{"id":748101,"date":"2026-06-19T21:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/748101\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T21:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:44:10","slug":"james-burrows-friends-cheers-director-dead-at-85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/748101\/","title":{"rendered":"James Burrows, ‘Friends’ & ‘Cheers’ Director, Dead at 85"},"content":{"rendered":"

TV Director James Burrows
\n Dead at 85 …
\n 11-Time Emmy Winner Co-Created Cheers<\/p>\n

\n Published
\n June 19, 2026
\n 12:37 PM PDT\n <\/p>\n

James Burrows<\/a> — a famous television director who was involved in some of the biggest sitcoms of all time — is dead.<\/p>\n

James’ family released a statement Friday announcing his death … revealing he passed away peacefully, surrounded by family.<\/p>\n

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The family noted his professional accomplishments … but also focused on his personal life — remembering him for “his kindness, generosity, and unwavering belief in the people around him” as well as his ability to make his colleagues feel seen and appreciated.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

James began directing back in the 1970s … helming episodes of programs like “Laverne & Shirley” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” before grabbing a regular role as a director for the show “Taxi.” He directed 75 of the show’s 114 episodes.<\/p>\n

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\"James<\/p>\n

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In the early 1980s, James co-created “Cheers” with\u00a0Glen and Les Charles … going on to direct 236 of the show’s 270 episodes — as well as 32 of the show’s spin-off “Frasier.”<\/p>\n

James also collected directing credits on “Friends,” “Will & Grace,” “The Bob Newhart<\/a> Show,” “Mike & Molly,” “The Millers,” and many more.<\/p>\n

He kept working right up until the end of his life … directing all 10 episodes of “Mid-Century Modern” starring Matt Bomer<\/a> and Nathan Lane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Play video content<\/p>\n

\"061926
\n 3\/30\/18<\/p>\n

We last caught up with James in 2018 … when we asked him about the “Roseanne” reboot — and he gave us his thoughts on reboots in general.<\/p>\n

James is survived by his wife, Debbie, his four daughters, and his seven grandchildren.<\/p>\n

He was 85.<\/p>\n

RIP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TV Director James Burrows Dead at 85 … 11-Time Emmy Winner Co-Created Cheers Published June 19, 2026 12:37…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75],"class_list":["post-748101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}