James Burrows Appreciation: Warren Littlefield Says “There Would Have Been No ‘Must See TV’ on NBC Without Jimmy” (Exclusive)

James Burrows and Warren Littlefield in 2012. Alexandra Wyman/WireImage

James Burrows, the legendary TV director, died on Friday at the age of 85. Many from across the industry have issued statements paying tribute to him. Below, you can read a longer personal remembrance provided exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter by Warren Littlefield, who became an executive at NBC in 1979 and served as president of NBC Entertainment from 1991 through 1998, encompassing its fabled Must See TV era.

America’s greatest and most prolific exporter of the world of laughter and joy was and is Jimmy Burrows.

Jimmy’s brilliance revealed itself in a number of ways. In casting sessions that included showrunners, writers, studio reps and network execs, the voice everyone listened to the most was Jimmy’s. He directed actors by gaining their trust so that without fear, they would take risks beyond their comfort zone. He had a wickedly funny mind, but also a very kind soul. Uniquely, he also directed writers, telling them what he needed to take their material to another level. Marta Kauffman, after making the first episode of Friends with Jimmy, said the eye-opener for her was his skill at dramaturgy. No one was his equal in that regard. I met Jimmy shortly after I started working at NBC in Comedy Development in late 1979. At the time, ABC and CBS each had at least a dozen award-winning and highly popular shows on their schedules. NBC had Diff’rent Strokes and Hello, Larry. That’s it. NBC was desperate to be competitive in the genre, and overpaid the Charles brothers, Les and Glen, and Jimmy Burrows, who had good credentials working on other people’s shows, but had never created a show on their own. The deal was for two scripts against a 13-episode series commitment. Their brilliant agent, Bob Broder, shopped our offer to other potential buyers, but no one was as desperate as NBC. At breakfast in Burbank, Jimmy, Les and Glen served us a few scraps of what they were thinking. They wanted to do an adult comedy, maybe set in a bar. Unlike the tone of ABC’s popular Three’s Company, they wanted to channel a little bit of the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn dynamic, or Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, and perhaps throw in a little of George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story. We said yes, and Cheers was born. When casting the show, ex-LA Rams football player Fred Dryer gave a very entertaining read as ‘Sam Malone,’ and there was a good chance that we would have rolled the dice with him, but Jimmy insisted that Ted Danson was the guy that we could depend on scene for scene, day in and day out. He told us to put Fred in a drama. Jimmy spoke and we listened — for both actors — and thank God we did. History repeated itself when Kelsey Grammer read for the newly created role of ‘Frasier Crane’ in Cheers. Was Kelsey the best choice? Jimmy said he was, and Frasier was the award-winning quality comedy that kept us going for another 11 seasons after Cheers departed. Jimmy executive produced all 275 episodes of Cheers and directed 236. It was everything they envisioned in their non-pitch breakfast pitch so many years before, but it represented so much more. For me, it was a learning tree of what network television adult comedy could be. They never pitched individual episodes, but rather character arcs across a season. No one had done that before. I listened and learned, and Jimmy and Les and Glen forever changed the DNA of comedy at NBC. Sophisticated, urban, young adult comedy was our beacon — we finally had one. There would have been no ‘Must See TV’ on NBC without Jimmy. He was our North Star. He launched Night Court, Wings, Frasier, Friends and 3rd Rock from the Sun. Jimmy executive produced and directed every single episode of Will & Grace for the Peacock. Vice President Joe Biden gave a shout out to the series when he announced the Marriage Equality Act, and that made Jimmy smile — but he was particularly thrilled by how relevant the show made him with his kids. Year after year, NBC’s Advertiser Upfronts in New York were a celebration of the genius of Jimmy Burrows. Late night parties followed and alcohol flowed, and my memory is of talent of all ages lovingly looking up at the master with tremendous gratitude. One only has to go to the Friends reunion special to witness that love. Equally phenomenal to his influence and achievements at NBC was what Jimmy did with Chuck Lorre at CBS, but that’s a story for someone else to tell. In the digital age we now live in, 500 episodes are considered the amount of content needed to launch a platform. In 2016, in a star-studded spectacular, NBC honored Jimmy for producing and directing his 1000th episode of television. Imagine a world with not one but two Jimmy Burrows channels — it would be a world of laughter and joy. Thank you, Jimmy, and Cheers to you!