James Burroughs

speaker

437 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 26 Jun

James Burroughs’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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Fresh Air · Remembering master of the TV sitcom, James Burrows · 26 Jun 2026 podcast

So you have a gay man who you don't play gay, which gives you the liberty to play gay with the other character, with Jack.

Jack can be incredibly outrageous because Will is not.

He gives you credibility mainly among the gay community.

Because I think if Will wasn't on the show, we would get letters from the gay community about how Jack's portrayed, how that character's portrayed.

But because of Will, it allows us to do that.

So I always thought of the show as a really funny show that happens to have two gay characters in it.

And I firmly believed...

that, you know, the pilot was through the roof when we ran it in front of an audience.

They loved it.

When we shot it, they loved it.

And I went to the network and I said, please don't put us after Seinfeld.

We cannot survive there because people are not going to watch us.

Please put us somewhere where we can kind of sneak into town and people can, you know, find us eventually because there's no reason to watch this show.

And then I wanted—there's a kiss in the pilot between Will and Grace.

And I wanted that in there because I felt that if we could convince the part of the country that doesn't appreciate gays or does not like gays or has some problems with gays, if we could convince that part of the country that maybe Will will take the super drugs and get over his gayness and marry Grace—

And if we let them think that they'll get together, that they maybe tune in to watch the show because they've heard how funny it was.

And then once they're in there and see how funny it is, they're never going to leave.

So are you really glad you've been able to have a career in TV?

I've been blessed.

I did—in 1981, I tried a movie.

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