On June 19, 2026, television lost one of its most iconic figures: James Burrows. The 11-time Emmy Award winner is best known for co-creating “Cheers” and directing episodes of some of the greatest sitcoms in history, including “Friends,” “Will & Grace,” “Taxi,” and “Frasier.” But his start in television came much earlier than any of those shows. Burrows’ first directing job came with “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in 1974.
Burrows got his start on the stage in the late ’60s and worked on the play “Holly Golightly,” which just happened to star Mary Tyler Moore. In an interview with the Directors Guild of America, Burrows said the experience helped launch his television career. “When I was running a theater in San Diego, I saw this show on the air, ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ that was a theatrical thing filmed by cameras. And I said, ‘I can do that,’ because that’s what I do. So I wrote a letter to Mary Tyler Moore,” said Burrows. “They had four multi-camera shows on the air so they wanted theatrical directors.”
Burrows said the first episode he got to direct may not have been a classic, but he gave it his all. “The script was a C- and maybe the show was a C,” he said in the same interview. “I tried to mine a funny pony from a pile of s***. I just did everything I possibly could to try to make the show better.”
On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, James Burrows learned from one of the greats
That episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was a trial by fire, according to James Burrows. In an interview with the Television Academy, he said he was extremely nervous until Moore herself approached him right before filming started. “Just before we shot the show, Mary comes over to me and says, ‘I think our investment in you has worked out,'” said Burrows. “And that was her blessing and Grant [Tinker]’s blessing.”
Burrows directed four episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” overall, and credits much of his later success to lessons he learned while working on it, specifically from a director he looked up to, Jay Sandrich. “I watched Sandrich defend what he thought. And so that’s what I did,” Burrows said in the Directors Guild of America interview. “I fought as much as I could. I had no clout, but I said what I thought.”
Burrows would go on to direct over 1,000 episodes for more than 140 shows, many of whose casts have since paid tribute to him. His directing career lasted more than five decades, from his beginnings with “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” all the way to “Mid-Century Modern” in 2025.
