On June 19th, 2026, the world lost James Burrows. The way we talk about and discuss media often times excludes television directors. We can talk about people who make movies all day long, but the people who make TV happen tend to get left out of those talks. It’s unfortunate. Making television isn’t as grandiose as making a movie, but it is its own special kind of production. It has its own quirks, quibbles, joys, and headaches. But arguably nobody managed them better or redefined the art, like James Burrows.
Burrows got his start on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. That show was incredibly important to the television landscape largely because of what it begot. After The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended, Burrows and some of its writers went on to work on Taxi. After Taxi they went on to work on and create Cheers. And then of course, Cheers spun-off Frasier, to which some of those writers worked on. But behind the camera on all of those shows was James Burrows.
If you go back and watch television shows from before Burrows’ time, or ones he didn’t work on, you may notice how stiff they seem. Or at least, the dialogue heavy shows. Unless a show was a physical, slapstick comedy, there wasn’t much in the way of action. Character based, dialogue heavy humor, had its start in radio. Radio was not a visual medium, obviously. So, if you go back and watch a comedy like, Get Smart for example, you can see a lot of “talking heads” camerawork during the dialogue. That is to say, you mostly see characters faces cutting from one to another as they talk. Burrows was largely responsible for changing this.
What Burrows effectively did was look at television comedy and say, “This needs to be more dynamic.” Just because characters are talking and exchanging comedic banter, doesn’t mean they can’t be moving around. Burrows would often push for more movement, action, walking and talking, and interaction with the environment. These shows he worked on largely weren’t physical comedies, but you could still incorporate physical acting into them. His flair for that was virtually unparalleled. That’s one of the reasons he was unique in just how much he would direct of certain shows.
As the co-creator of Cheers, Burrows had a larger stake in that show than he did, say, Taxi. That’s part of the reason why he directed 237 of the show’s 275 episodes. Even with Taxi though, he knocked out 75 of the show’s 114 episodes. That’s just not normal for a TV series. These productions, with their quicker turnaround time, generally have a bunch of directors taking the helm of episodes from week to week. But then look at Will & Grace where Burrows directed every single episode of the show. All 246 under his guidance. That is a ridiculous number that likely no one will ever match.
The world of television would not be what it is today without James Burrows. Five years ago we lost Richard Donner. He was another director who helped shape television direction in the early days. He would eventually go on to direct films. Ones that include The Omen, Superman, and all of the Lethal Weapon films. Burrows never made that transition really. He stayed in TV and continued to make it something truly special. We will never see another talent like his. As sad as that is, it’s also a testament to his legacy and his talent.
James Burrows was 85.
