James Burrows Has ‘Attended the Death of Multi-Camera Sitcoms in Every Decade,’ but He’s Not Done Making Studio Audiences Laugh

Christian Zilko
·8 min read
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It’s Frasier Week at IndieWire. Grab some tossed salad and scrambled eggs, settle into your coziest easy chair, and join us. We’re listening.

Every true “Frasier” fan knows that kitchens are soundproof havens for covert plotting. Whenever Frasier, Martin, Niles, or Daphne needed the rest of the family to help them convince guests that they were Jewish, gay, married, single, or an entirely different person, they’d craft an excuse to sidebar in the kitchen. And despite the apartment’s open floor plan, nobody ever caught a peep of the screaming matches that ensued while plating Camembert.

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So it’s fitting that the first episode of the new Paramount+ revival features plenty of kitchen scheming. When Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier Crane attempts to reconnect with his adult son Freddy (now played by Jack Cutmore-Scott), an impromptu dinner party at his Boston apartment quickly devolves into a game of telephone. Freddy is hesitant to share details about his life and his ambiguous roommate situation, prompting Frasier to suspect that he has a secret grandchild. When he needs to compare notes on the situation with his nephew David (Anders Keith), they naturally head to the kitchen.

It’s a classic “Frasier” premise if there ever was one. But when legendary sitcom director James Burrows showed up to stage it, he could tell something wasn’t right on set. There was no door between the kitchen and the living room of Freddy’s apartment — and he knew there was nothing farcical about a clear entryway.

“Farce was an integral part of the original ‘Frasier’ show,” Burrows said in recent conversation with IndieWire. “I love it, and I know how important it is to have a swinging door. That’s incumbent in farce, so we had to have that swinging kitchen door.”

The revival is overseen by showrunners Joe Cristalli and Chris Harris, both diehard “Frasier” fans who were ecstatic to work with Burrows. When he told them they needed a kitchen door, they didn’t hesitate for a second.

“He said ‘You need a door here!’” Cristalli told IndieWire, breaking out his best Burrows impression. “So somebody ran and screwed a door in. And he was completely right.”

It’s the kind of judgement call that Burrows is singularly qualified to make. Over the past half century he’s carved out a niche for himself as America’s preeminent director of multi-camera sitcoms, helming pilots for “Cheers, “Friends,” “Taxi,” “Wings,” “Night Court,” “NewsRadio,” “3rd Rock from the Sun,” “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and the original “Frasier,” along with dozens of others. He’s also directed hundreds of non-pilot episodes, including 237 episodes of “Cheers” and the entirety of “Will & Grace.” For multiple generations of American viewers, the phrase “Directed by James Burrows” has been an ever-present trademark of primetime television.

The door anecdote speaks to Burrows’ eye for detail and the unique role that he’s played in the industry for 50 years. It’s hard to think of any other non-writer who has done more to shape the history of sitcoms, but his specific skillset isn’t always easy for viewers to quantify. Burrows, the recipient of an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and the son of “Guys and Dolls” librettist Abe Burrows, credits his stage background with helping him unpack the theatricality in every sitcom script he directs.

“I’m not a film director. The camera, I leave that to Spielberg and Scorsese,” Burrows said. “I’m a theatre rat. I stage a play every week, a 20 to 25 minute play and then my camera comes in and covers it. I understand characters, I understand what’s funny, I understand the essence of keeping it moving and keeping the energy going. It’s all theatrical. If it doesn’t happen on that stage, it’s never gonna happen on film. You can cut it nine ways to Sunday, but nothing will work unless it works on that stage.”

Burrows’ sitcom pedigree and connection to “Cheers” lent some essential legitimacy to the “Frasier” revival, which had the paradoxical task of honoring the first two shows while establishing itself as a separate entity. The road to bringing Frasier Crane back to television was a long one, with Grammer, Harris, and Cristalli toying with multiple premises during the development process. The original intention was to bring the entire “Frasier” cast back as series regulars, a plan that ultimately fell through when David Hyde Pierce declined to return as Niles Crane.

Once it became clear that the show would have to build a new ensemble from scratch, the writers considered having Frasier move to New York City. But as they dug deeper into the character, everyone realized that it made the most sense to bring him back to Boston to reconnect with his son and reckon with his shortcomings as a father.

For all of the ambiguity about the actual scripts, there was never any real doubt about who would direct the first episode. Burrows came on board once the scripts were finished and immediately began making his presence felt.

“His DNA is all over his first two episodes and the series,” Cristalli said. “He was in the audition rooms with everyone who came in. He’s pitching jokes on set that are going in. He gives you a big hug at the end. He calls you Honey! There’s nothing better, I loved it.”

Both showrunners admitted that they viewed Burrows as a litmus test for jokes, and took great pride whenever they were able to make him laugh on set.

“I was sort of a comforting hand on our shoulder,” Cristalli said. “Because he’s got full belly laughs from the director’s chair and we’re thinking ‘Whoa, we’re making Jimmy laugh!’”

The return of “Frasier” has been one of the most hyped-up multi-camera sitcom events in years, as the show has amassed a young fanbase from streaming and syndication that might rival the crowd that remembers its broadcast run. The new season is likely to attract a wide range of fans who missed Dr. Crane — as well as plenty of reboot skeptics who are eager to tear it down. Either way, Burrows hopes it directs more attention to the multi-camera genre. While he has continued to regularly direct pilots, he hasn’t enjoyed watching his art form’s cultural clout dwindle in recent years.

“Nothing’s being put out there,” he said when asked about the current state of multi-camera sitcoms. “There’s 600 shows on the air, and maybe 10 multi-camera comedies. The streamers are not fans of it and I don’t know why. I’ve attended the death of multi-camera sitcoms in every decade, and every time it’s been resurrected. But I don’t know what’s happening now.”

Despite his distaste for current sitcom offerings, Burrows is eager to keep working. He playfully called for anyone who happens to be making a multi-camera pilot to send a script his way, and lit up when asked about directing more “Frasier” episodes in a hypothetical Season 2. He says he’s always eager to work with Kelsey Grammer, even if his days of directing full seasons are behind him.

“I don’t have the energy to do them all,” he said before cracking a smile. “Or the hair.”

When asked to look back on his impeccable track record of turning pilots into series and series into massive hits, Burrows points out that a show’s success hinges on a multitude of variables, from writing to casting to favorable network time slots. He recalled directing the “Friends” pilot in 1994 and being pleasantly surprised to see what was essentially an afterthought for NBC evolve into a piece of sitcom magic.

“I did four pilots that year and it was the last pilot I did, and those six people were available. It looks perfect now, but that was the dregs of the actors still available,” he said, noting that he was stunned by the cast’s immediate chemistry. “There’s a lot of luck involved.”

But for all of Burrows’ modesty, there’s no denying that he is a common denominator connecting dozens of shows that have enjoyed such “luck.” He admits that directing a pilot is a borderline alchemical process, explaining that the real secret to a show’s long-term success might be forging a close bond between the actors. It’s a process he takes great pride in — and one that has resulted in a multitude of beloved casts that he refers to as “my kids.”

“I try to shape a cast into a homogeneous group of people who like one another, and hopefully one day they’ll love one another and that’ll come across on screen,” he said. “If an audience sees a group of people who are happy, or appear to be happy with one another, I think that transcends.”

“Frasier” premieres Thursday, October 12 on Paramount+ with two episodes. New episodes will be released weekly. In addition, CBS will broadcast a special airing of the first two episodes back to back on Tuesday, October 17, beginning at 9:15 p.m. ET.

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