James Burrows, Director of Cheers and Will & Grace, Dies at 85

James Burrows died Friday at age 85. ” No location or cause of death was provided. Burrows began directing sitcoms in 1974 after working in dinner theater and summer stock. He directed episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show and Laverne & Shirley before co-creating Cheers, for which he directed 243 of 273 episodes.

He also directed all 246 episodes of Will & Grace and multiple episodes of Frasier, Friends and Mike & Molly. Burrows directed the pilots of Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. His family said, “Burrows understood that great comedy was never simply about laughter.

NBC stated that Burrows was the man behind the curtain. NBC added that he knew how to make us laugh, what buttons to push and was the absolute master of getting the most out of every joke. NBC stated that Burrows’ loss to the television comedy world is immeasurable.

He spent five years in the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus, attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, and later earned a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College. After attending the graduate program at the Yale School of Drama, Burrows worked as a stage manager for road productions and later joined MTM Enterprises.

He is credited with increasing the typical multicamera television shoot from three to four cameras.

Actors Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman, who worked with Burrows over 16 seasons on Taxi and Cheers, said in a statement that he was the very best at his craft. His agent Rick Rosen said Burrows was the greatest comedic television director in the history of the medium.