James Burrows, the legendary TV director, died on Friday on the age of 85. Many from across the industry have issued statements paying tribute to him. Below, you may read an extended personal remembrance provided exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter by Warren Littlefield, who became an executive at NBC in 1979 and served as president of NBC Entertainment from 1991 through 1998, encompassing its fabled Must See TV era.
America’s biggest and most prolific exporter of the world of laughter and joy was and is Jimmy Burrows.
Jimmy’s brilliance revealed itself in various ways. In casting sessions that included showrunners, writers, studio reps and network execs, the voice everyone listened to essentially the most was Jimmy’s. He directed actors by gaining their trust in order that without fear, they might take risks beyond their comfort zone. He had a wickedly funny mind, but additionally a really kind soul. Uniquely, he also directed writers, telling them what he needed to take their material to a different level. Marta Kauffman, after making the primary episode of Friends with Jimmy, said the eye-opener for her was his skill at dramaturgy. Nobody was his equal in that regard.
I met Jimmy shortly after I began working at NBC in Comedy Development in late 1979. On the time, ABC and CBS each had no less than a dozen award-winning and highly popular shows on their schedules. NBC had Diff’rent Strokes and Hello, Larry. That’s it. NBC was eager to be competitive within the genre, and overpaid the Charles brothers, Les and Glen, and Jimmy Burrows, who had good credentials working on other people’s shows, but had never created a show on their very own. The deal was for 2 scripts against a 13-episode series commitment. Their good agent, Bob Broder, shopped our offer to other potential buyers, but nobody was as desperate as NBC.
At breakfast in Burbank, Jimmy, Les and Glen served us a number of scraps of what they were pondering. They desired to do an adult comedy, possibly set in a bar. Unlike the tone of ABC’s popular Three’s Company, they desired to channel slightly little bit of the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn dynamic, or Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, and maybe throw in slightly of George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story. We said yes, and Cheers was born.
When casting the show, ex-LA Rams football player Fred Dryer gave a really entertaining read as ‘Sam Malone,’ and there was a great likelihood that we’d have rolled the dice with him, but Jimmy insisted that Ted Danson was the guy that we could depend upon scene for scene, day in and time out. He told us to place Fred in a drama. Jimmy spoke and we listened — for each actors — and thank God we did. History repeated itself when Kelsey Grammer read for the newly created role of ‘Frasier Crane’ in Cheers. Was Kelsey the most effective selection? Jimmy said he was, and Frasier was the award-winning quality comedy that kept us going for one more 11 seasons after Cheers departed.
Jimmy executive produced all 275 episodes of Cheers and directed 236. It was the whole lot they envisioned of their non-pitch breakfast pitch so a few years before, but it surely represented so way more. For me, it was a learning tree of what network television adult comedy may very well be. They never pitched individual episodes, but somewhat character arcs across a season. Nobody had done that before. I listened and learned, and Jimmy and Les and Glen without end modified the DNA of comedy at NBC. Sophisticated, urban, young adult comedy was our beacon — we finally had one.
There would have been no ‘Must See TV’ on NBC without Jimmy. He was our North Star. He launched Night Court, Wings, Frasier, Friends and third Rock from the Sun. Jimmy executive produced and directed each episode of Will & Grace for the Peacock. Vice President Joe Biden gave a shout out to the series when he announced the Marriage Equality Act, and that made Jimmy smile — but he was particularly thrilled by how relevant the show made him along with his kids.
Yr after yr, NBC’s Advertiser Upfronts in Latest York were a celebration of the genius of Jimmy Burrows. Late night parties followed and alcohol flowed, and my memory is of talent of all ages lovingly looking up on the master with tremendous gratitude. One only has to go to the Friends reunion special to witness that love.
Equally phenomenal to his influence and achievements at NBC was what Jimmy did with Chuck Lorre at CBS, but that’s a story for another person to inform.
Within the digital age we now live in, 500 episodes are considered the quantity of content needed to launch a platform. In 2016, in a star-studded spectacular, NBC honored Jimmy for producing and directing his one thousandth episode of television. Imagine a world with not one but two Jimmy Burrows channels — it will be a world of laughter and joy. Thanks, Jimmy, and Cheers to you!