James Burrows in Conversation with David Lee
Legendary sitcom director James Burrows has spent five decades making America laugh. Burrows is one of Hollywood’s most loved and prolific directors, best known for his smash TV hits such as Friends, Cheers, Taxi, Will & Grace, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and more. Over the course of his career, Burrows has been nominated for fifteen Directors Guild of America Awards and for an Emmy Award every year between 1980 and 2005. Burrows has won ten Emmy Awards and four Directors Guild of America Awards. In 2013, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences celebrated Burrows’ forty-year career by hosting a panel in his honor. Burrows is best known for his comic timing, complex blocking for actors and incorporating more sophisticated lighting in television studio shoots. He is also credited as being one of the first sitcom directors to increase the typical multi-camera television shoot from three to four cameras.
Burrows is also the author of Directed by James Burrows, an insightful and nostalgic memoir that offers a bounty of behind-the-scenes moments from our favorite shows, peeling away the layers behind how a successful sitcom comes together—and stays that way.
“Being directed by the Jimmy Burrows, while on Friends, was like hitting the jackpot. I’m delighted that everyone can now share in his incredible insight with this book.” —Jennifer Aniston
David Lee is the co-creator of Wings and Frasier, for which he also wrote, produced and directed. He served as writer/producer for The Jeffersons and Cheers and directed multiple episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond. In addition to 19 Emmy Award nominations, he is the recipient of the Directors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award, Producers Guild Award, GLAAD Media Award, British Comedy Award, Television Critics Association Award (three times), the Humanitas Prize (twice) and the Peabody.
The first 200 attendees will receive a free copy of Burrows’ new book, Directed by James Burrows.
This event will be live streaming. WATCH HERE.
