James Burroughs

And then one night I was...

At home after rehearsal, I turned on the television.

There was a Mary Tyler Moore show.

And they were doing 20 minutes a week in front of a live audience.

And here I was doing 120 minutes a week to get ready for a live audience.

And I thought I could do that.

I thought I could translate my skills on stage to the skills required to do that television show because it was like filming a theatrical show.

So I wrote a letter to Mary Tyler Moore.

As I said before, I had the connection because I was a stage manager on her first Broadway show.

So she kind of knew me.

And Grant Tinker called me and he said, we're interested in theatrical directors at MTM.

Would you come out and do one show?

And I don't know what's faster than a New York second, but whatever it was, I said yes.

And I was, that was, the rest is history.

So you got started directing MTM productions like The Bob Newhart Show, Mary Taylor Moore Show, Phyllis, yes?

Yes, yes.

Now, were you at first like understudying other directors or did they let you just go at it?

Well, the first thing you have to do is you have to learn the technical stuff.

So they brought me out here and you kind of have to observe.

Being an observer is you sit in the stands and you watch a week of rehearsals.