James Burrows - 'Will & Grace'

Awards Chatter

Scott Feinberg

Tv & Film, Film Interviews

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2018

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of the most prolific and admired directors in TV history — the go-to guy for sitcom pilots — reflects on how Mary Tyler Moore helped him break into the biz, the 15 years he split between 'Taxi' and 'Cheers' (he co-created the latter) and being at the center of NBC's 'Must See TV' era with 'Frasier,' 'Friends' and 'Will & Grace.' But first: Natalie Jarvey, THR's digital media editor, joins Scott to discuss her recent profile of Vice Media and its new CEO Nancy Dubuc, who ran A&E Networks until Shane Smith hired her to right the ship of his $5.7 billion youth-centric media company. Credits: Hosted by Scott Feinberg, recorded and produced by Matthew Whitehurst. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to the Podcast Network. The others being it happened in Hollywood on which Seth
0:24.5	Abramovich and Chip Pope take deep dives into major pop culture moments in
0:28.6	Hollywood history and behind the screen featuring Carolyn G. Ardina's conversations with
0:33.8	artists who work behind the scenes in the business.
0:36.7	Be sure to subscribe to all three podcasts today.
0:39.9	My guest today is a living legend, someone who has arguably shaped the average American's
0:44.4	television viewing experience over the last 40 years more than any other figure, James Burrows.
0:50.9	Described by the New York Times as quote the most wanted man in television close quote
0:55.6	Burrows is among the most prolific and talented directors of situational comedies or
0:59.7	sitcoms taped in front of live audiences in TV history with more than 1,000 episodes to his name
1:06.4	and a particular specialty in making pilots, those standalone episodes of prospective TV series from which TV networks then decide
1:14.2	whether or not to order a full season of a show. Indeed as someone said while
1:18.9	presenting Burrows with the Directors Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award
1:22.3	in 2015, quote,
1:24.0	James Burrows has made more pilots than a hooker at an airport hotel, close quote.
1:29.0	Among them, taxi, cheers, night court, Wings, Friends, Will and Grace, Third Rock from the Sun, The Big Bang Theory, and more than 50 others.
1:40.0	He has also won 10 Emmys, 5 DGA Awards, and the Television Critics Association's Lifetime
1:45.8	Achievement Award in 2014.
1:48.8	And today, at 77, he's still going strong.
1:52.4	Directing every episode of the rebooted Will and Grace just as he directed every
1:56.1	episode of its original run that began 20 years ago.
1:59.7	Over the course of our conversation at the offices of the Hollywood reporter, Burrows and I discussed
	...

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