BEL-AIR—On June 19, legendary television director, James Burrows passed died. According to his family, he died peacefully in his sleep in Manhattan. He was 85. The 11-time Emmy award winner directed television shows still known today including Taxi, Friends, Frasier, and The Big Bang Theory.
James Edward Burrows was born to a Jewish family in Los Angeles on, December 30, 1940. He is the son of the well-known composer, Abe Burrows, and his wife, Ruth (nee Levinson). They moved to New York soon after his birth. He later moved back to California, and lived in Bel-Air.
It was his during theater work the 1970s that James Burrows wrote to actress Mary Tyler Moore, and her then, husband, Grant Tinker seeking a job at MTM Enterprises. Grant Tinker hired Burrows as a director.
This was the start of James Burrows’ career. He launched his career with MTM Enterprises as a director in 1974 directing classic television shows such as; The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, The Cosby Show, The Golden Girls, Phyllis, Rhoda, Laverne and Shirley, The Ted Knight Show, Busting Loose, The Associates and many more.
It was that James Burrows and brothers Glen and Les Charles, who had previously worked together at MTM enterprises, co-created 76 episodes of the famous sit-com, Cheers.
Burrows continued directing sitcoms on his own after that including Night Court, Dear John, and others. He later worked for HBO as actor and director in 2005, 2014, and 2026, playing himself in the Comeback.
He married Linda Solomon in 1981. They divorced in 1993. In 1997 James Burrows married celebrity hairstylist, Debbie Easton. He leaves behind his wife, three daughters; Katherine (Kat) Burrows Schatzow, Ellie Burrows Gluck, and Margaret Abigail (Maggie) Burrows, and one step-daughter Paris Ann Sellon.
