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Podcast: Commonwealth Club of California Podcast
Episode: Director James Burrows: Man of a Thousand Stories
Description: It would be difficult to overstate the influence on American television of director James Burrows. Co-creator of Cheers, he also directed 237 of the long-running show's 275 episodes. He directed every episode of Will & Grace, the groundbreaking show that turned gay characters and storylines into must-see TV. He also directed 75 episodes of Taxi, 32 episodes of Frasier, 15 episodes of Friends, and multiple episodes of Phyllis, The Bob Newhart Show, NewsRadio, and many others. His sitcom work all began with an episode of another pathbreaking series, The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the early 1970s. Altogether, he has directed more than 1,000 episodes of...