playwright Abe Burrows, best known for Guys and Dolls<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tDirecting pilots was just one facet in the career of the multitalented Burrows. In addition to creating Cheers<\/em> with brothers Glen Charles and Les Charles (and directing the lion\u2019s share of its 278 episodes), he was an executive producer on Will & Grace<\/em> and helmed all 198 installments of its original eight-season run. When the series<\/a> returned in September 2017 after 11 years away, he was back too.<\/p>\n

\n\tBurrows also took a producing credit on Mike & Molly<\/em>, Gary Unmarried<\/em>, Man With a Plan<\/em> and Superior Donuts<\/em>, helming multiple episodes for them as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tGetting his start on a 1974 installment of The Mary Tyler Moore<\/em> Show titled \u201cNeighbors\u201d \u2014 the one where Lou moves into Rhoda\u2019s old apartment in Mary\u2019s building \u2014 Burrows went on to helm more than a thousand episodes of shows. In the 1970s, he worked continuously for MTM Enterprises while also directing for Laverne & Shirley<\/em>, The Tony Randall Show<\/em>, Fay<\/em> and Busting Loose<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to Cheers<\/em>, the 1980s found him behind the camera for The Associates<\/em>, Taxi<\/em> and Dear John<\/em>. He directed for News<\/a>Radio<\/em>, Partners<\/em>, Men Behaving Badly<\/em> and Fired Up<\/em> in the \u201990s, Teachers<\/em>, The Class<\/em> and Back to You<\/em> in the 2000s, and Romantically Challenged<\/em>, Man With a Plan<\/em> and The Millers<\/em> in the decade that followed.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe amassed more than 40 Emmy nominations and received four DGA Awards. The guild honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot everything Burrows touched struck comic gold, however. Scattered among his credits are the pilots for such forgotten efforts as The Fanelli Boys<\/em>, Pacific Station<\/em>, Chicago Sons<\/em>, The Secret Lives of Men<\/em>, Stark Raving Mad<\/em>, Bram and Alice<\/em> and Four Kings<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tJames Edward Burrows was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 30, 1940, to Ruth and Abe Burrows. When he was young, the family relocated to Manhattan\u2019s West Side. He grew up hanging backstage in theaters, watching the casts of Guys and Dolls<\/em>, Can-Can<\/em> and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying<\/em> prepare for their Broadway debuts.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn grade school, Burrows was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Boys Choir, spending his Saturdays learning \u201cCarmen\u201d and \u201cTosca.\u201d \u201cWe used to run around the old Met playing hide-and-seek in the stalls,\u201d he said in the Times<\/em> interview.<\/p>\n

\n\tBurrows attended the city\u2019s High School of Music & Art, but he was learning just as much working on his father\u2019s shows. \u201cI used to suggest jokes all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cAbe would be very nice and say, \u2018I\u2019ll think about it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBurrows said he initially resisted the obvious choice of a show business career, afraid he would be lost in his dad\u2019s shadow. But after earning his undergraduate degree at Oberlin College in Ohio, he went on to get his graduate degree at the Yale School of Drama. He did that as a favor to his father.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe then started to direct and realized he was a natural at it. It didn\u2019t hurt that when he began doing summer stock, his father\u2019s works had become staples. \u201cAbe came and saw a production of Guys and Dolls<\/em> I did with two pianos, and he really liked it,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of his first Broadway jobs was as an assistant manager for a 1966 musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany\u2019s<\/em>. Called Holly Golightly<\/em> during its pre-Broadway tryouts, it was scrapp<\/a>ed by producer David Merrick during previews and never officially opened. However, the young Burrows got to meet the star of the show, Mary Tyler Moore.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral years later, Burrows was watching an episode of Moore\u2019s series and said he came to two conclusions. The first was that, in essence, a sitcom is a 22-minute play. The second was that if he could direct two-hour plays in summer stock, he could handle a TV comedy.<\/p>\n

\n\tBurrows wrote Moore and landed a job at MTM, and it was only a matter of time before he got a shot at directing her show. He went on to do three more. The company also keep him busy with assignments on Paul Sands in Friends and Lovers<\/em>, Phyllis<\/em>, Rhoda<\/em>, The Bob Newhart Show<\/em>, The Betty White Show<\/em> and Lou Grant<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring his career, Burrows also helmed more than 20 telefilms but just one feature, the comedy Partners<\/em> (1982), starring Ryan O\u2019Neal and John Hurt.<\/p>\n

\n\tOccasionally, the bearded Burrows would step in front of the camera, taking on cameo bits in Rhoda<\/em>, Phyllis<\/em>, The Bob Newhart Show<\/em> and Cheers<\/em>. He played the director in \u201cThe One With the Butt,\u201d the classic 1994 episode of Friends<\/em> in which Joey gets a job as Al Pacino\u2018s derriere double. And he appeared as himself on six episodes of The Comeback<\/em>, which starred Friends<\/em> alum Lisa Kudrow.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2023, he returned to Frasier<\/em> to direct the first episode of the Paramount+ reboot, then handled other installments.<\/p>\n

\n\tBurrows was married to Linda Solomon, an associate producer on The Associates<\/em>, from 1981-93, and they had three daughters. In 1997, he wed Debbie Easton, a hairstylist who worked on Roseanne<\/em>, Caroline in the City<\/em> and Friends<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Burrows, the 11-time Emmy Award winner and prolific television director known for his Midas touch when it came to sitcoms, has died. He was 85. Burrows, who co-created Cheers and helmed all 246\u00a0episodes of Will & Grace during its two runs, died on Friday, his family confirmed in a statement to People: \u201cWe celebrate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":734387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/James-Burrows-obit-.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[48181,80567,91048,35470,72503,5200],"class_list":["post-734386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-al-pacino","tag-cheers","tag-frasier","tag-lisa-kudrow","tag-mary-tyler-moore","tag-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}