James Burrows, director of classic TV comedies including 'Cheers' and 'Friends,' dies at 85

James Burrows, the prolific television comedy director, has died at 85. The AP report credits him with shaping generations of laughter by directing more than a thousand episodes of shows such as Cheers, Taxi, Friends and Will and Grace, and by cocreating Cheers while directing 243 of its 273 episodes. He also helmed episodes of Frasier, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Laverne & Shirley, and the pilots of Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. Burrows began directing at 35 in 1974, a late start that propelled NBC's Must See TV era on Thursday nights.