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Chapter 1: What is the significance of James Burrows in television history?
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. Today we remember James Burroughs, one of the most respected and sought-after directors of TV comedies. In over five decades, he directed more than a thousand episodes. Episodes of Taxi, Cheers, Friends, Frasier, Will & Grace, and many other sitcoms. Burroughs died June 19th at the age of 85.
A statement by the Directors Guild of America described him as an incredibly generous colleague, sharing his wisdom and warm humor with all he worked with. In a statement, his family said, We're going to listen to Terry's 2006 interview with James Burroughs in a few minutes. But first, we have this appreciation by our TV critic, David Bianculli.
James Burroughs was born in L.A. in 1940, but didn't live there long. His family moved to New York when he was five. His father, Abe Burroughs, had written for radio and television, but found his biggest success on Broadway, as a director and especially as a writer. Abe Burroughs wrote the books for the musicals Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Can-Can.
His son James became a director too, but went back to Los Angeles to do so. His big break was directing an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, after which James Burroughs landed jobs directing multiple episodes of many popular sitcoms of the 1970s, including The Bob Newhart Show, The Tony Randall Show, Laverne and Shirley, and Taxi.
By the time he co-created Cheers with Glenn and Les Charles in 1982, James Burroughs was considered the best sitcom director in the business, a title he maintained for decades. The reasons were obvious. James Burroughs made one of the most significant improvements to the sitcom genre, since I Love Lucy popularized the three-camera format of shooting before a studio audience.
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Chapter 2: How did James Burrows revolutionize sitcom direction?
Burroughs added a fourth camera, which allowed him to capture more close-ups and frame the action as naturally as he could. Burroughs was a master at setting the tone for a new series, working with young actors to shape their characters and find just the right comic flow. Over his career, he won 11 Emmy Awards and directed a staggering number of TV pilots, specifically 75.
But it isn't just the quantity of premiere episodes directed by James Burroughs that's so amazing. It's the quality. He directed the introductory episodes of Taxi, Cheers, and Frasier. Not just the original 1993 Frasier, but the 2023 remake as well, 30 years later.
He also directed the first episodes of The Big Bang Theory, Night Court, Wings, News Radio, Third Rock from the Sun, Dharma and Greg, Two and a Half Men, Friends, and Will and Grace. And sometimes, James Burroughs stuck around for quite a while, for more than 200 episodes of both Will and Grace and Cheers and 75 episodes of Taxi.
For me, the absolute best example of Jim Burroughs' gifts as a TV director came in a 1979 episode of Taxi, written by Glenn and Les Charles. It was an episode written to showcase Christopher Lloyd, who had guest starred in a previous episode as Reverend Jim, a hippie preacher from the 60s who was laid back, confused, and dealing with a long history of recreational drug use.
At the time, Reverend Jim was an outrageous character to introduce to a primetime TV show. But Taxi already had triumphed by mixing types of comic styles that shouldn't have worked. Judd Hirsch, Tony Danza, Mary Lou Henner, Andy Kaufman, Jeff Conaway, Danny DeVito, all were part of the Brooklyn cab outfit that was eager for Reverend Jim to join its ranks.
But to do that, he'd have to go to the DMV and pass a driver's exam. Not just behind the wheel, but on paper. It's in that DMV office where Burroughs helped shape what I consider the funniest scene in TV history.
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Chapter 3: What are some iconic shows directed by James Burrows?
He allows the comedy to build at its own pace and encourages the young Christopher Lloyd to steal the show as Reverend Jim. And most important of all, James Burroughs places his cameras and frames the action to catch it all.
Not only intense close-ups of an increasingly frustrated Reverend Jim, but group shots capturing the reactions of Jeff Conaway's Bobby, Mary Lou Henner's Elaine, and everyone else trying to help him take the test. Bobby tries to speed things up by reading the application to Reverend Jim as Elaine stands nearby.
Here, let me help you out, okay? All right. Have you ever experienced loss of consciousness, hallucinations, dizzy spells, convulsive disorders, fainting, or periods of loss of memory? As in everyone?
But no. Mental illness or narcotic addiction? That's a tough choice.
No.
Okay, that's it. You ready for the test?
I thought this was a test. No, no, no, this is the application. Oh, man. Oh, shit. Hey, it's getting rough for a rope.
Eventually, Reverend Jim gets a copy of the test, slumps in his classroom-style desk, and gets stuck on the first question. His cabbie friends are standing on the other side of the room, but he asks for help anyway, louder and more angrily every time. Christopher Lloyd is brilliant, and Burroughs lets the scene build and flow. And listen to the studio audience. They're not just laughing.
They're howling.
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Chapter 4: How did Burrows shape characters in 'Cheers' and 'Frasier'?
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. And the first three days are with actors and writers alone. And the fourth day, the cameras come in. And the fifth day, you shoot the show.
And for me, with actors and writers, I kind of got that. It was when the cameras came in that it became daunting. So I watched for... Maybe two months straight, I watched the Newhart show. Then I went over to the Mary Tyler Moore show and I watched Jay Sandrich, who to me is the true genius of this medium. I watched him and became very good friends with him.
And so I kind of started to get a knowledge of what to do with cameras, how to figure them out. And then they assigned me to a show called Friends and Lovers, which was the Paul Sand show. And I would coach. I was Paul Sand's dialogue coach. I would help him run lines. But in a time when I wasn't doing that, I would watch cameras.
And eventually they called me and they said, we're going to give you a shot. And I figured it would be on the Paul Sand show. And all of a sudden it was a Mary Tyler Moore show. Do you remember that first show that you did? I do, vividly. How did it go? What sticks out in your mind? Oh, my God. Well, we read the script. It was a show where Lou Grant moves into Rhoda's apartment.
So he's living above Mary, which means that they work together and they live together, which wasn't good for the relationship. And so we read the script around the table, and it was a D minus. It was awful. And I said to Grant, I said, in the sea of Danish, I get a bagel. And it was literally just a – the show was awful.
I mean, the initial reading, they made it better because you would rewrite – the writers would rewrite all the time. And so I had to go down. Back in those days, you rehearsed immediately after you read.
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Chapter 5: What challenges did Burrows face while directing 'Taxi'?
You just went down and started running scenes. And so I was dealing with a cast who hated the script, too. And yet I had to run these scenes. And so I would do it. And I can't tell you. I invoked Chekhov. I invoked Strindberg. I invoked Kaufman and Hark. I did anything to try to ease it for them, to try to come up with some comic business. Anything that...
that would help them get through this process. So I was working the first three days with the actors and cameras, and I guess we finally got the show in some sort of semblance. And then the cameras came in and that was daunting enough for me. It was very difficult. I did it on my own. I didn't want any help.
And on the fifth day, just before we shot, Mary Tyler Moore came over to me and they said, we feel our investment in you has worked out. And that was even before I shot the show. And I couldn't have been higher figuratively. And we shot the show and it turned out all right. And Jay Sanders was there and helped me a little bit.
And the minute that show was over, I got two new hearts and I got a Bob Crane and a Paul Sand. And next year I was on the Phyllis show. So I was on my way. Was the show as bad after it was shot as it was when you were doing the reading? It was – it's a C-plus show. It's not a very good show. In fact, the script after me won an Emmy. So by the luck of the draw, I got –
I didn't get the Emmy show. I got an okay show, and it might have helped me because of the amount of work I had to do and the amount of talking and inspiring I had to do might have, in hindsight, might have really helped me succeed in there and impress the actors. Okay, so you start off at MTM in television, and then you do Taxi. About how many episodes would you estimate you did of Taxi?
I think I did 75. And you were there right from the beginning with Taxi, right?
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Chapter 6: How did Burrows contribute to the portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters in sitcoms?
I was there. It was after – I kind of left MTM after about three or four years and started to – Go other places. I went on Laverne and Shirley where I had a ball, although that was a tough show.
Chapter 7: What insights did James Burrows share about directing sitcoms?
And then I did a show with Ned Beatty. I was all a hired hand. I didn't do many pilots or anything like that. And then the boys from MTM, Ed Weinberger, Jim Brooks, Dan Daniels and Dave Davis had created a show called Taxi and they called me to direct it. And probably the most difficult show I ever did because the cast was so divergent. The writing was so outrageous. The set was so gigantic.
And it was my first really big show where I was in charge from the beginning. But it was like getting all these egos in the same room. There wasn't a room big enough. And it was a struggle, and yet I was heard. I got out there, and I said what I wanted to say, and I was heard. It was tough at times to be heard, but I fought.
And the great thing about that show was that the producers of that show and head writers were Glenn Charles and Les Charles, who I'd first met on – on Phyllis, and then they were brought in on Taxi. So we struck up a friendship. We were both handled by the same agent, and he thought it would be good for us to do a show together.
So I think about the third year of Taxi, we started to think about a show. But Taxi, if you go back and watch that show, there is some of the funniest television I think I've ever done. The standard out of that show is Reverend Jim, What Does the Yellow Light Mean? slow down. And that is, to me, one of the biggest laughs I had ever done on Taxi. And so I have fond memories of that show.
It was also a great learning experience.
James Burroughs speaking with Terry Gross in 2006. He died last week at the age of 85. Here's one of the scenes from episode three of Cheers with Ted Danson and Shelley Long, which Burroughs directed.
Why are you so upset?
You know, this week I have gone out with all the women I know. I mean, all the women I really enjoyed. And all of a sudden, all I can think about is how stupid they are. I mean, my life isn't fun anymore. It's because of you.
Because of me? Yeah.
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Chapter 8: What are the themes explored in the film 'The Invite' reviewed in this episode?
You're a snob. A snob? Yeah, that's right. Well, you're a rapidly aging adolescent. Well, I would rather be that than a snob. And I would rather be a snob.
Well, good, because you are.
Sam, do yourself a favor. Go back to your tootsies and your rat parts. I'd hate to see the bowling alley's close on my account.
Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you saying that I'm too dumb to date smart women?
I'm saying that it would be very difficult for you. A really intelligent woman would see your line of B.S. a mile away.
You think so?
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh. Yeah, well, you know, I've never met an intelligent woman that I'd want to date.
On behalf of the intelligent women around the world, may I just say... Coming up, we'll hear about Burroughs' work on Cheers and Frasier, and later, Justin Chang reviews the new film The Invite. I'm Dave Davies, and this is Fresh Air.
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