Directed by James Burrows
Five Decades of Stories from the
Legendary Director of Taxi,
Cheers,
Frazier, Friends, Will &
Grace and More
(Ballantine Books)
Review by Giacomo Selloni
Over the course of his five-decade
career as a producer and director, James Burrows has been nominated for fifteen
Directors Guild of
America awards and for an Emmy Award every year between 1980 and 2005,
excluding 1997. Burrows has won ten Emmy Awards and four Directors
Guild of America Awards. If one lasts this long in any industry,
with as many accolades, you can bet the person has many memorable stories to
tell. James Burrows has a number of stories to tell, and with co-author Eddy Friedfeld's
(Caesar's Hour) assistance, they are delivered with the same deftness many of
Burrow's over one thousand directed television episodes enjoyed.
James Burrows was born December
30, 1940 in Los Angeles, California to Ruth (Levinson) and Abe Burrows. He has
one sister, Laurie Burrows Grad. The family moved to New York City when the
children were still young. James' father Abe went on to become a well known
humorist, writer, director of radio and stage winning both a Pulitzer Prize and
a Tony for Best Direction of a Musical for "How to Succeed in Business Without
Really Trying." He occasionally took his son Jimmy to work with him,
depending upon whatever he may have been working on. Burrows recalled that back
then he never considered show business as a career. He eventually attended New
York City's High School of Music & Art, graduated from Oberlin College and
eventually attained a graduate degree from The Yale School of Drama.
After briefly working as a dialogue coach on
"O.K. Crackerby!", a television show created by his dad, he
became assistant stage manager for "Holly Golightly," a stage version
of Truman Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Though the show was a
bomb, closing during previews, it set the stage for a move that would change
Burrows’ career and television situation comedy. Mary Tyler Moore was cast as
Holly Golightly and she and Burrows became great friends. So great in fact,
that when Burrows was tiring of stage managing and directing touring plays, he
wrote Moore and her husband Grant Tinker seeking employment at their production
company MTM Productions. He got a job.
"People like characters they can
identify with," writes Burrows, "Audiences internalize sitcom
characters more than any other type of character because they have gone through
many of the same experiences or emotions that the character has. They have dinner, they fight with each other,
they fall in love, often at the same time. Most people don't investigate
crimes, go to court, or operate on patients like the characters in dramas with
cops, lawyers, and doctors, but everyone eats with their family and friends,
sitting and talking."
This is Writing 101. Plain and simple. Get
your audience to identify with a character, to sympathize with them, celebrate
with them and you'll win the audience over. Think of the characters from many
of Burrows' shows; Sam and Diane from "Cheers," the gang of
"Friends," "Will and Grace," "Frazier," just to
name a few. As of this book's publishing Brooks has directed more that
seventy-five pilots that have gone to series. He has been called the Sitcom
Sorcerer, the Concorde of TV pilots, the Willie Mays of Directing (my personal
favorite), and the Obi-Wan Kenobi of Sitcoms. Have you ever thought of becoming
a television director? Well, here's your first textbook.
“Directed by James Burrows” succeeds on
multiple levels. It not only stands on its own as a memoir filled with colorful
tales and reminisces but also as an instructional manual for multi-camera
direction, how to get the most out of your actors (hint: allowing their input
is crucial), and creating a team-first attitude among your cast. Oh, and also
how to deal with network executives: "Garry Marshall once referred to
television-network executives as 'people who aren't funny who are telling people
who are funny what to do. And it's always going to be that way, because the men
that are funny don't want to put on a suit and tie and sit at the networks.'
"
Burrows focuses on "The Center"
when he discusses casting: "Most sitcoms have a center- a character the
audience is going to like, trust, respect and enjoy despite any flaws or
neuroses. - In the beginning, [centers] must be appealing and compelling.
Networks want characters to be appealing all the time. But that's ultimately
bad for storytelling, because there's no journey. There's no redemption if
there's no sin. There has to be some dimension. The challenge is in figuring
out how to grow and nurture characters carefully so that the audience will
continue to accept them."
“Directed by James Burrows” is also filled
with wonderful anecdotes such as this one from the "little- known fact
files," in this case Taxi: "The same way Louie took bribes from
cabbies for a good cab, Danny Devito developed a little cottage industry taking
bribes from the company (including Burrows) to announce names of family and
friends when he was dispatching cabs. He had a good side hustle going." Burrows also slips in "in jokes" to
his real-life friends: "John Lithgow was the original choice for Frazier
Crane on "Cheers," (I mention this for no other reason than to piss
off Kelsey Grammer, whom I love.")
From top to bottom, a double-take to the
left, a one-time avoidance of the banana peel that leads to a stumble over a
raisin, “Directed by James Burrows” is a thoroughly enjoyable and quick read. Burrows
and Friedfeld are on-point eighty-eight percent of the time. Read the book. Where
else could you find a Willie Mays of directing that bats .880?
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