AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
James Burrows died Friday. He was 85. As NPR's Chloe Veltman reports, Burrows brought some of America's most beloved sitcoms to life.
CHLOE VELTMAN, BYLINE: James Burrows helped define the golden age of the sitcom with hit after hit after hit.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME (CHEERS THEME)")
GARY PORTNOY: (Singing) Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU (FRIENDS THEME)")
THE REMBRANTS: (Singing) I'll be there for you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOSSED SALAD AND SCRAMBLED EGGS (FRAISER THEME)")
KELSEY GRAMMER: (Singing) Hey, baby, I hear the blues are calling, tossed salads and scrambled eggs.
(SOUNDBITE OF JONATHAN WOLFF'S "WILL AND GRACE THEME SONG")
VELTMAN: "Cheers," "Friends," "Taxi," "Frasier," "Will & Grace" - these are just a few of the shows Burrows directed, executive produced or helped to co-create. In 2012, former NBC entertainment president Warren Littlefield described Burrows' track record to NPR as staggering.
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WARREN LITTLEFIELD: There's no one on the planet that has had that level of success.
VELTMAN: Burrows' peers credit some of that success, including 11 primetime Emmys, to his nurturing attitude towards actors.
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DANNY DEVITO: Jimmy was always great. Just great to, you know, make you comfortable.
VELTMAN: That's Danny DeVito speaking at an Emmy's event honoring the director in 2013. DeVito played the ornery cab dispatcher Louie De Palma in the sitcom "Taxi." It followed daily life at a gritty New York City cab company.
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DEVITO: (As Louie De Palma) You found 2,000 bucks I've been looking for.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Hey, you never lost 2,000 bucks.
DEVITO: (As Louie De Palma) I didn't say I lost it. I just said I was looking for it.
(LAUGHTER)
VELTMAN: But Burrows told WHYY's Fresh Air in 2006, directing "Taxi" wasn't always a joyride.
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JAMES BURROWS: 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.
VELTMAN: Burrows was also a careful listener. He said he often used his ears rather than his eyes on set to know if a punch line was hitting.
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BURROWS: I'll walk behind the cameras not watching the action necessarily.
VELTMAN: Burrows said he picked up this habit from his father. Abe Burrows directed and wrote the books for musicals, most famously "Guys And Dolls."
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BURROWS: In the theater, he would always walk behind the set. He wouldn't watch. He listened for the noise. He knew if there was no noise, that he was in trouble.
VELTMAN: Burrows got his start working on some of his father's projects, such as the musical version of "Breakfast At Tiffany's." The show was a flop, but it gave Burrows the opportunity to meet its star, Mary Tyler Moore. After a few years of directing dinner theater and regional plays, Burrows got back in touch with the actress. He saw that her show was quite like a stage play...
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Are Phyllis and Lars taking a trip?
MARY TYLER MOORE: (As Mary Richards) Yeah, for a whole month.
VELTMAN: ...And got the chance to direct several episodes of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," including this one from 1974.
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TYLER MOORE: (As Mary Richards) Well, she just said that they were going to search for America in the wake of Watergate.
(LAUGHTER)
VELTMAN: Burrows did more than make people laugh. He is credited with introducing the four-camera setup, enabling the capture of tighter group shots and more complex movement on set. Burrows' show "Will & Grace" was the first primetime U.S. Network sitcom to feature openly gay lead characters when it came out in the late 1990s. And NPR TV commentator Eric Deggans says Burrows became known for his ability to test brand-new shows.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: The pilot episode sets the tone of the series. It establishes the characters. And so Jim became the go-to director to direct pilot episodes of shows that were really important.
VELTMAN: He directed the pilots of "Two And A Half Men," "Big Bang Theory" and "3rd Rock From The Sun," among other soon-to-be hits. Burrows said he could usually tell when one of his projects would make it big. At his Emmy's tribute, he told an anecdote about the time he took the then-unknown members of the "Friends" cast out to dinner ahead of the show's release.
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BURROWS: I said, once the show comes on the air, you guys will never be able to go anywhere without being hounded.
VELTMAN: As lionized as he was in TV, Burrows himself was happy to remain relatively anonymous behind the camera. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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