Directed by James Burrows Quotes

“I was the only man they knew who had been bar mitzvahed at 47 and lost his hair at 13.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“For talented writers, every word has an intent and a purpose. There is a big difference between, 'Are you coming home?' and 'When are you coming home?”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“FRASIER Claire, you are in mourning. But you’re not mourning the loss of your boyfriend. You’re mourning the loss of what you thought your life was going to be. Let it go. Things don’t always work out how you planned—that’s not necessarily bad. Things have a way of working out anyway. Have you ever heard of…Lupe Velez?”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“I perfected the game quickly and became bored. The challenge was gone when I could consistently get the ball through the elephant’s trunk and onto the waterwheel.” I also worked as an assistant for Julius Monk, who produced revues in New York.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“Both Bob and Suzanne would ask me questions during shoots, and I’d answer them. I impressed them because I was right more than I was wrong. I learned another valuable lesson: Take a stand. I could say, “Bob, do this; I think it’s going to be funny.” If an actor ever asks you which version of a take will be funnier, don’t say, “I don’t care.” Pick one. Pick one even if you don’t know. If you’re wrong, say, “Jesus! I was wrong. Let’s try the other one.” The minute you equivocate or are perceived as someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, no actor will walk the comedic plank or take any risks for you.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“Maybe we can do it this way” should be something everyone on a creative set is not only thinking but feels comfortable sharing.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“I compliment where I feel compliments are deserved and offer constructive criticism. It’s all about trying new things, creating multiple options, and taking creative risks. “Maybe we can do it this way” should be something everyone on a creative set is not only thinking but feels comfortable sharing.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“That is the television director’s technical craft. It sounds and is complicated at first, but you work backward from what the audience has to see and what you want them to see, and then you figure it out.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“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. In the beginning, the characters must be appealing and compelling. Networks want characters to be appealing all the time. But that’s ultimately terrible for storytelling, because there’s no journey. There’s no redemption if there’s no sin. There has to be some dimension. The challenge is in figuring out how to grow and nurture characters carefully so that the audience will continue to accept them.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“The first ingredient in becoming a director is trying to find good writers to work with good actors who know how to perform the material.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“When you’re poignant, when you go to the depths of a sensitive discussion, the audience doesn’t want to be left there. As an artist, you never leave them there. You lead them down one road and then you give them joke #75 so they can come back feeling happy, fulfilled, and smarter. That kind of road is complex and dangerous, because if you take them too far down the road, you may not be able to bring them back.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“My philosophy was “Get it done.” Get the basics in there and, after that, tweak it and make it better; think about how to generate nuances that would enhance the show. I knew that doing nuances right away was like building a house and putting the couches and the curtains in before laying the foundation. This was literally how my directing career began. I was doing well, but I still felt I was getting other people’s laughs, not my own.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“At school we were in The Visit, the Swiss play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt about Claire Zachanassian, the world-famous billionaire who returns home to her impoverished village and says she will pay a billion dollars to whoever kills her former love, who spurned her.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“The way you react to a joke is to pretend that you have three holes in the top of your head and you have three balls. And as you’re trying to react to the joke, you’re trying to get the three balls into the holes. Less is more.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“The concept is never what attracts me; it’s the execution. There are lots of shows about bars, news and radio stations, cabdrivers, and shrinks. I want to see what the characters that are put into these situations do. I’m concerned about believability and the economy of the comedy, the shortest distance between the character and the laughter, and the best way to get there. When I direct an episode, I have a lot of notes. I am apt to tell writers, “Fifty percent of what I say is gold and fifty percent is garbage. It’s your job to figure out which is which.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“I need to find out if they can defend their material without being defensive about it. I don’t want to work with someone who says, “No, it’s funny, do it.” If I make suggestions that they don’t think will improve the script and they can articulate why, I will never be upset by it. If they can’t explain why, I won’t work with them.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“If the writers and the actors are content and working together and communicating creatively, then that joyfulness is also transmitted to the audience.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“An artist works their entire career and life improving their instrument. A director works at improving other artists’ instruments, as well as their own.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“The most cutting-edge and groundbreaking sitcoms were created without a guidebook, without any North Star, other than well-intentioned and creative people wanting the audience to laugh and think about life and social issues. They are a reflection of both where society was at the time and where it aspired to be. They illustrate how people evolved.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More

“creative environment that fosters the best ideas, including those no one had thought about before.”
― James Burrows, Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More