US director and television creator James Burrows, who worked behind the scenes on “Friends,” “Cheers,” “Taxi,” and many other beloved comedies, has died, People magazine has reported.<\/p>\n
He was 85.<\/p>\n
“We celebrate the extraordinary life and enduring legacy of James ‘Jimmy’ Burrows, who passed away peacefully today surrounded by his loving family,” his family said in a statement. The time and place of his death were not disclosed.<\/p>\n
Burrows won 11 Emmy awards for excellence in television and helmed more than 1,000 episodes of hit programs, working as a director, producer and writer.<\/p>\n
Burrows was among the early innovators of the multi-camera sitcom – short for situation comedy – when his prolific career began in the 1970s, directing episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Laverne & Shirley” and “The Bob Newhart Show.”<\/p>\n
His first Emmy came for directing “Taxi,” a groundbreaking comedy starring Danny DeVito, Andy Kaufman and Tony Danza, about the rough and tumble staff of a New York City taxicab company.<\/p>\n
He directed 236 episodes and also co-created “Cheers” with longtime collaborator James Brooks, as well as its spin-off “Frasier.” His other hit shows include “The Big Bang Theory,” “Mike & Molly,” and “3rd Rock from the Sun.”<\/p>\n
Recently, Burrows took a rare step in front of the camera and starred as himself in “The Comeback,” reuniting with “Friends” star Lisa Kudrow for a show that pokes fun at life behind the scenes working on a sitcom in Hollywood.<\/p>\n
“For more than five decades, Burrows was one of the most influential and beloved directors in television history.<\/p>\n
As a legendary director, mentor, and creative force, he helped shape generations of comedy and brought immeasurable joy to audiences around the world,” his family said.<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US director and television creator James Burrows, who worked behind the scenes on “Friends,” “Cheers,” “Taxi,” and many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-509285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}