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James Burrows continues to rule pilot season. The veteran director has booked three multi-camera comedy pilots — that is a third of all multicam pilots picked up by the broadcast networks so far this season — and may also helm a fourth. Burrows is set for NBC’s Victor Fresco pilot starring Sean Hayes and CBS’ Dana Klein pilot Friends With Better Lives and untitled Greg Garcia multi-camera pilot. The Sean Hayes project, from Uni TV, stars Hayes as a dad trying to figure out how to parent his 14-year-old daughter, who just moved in, while navigating a temperamental new boss at work. Burrows and Hayes have a shorthand — Burrows directed the pilot for Hayes’ previous NBC comedy series, Will & Grace, and stayed on as executive producer/director for the entire run of the Emmy-winning series.
Friends With Better Lives, from 20th TV and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, revolves around a group of thirtysomething friends who each think the other has it better. Greg Garcia’s project, from CBS TV Studios, centers on a recently divorced man whose life is complicated when his parents decide to move in with him. It’s no surprise that ICM Partners-repped Burrows is directing 2 out of 3 multi-camera pilots picked up by CBS so far — the pilots for 4 of the network’s 5 comedy series currently on the schedule — The Big Bang Theory, Two And A Half Men, 2 Broke Girls and Mike & Molly – were helmed by him. The other CBS multi-camera pilot, Chuck Lorre’s Mom, is directed by another multicam veteran, Pam Fryman, the director behind CBS’ fifth comedy series on the air, How I Met Your Mother, since the pilot.
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Didn’t Jim also direct the “*Bleep* My Day Says!” pilot and first episode?
yes… he did the pilot and the TWO re-shoots of the pilot
Good to see ICM keeping Burrows working even though Bob Broder has moved on to work with Lorre.
I think Bob Broder is still Jim Burrows agent. Isn’t he?
Looking forward to every joke being punctuated by someone sipping coffee from an oversize cup!
So true!
Serious question: is Burrows still the best director in this field? Most of the shows he’s directed on regularly since Will & Grace have failed to live up to their potential – Back To You, Gary Unmarried, Partners, Mike & Molly – and that’s not the director’s fault, but at some point I have to wonder if he’s lost a step. The performances on his shows used to be terrific. Now they seem hammy.
Not that that matters, because Burrows’ name on a pilot makes it much more likely it’ll get picked up, and that’s why any pilot is lucky to get him. But has he recycled his tricks too often or is he just straining to make up for the decline in comedy writing and acting?
Nobody is better than Jimmy B at directing a Pilot…..period!!!!
If you could watch him work, it’s truly a learning experience. He’s an actor’s director. He keeps his cast fresh and energetic and compels them to learn their blocking without marks. This plus an uncanny and extemporaneous sense of humor put quite a few Emmy’s on his mantle. He’s also an anachronism in the industry. He not only appreciate’s talent in his cast, but, also talent in his crew and his loyalty is without question. After 37 years in the business, I’d say “Yes”, he is the best.