James Burrows, who co-created Cheers and directed more than a thousand television episodes across four decades, died on June 19 at the age of 85. His family confirmed his death in a statement: “We celebrate the extraordinary life and enduring legacy of James ‘Jimmy’ Burrows, who passed away peacefully today surrounded by his loving family.” He died in his sleep following a brief illness and is survived by his wife Debbie, four daughters, and seven grandchildren.

Burrows was the most prolific director in American situation comedy. He co-created Cheers with brothers Glen and Les Charles in 1982 and shaped from the very first episode the visual language and pacing that made it one of NBC’s longest-running hits. He directed every episode of Will & Grace from 1998 through its revival and finale in 2020. His contributions to Friends began with the pilot in 1994, a founding role he replicated for The Big Bang Theory, Frasier, and dozens of other series across his career.

He won 11 Emmy Awards, starting with back-to-back directing wins for his work on Taxi in 1980 and 1981. That stretch — from Taxi in the late 1970s through to Will & Grace’s conclusion in 2020 — covers most of the history of the multi-camera sitcom as the dominant form of American network comedy. Burrows was present at, and often central to, almost every significant development in that form for forty years.

The son of playwright Abe Burrows, James moved from theatre to television in the 1970s. He understood audiences at a structural level — how long a laugh runs before it needs releasing, where to put the camera so a physical joke lands correctly, how to pace an episode so the emotional beat in the final act earns its response rather than arriving as an instruction.

Directors in television, especially in comedy, rarely receive the public recognition that falls on showrunners and writers. Burrows accepted that arrangement without complaint while building a body of work that shaped what hundreds of millions of people watched at night for four decades.

Tributes from across the television industry arrived through June 19 and continued the following days. The Writers Guild and the Directors Guild each issued statements acknowledging his contribution to the craft.

More on tributes from the television and entertainment industry are in our celebrity section. Our history of American sitcom television places Burrows among a very small group who genuinely shaped the genre. The Cheers and Will & Grace catalogues are available on major streaming platforms. Variety’s full obituary is among the most detailed — the Variety website carries it in full.