Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

by James Burrows

For a center, trusting a character is a significant part of believing in them and is crucial to a sitcom’s development and evolution. Alex Reiger was flawed and vulnerable but a very decent person. You want a friend like Alex. You need to touch on that in a show, on the character who’s got the eyes that become the windows into the soul of the show. Alex, like Will Truman, is a character of amazing integrity. Sam Malone could talk to a Martian, and if Sam believes he’s real, so will the audience. Your center can also be subtly benevolent or sympathetic: Two and a Half Men’s Charlie Harper is a perpetually drunk womanizer, but, with little hesitation, he opens his beach home to his newly divorced brother and nephew. On The Big Bang Theory, Leonard Hofstadter is a socially awkward scientist who has trouble communicating feelings, but he protects his roommate and best friend, the even more socially awkward and brilliant Sheldon Cooper. Some shows have no center at all. In 3rd Rock from the Sun, all the characters are eccentric and play off one another.