Quote of the Day (James Burrows, on His Classic Character-Driven Sitcoms)

“The concept is never what attracts me; it’s the execution. There are lots of shows about bars, news and radio stations, cabdrivers, and shrinks. I want to see what the characters that are put into these situations do. I’m concerned about believability and the economy of the comedy, the shortest distance between the character and the laughter, and the best way to get there. When I direct an episode, I have a lot of notes. I am apt to tell writers, ‘Fifty percent of what I say is gold and fifty percent is garbage. It’s your job to figure out which is which.’”— James Burrows (1940-2016), the “Steven Spielberg of TV Sitcoms,” with Eddy Friedfeld, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More (2022)

The subtitle of the memoir by James Burrows, who died yesterday, says it all: more than 1,000 episodes of the best-loved sitcoms of our time. The son of Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer-director Abe Burrows, he sharpened his considerable comic instincts in association with sitcom stars and showrunners Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Glen and Les Charles, Chuck Lorre, Marta Kaufman and David Crane.

Oscar-winning film director Christopher Nolan put it more succinctly—the way Burrows would have liked it—by terming him “the modern master of the sophisticated comedy.” In employing four cameras on sets, he recorded each actor constantly and selected among their reactions for the final cuts.

No wonder he told those he filmed, “always be ready, always be funny.” And no wonder the likes of Jennifer Aniston (pictured, from Friends), Tony Danza, Ted Danson, Woody Harrison, and Sean Hayes, among many others, shot to stardom under his careful guidance.