In 2016, James Burrows directed his 1,000th TV episode, on NBC's Crowded.
18 Facts About James Burrows
1.
2.
James Burrows was born to a Jewish family in Los Angeles, California, the son of Ruth and Abe James Burrows, a well-known composer, director and writer.
3.
James Burrows is a graduate of Oberlin College and the graduate program of the Yale School of Drama.
4.
James Burrows then took a job as an assistant stage manager on the play Holly Golightly, an adaptation of the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's.
5.
Early on James Burrows worked for the road company of Cactus Flower and the Broadway production of Forty Carats.
6.
James Burrows went to direct the short lived Broadway play The Castro Complex.
7.
James Burrows continued working in theater as a stage manager and transitioned into directing plays.
8.
James Burrows directed traveling plays and a production at a Jacksonville, Florida dinner theater.
9.
James Burrows is best known for his comic timing, complex blocking for actors, and incorporating more sophisticated lighting in television studio shoots.
10.
James Burrows is credited as being one of the first sitcom directors to increase the typical multi-camera television shoot from three to four cameras.
11.
The Charles brothers were former employees of MTM Enterprises and served as producers on the series Taxi where James Burrows worked as in-house director for 76 episodes.
12.
Additionally, by 2012 James Burrows had directed over 50 pilots for television series.
13.
James Burrows has directed over 1,000 episodes of television, a milestone he achieved in November 2015 with the NBC sitcom Crowded.
14.
In 1998, James Burrows directed a Chicago-based production of the 1939 comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner starring John Mahoney.
15.
James Burrows has had cameo appearances in several of the shows for which he has directed.
16.
James Burrows appears as a television director named Jimmy in the 2005 HBO series The Comeback.
17.
James Burrows has won eleven Emmy Awards and five Directors Guild of America Awards.
18.
James Burrows is married to celebrity hairstylist Debbie Easton; the couple lives in Manhattan.