Burrows was TV’s comedy master

Some people are simply the best at what they do.
No one can match Spielberg at making movies or Williams at scoring them. No one matches Ohtani at baseball or Elvis at doing Elvis things.
And no one could match James Burrows at an important and dwindling art –directing a comedy that’s done in front of a studio audience.
Burrows died today (June 19) at 85; I’ll have a full story about him later, but for now the basics:
He was the guy whom everyone wanted to direct their pilot films. In all, 75 of those pilots became series.
Burrows stayed with a few — “Taxi,” “Cheers” (shown here), “Will & Grace” — forever. Some — “Friends,” “Frasier,” more — he stayed with long enough to mold. And many, of course, he simply left in others’ hands.
But he knew how to shape them. He had a respect for clever writing — that was the specialty of his dad, comedy writer Abe Burrows — and an eye for casting and more. Actors said he would stare at a scene quietly, then add the one physical gag that turned funny into hilarious.
There are still people who can do this. Producer Chuck Lorre has had great directing for all his shows, including “Big Bang,” “Young Sheldon” and “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.”
This is a rare and important skill. From “Lucy” to “Seinfeld” and beyond, live-before-an-audience shows have given us the best comedies. Now the master of that art is gone.