Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545910
A U G U S T 2 0 2 6 I 1 1 Remembering Director James Burrows (1940-2026) On June 19, DGA President Christopher Nolan made the following statement upon learning of the passing of Lifetime Achievement in Television Direction Award recipient James Burrows. "Our Guild has lost a legend. With more than 40 years directing more than 1,000 episodes of the most critically-acclaimed and audience-beloved sitcoms of all time, James Burrows was the modern master of the sophisticated comedy and a beloved member of the DGA. Famous for turning sitcoms like Cheers, Will & Grace, Taxi and Frasier into high art, Jim set the bar in comedy direction with an incomparable influence on his fellow Directors over decades of precedent-setting television directing. For shaping the history of television in ways too numerous to calculate, the Guild honored Jim with our inaugural Lifetime Achievement in Television Award in 2015, as he had already been showered with an incredible 21 DGA Awards nominations over his directing career. But most importantly to us, Jim was an incredibly generous colleague, sharing his wisdom, and warm humor with his fellow Guild members and all he worked with. He mentored innumerable Directors and members of the directorial team over his long career and served as a trustee of the Directors Guild Foundation for more than 25 years, ensuring members were protected from financial hardship. He was truly incomparable and will be profoundly missed." Burrows joined the DGA in 1974 and has served as a trustee of the Directors Guild Foundation since 2001. In 2015, Burrows was awarded the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in Television Direction. Nominated 22 times for a DGA Award and 48 times for a Primetime Emmy (as a Director and Executive Producer), Burrows won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series four times: for Cheers (both 1983 and 1990); the pilot of Frasier 1993); and Will & Grace (2000); and won the DGA's Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports - Specials Award in 2019 for Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's 'All in the Family' and 'The Jeffersons' with Director Andy Fisher. Once asked what he enjoys the most about directing Burrows admitted, "It makes me laugh. I smile every Tuesday night I come from the theater, and the show I do is theater. I just love the sound of laughter from a live audience. So many times I've heard that comedy was dead. But I've been through many cycles and somehow comedy keeps rearing its funny face." 1. Celebrating with co-winner Andy Fisher for their DGA Variety/Talk/News/Sports - Specials Award for Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's 'All in the Family' and 'The Jeffersons' in 2020. 2. Winning the DGA Comedy Series Award in 2000 for Will & Grace. 3. Guiding his cast on the set of Will & Grace. 4. Directing Ted Danson and Shelley Long on the set of Cheers. 5. Receiving a standing ovation from the audience for his Lifetime Achievement in Television Direction Award at the 67th Annual DGA Awards Ceremony in 2015. Director James Burrows 1 2 3 4 5