James Burrows

Directed the Dexter Prep pilot

Directed the pilot for the NBC sitcom The Weber Show/Cursed , starring Steven Weber

Helmed the pilot for the ABC sitcom Madigan Men

Directed the pilot of the NBC sitcom Stark Raving Mad

Helmed episodes of the NBC sitcom Will & Grace ; earned Emmy nomination for the pilot; as of 1999-2000 season, became an executive producer

Staged a revival of the play The Man Who Came to Dinner , starring John Mahoney at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago; production transferred to Barbicon Theatre in London for brief run in July

Directed the premiere episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun (NBC) starring Jane Curtin and John Lithgow

Directed the pilot/premiere and several episodes of the Fox sitcom Partners

Directed the pilot/premiere and several episodes of the NBC sitcom Caroline in the City

Directed the pilot/premiere of ABC sitcom Hudson Street starring Tony Danza

Directed the pilot/premiere of the sitcom NewsRadio (NBC)

Helmed the pilot/premiere of the popular sitcom Friends (NBC)

Helmed the pilot/premiere installment of Frasier (NBC)

Directed the pilot outing of the Fox TV sitcom, Roc starring Charles Dutton

Helmed the pilot/premiere episode of the hit NBC sitcom, Wings (NBC)

Directed the premiere of the NBC sitcom, Dear John , starring Judd Hirsch

Executive produced and helmed the premiere episode of The Tortellis , a short-lived Cheers spinoff

Helmed the premiere of Valerie , starring Valerie Harper (show later renamed Valerie s Family and still later The Hogan Family )

Feature directing debut, Partners , a police comedy-drama starring Ryan O Neal and John Hurt

Helmed episodes of The Associates , an acclaimed but short-lived ABC sitcom

Helmed episodes of The Ted Knight Show

Directed his first sitcom pilot, Bumpers , starring Richard Masur; series was not picked up

Directed episodes of the CBS sitcom, Friends and Lovers

First theater job, assistant stage manager on Holly Golightly , an unsuccessful Broadway production based on Truman Capote s Breakfast at Tiffany s , starring Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain; first met Moore

Co-created, served as executive producer and directed nearly every episode of the hugely successful NBC sitcom, Cheers

Debut as a principal director on a series, Taxi ; assignments included the pilot, three subsequent season openers on ABC and many other episodes; did not remain with the show for its 1982-83 season on NBC

Directed 10 episodes of Laverne and Shirley

Directed episodes of Lou Grant , a dramatic MTM spinoff

Directed episodes of Phyllis , an MTM spinoff (dates approximate)

Directed episodes of Rhoda , a spinoff from The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Directed episodes of The Betty White Show

Directed episodes of The Tony Randall Show

Directed for off-Broadway dinner theater

Earliest directing assignments, helming episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show beginning with the fifth season

Helmed episodes of The Bob Newhart Show beginning with the third season

Hired by Grant Tinker, Moore s husband, to direct episodic TV for MTM Television in the mid-1970s

Served as stage manager on the Broadway production of Forty Carats

Served as stage manager on the road company of Cactus Flower

Spent about five years working as a stage manager for his father, playwright-director Abe Burrows

Wrote a congratulatory letter to Moore after she returned to TV in the hit CBS sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show