Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475547
Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) and Norm Peterson (George Wendt) — who gave the show its uniquely companionable tone. The good-natured sparring and deep-seat- ed friendship that passed between these characters delivered on the promise made in the theme song co-written and sung by Gary Portnoy: that Cheers is a place "where everybody knows your name." Yet few among the legions of fans who watched "Cheers" during its original run, in syndication, or now on streaming, are likely to know very much about co-creator and director James Burrows — except for his name, which appeared along with that of his co-creators, siblings G l e n a n d L e s C h a r l e s , o n e v e r y episode. In an insightful, altogether delightful new memoir of his decades calling the shots on the sets of some of his era's most beloved sitcoms, including, in addition to "Cheers," episodes of "Taxi," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Frasier," and "Will & Grace," Burrows runs through several of the monikers he has been given within the industry. "I have been called the Sitcom Sorcerer, the Concorde of TV Pilots, the Willie Mays of Directing, and the Obi-Wan Kenobi of Sitcoms," Burrows writes in "Directed by James Burrows." "I was most flattered when I was called the Steven Spielberg of Sitcoms and even more flattered when, in response to that, Steven called me and told me that he wanted to be known as the James Burrows of Movies." Even if Burrows, 81, has claim to such titles, the fact remains that the auteur the- ory — the controversial but common-sense proposition that film directors have recog- nizable styles — never reached episodic television. Few speak of sitcoms, courtroom dramas, or police procedurals as bearing a director's signature — a showrunner or se- ries creator's signature, yes, but not usually a director's. In this unfailingly modest book, Bur- rows speaks with pride of his role as a guardian of the writer's intent — "Most net- works try to vitiate the writer's vision," he writes. "I work to guard it and enhance it by constructing a safe, creative environment that fosters the best ideas" — and insists that sitcoms, unlike movies, are simply not a director's medium. Of course, Burrows is right to distinguish the expressive visual language of cinema with the functional vi- sual storytelling of sitcoms — "The camera is not a character on a sitcom; it is a pair of eyes capturing the action," he writes — but his detailed and specific descriptions of his working methods and philosophy of comedy suggest a fully formed directorial personality, one that can be discerned on the shows on which he worked the longest, including "Cheers." Many of Burrows's directorial prefer- ences can be traced back to his roots in the theater. Born in 1940 in Los Angeles, Burrows grew up in New York City where his father, Abe Burrows, was an eminent Broadway playwright and director. With a front-row seat to the Great White Way, Jim- my, as he was known, experienced firsthand numerous notable productions, including "Finian's Rainbow," starring David Wayne and Ella Logan; "Peter Pan," starring Jean Arthur in the title role; and "Where's Char- ley?," starring Ray Bolger. By happenstance as much as design, Burrows's young adult- hood was immersed in the arts: He sang in the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus, attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, and graduated from the famously artsy Oberlin College in Ohio. Even so, Burrows writes that he was floundering — intimidated at the prospect of working in his father's field, and unsure where his own enthu- siasms lay — until his father suggested that he enter the Yale School of Drama. From Yale directing teacher Nikos Psacharopoulous, Burrows gained a sense of what the profession entailed — and that he was called to do it. "In my directing career, my job is to get it to the finish line," Burrows writes. "Complete the play. Tinker to Evers to Chance." Up o n g ra d u a t i o n , B u r row s d i d a little bit of everything: He was an assistant on "The Patty Duke Show," a second assistant stage manager on the roundly lambasted musical version of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (di- rected by his father), and, in time, a director with accumulated credits in summer stock, dinner theater, and on Broadway. "The more I did, the more I added pieces — a joke, a physical move — which you're not allowed to do," writes Burrows, who, one evening, tuned into a new show starring his friend from "Breakfast at Tiffany's," Mary Tyler Moore (who had starred as Holly Golightly in the earlier production). While watching "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," he writes, the connection between what he had been doing and what he wanted to do hit him: "'They're doing a play!' I thought. 'I'm doing two hours in front of a live audience every week. I can do a half hour on television! And I know Mary!'" Burrows dashed off 47 S U M M E R Q 3 I S S U E B O O K R E V I E W