On May 13, 2004, with one of the most viewed episodes in the history of television, it ended Frasier. Left behind were 11 seasons, 265 episodes and several records, such as being the comedy with the most Emmy awards in history, 37 (until Game of Thrones, was the series, drama or comedy, with the most awards). Derived from the also very successful cheersfollowed the adventures of Dr. Frasier Crane, played by Kelsey Grammer, a snobbish and sarcastic psychiatrist with a radio practice who lives with his father, a grumpy former police officer, and his brother, another even more uptight psychiatrist.
Like almost everything on television, Frasier also returns. It does so on Friday the 3rd on SkyShowtime and with many changes. Now, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer returns) moves to Boston to try to straighten out her relationship with her son, a young firefighter who has barely had contact with her father. The generational and class clash is served, once again.
Television has changed in the almost 20 years that Frasier has been out, the audience has changed, even the mood has changed. But there are things that do not change. Frasier is still a sitcom the ones from before, the ones recorded in a studio in front of an audience and with live laughter. James Burrows (Los Angeles, 82 years old), a true television legend, knows more about this than anyone. He has directed more than 1,000 episodes and has helmed more than 30 pilot episodes. An institution on American television, Burrows began directing episodes in 1974 in the series The girl on TV (The Mary Moore Tyler Show). Half a century later, he considers himself semi-retired but still returns to the medium from time to time, as he did to direct the first two chapters of this resurrection, where he directs his friend Kelsey Grammer. “We’ve known each other for 40 years, we love each other very much,” he says about his work with the actor.
“I returned to directing, first, because I wanted to protect the character of Frasier, I wanted to make sure that Kelsey had a good script in front of him. And Chris [Harris] and joe [Cristalli, los guionistas del regreso de la serie] they did a great job. The word semi goes ahead retired because two or three times a year I like to do some work. I don’t know if I could shoot all the episodes of a series again, but doing those two episodes in February was a wonderful and revitalizing experience,” Burrows said in an interview with EL PAÍS via video call at the end of September.
“The character of Frasier remains the same, he has not evolved in these years. You don’t want to rewrite the Bible, you want to make sure the character remains the same,” he explains about this return. “He is a universal character and the man who plays him is an incredible actor. He is pompous but he makes it vulnerable, so the audience can identify with him, and that is a gift of the actor. Now the writers have written a new series with him surrounded by new people that puts that pompous guy in new situations and it’s really fun,” Burrows describes the return of Frasier.
![Nicholas Lyndhurst and Kelsey Grammer, in the first episode of the return of 'Frasier'.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/crcpCdQN4jFKEb6OpmuiUqOf3B8=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/DASWBSIVPJDZXAO6VCRDIOE3XE.jpg)
Although almost half a century has passed since he started on television, he still remembers how he got into the medium and what made him fall in love with it. “I was lucky because what I do in this medium is actually theater. With my cameras I record a work. I came from the theater, my father worked in the theater [Abe Burrows, humorista, escritor y director de radio y teatro que ganó un premio Tony y un Pulitzer]. He took me with him and saw how he worked. Then came the opportunity to do a sitcom, The girl on TV, the first series I did. I knew Mary [Tyler Moore]. My theater training helped me a lot. The cameras, all the technical stuff, I could learn. But you can’t learn how to talk to actors, what’s funny, how to deal with situations in the theater world.” He also remembers his first day on television. “Of course I remember, I was very careful [lo dice en español]. He was really scared that day. I was a guy who came from New York, I had no credibility for them other than I knew Mary. But I worked very hard on that series and they ended up very happy with my work. And the rest is history”.
Specifically, the rest is television history. Winner of 11 Emmy Awards, he was nominated for these awards every year from 1980 to 2005, with the sole exception of 1997. He has been behind the cameras of practically all the great American television comedies. He was responsible for 75 episodes of Cabis co-creator of cheers (of which he directed 237 of its 271 episodes), he is at the helm of 32 episodes of the Frasier original, 15 Friends (among them, the first) and the 246 chapters of Will & Gracethe entire series from start to finish, including its resurrection five years ago.
That boy from the theater found that the sitcoms Recorded with a live audience allowed him to maintain that contact with people. “My career has always been with series recorded in front of a live audience. Doing a series in front of the audience makes you have their response. His laughter fills the place with energy. That’s where I grew up and that’s what I still do. And I love it, for me it is the best way to make television.”
![Director James Burrows, in an image provided by SkyShowtime.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/ZhnJONhBz1WKxZDk_0yPENSZfPY=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/R5PLTPMK5BA67CFAICKZNBHNKQ.jpg)
Burrows ended up becoming the person comedies turned to to get off to a good start. Asked how he chose the series he worked on, he thinks for a few seconds before answering. “The script is the main thing, I have to like it. It’s not necessarily the idea, it’s the execution of the idea. A bar in Boston is not a fascinating idea, but how it was executed was incredible. “Six friends sitting in a coffee shop is not a great idea, but how it was executed is what is important.”
In addition to the script, other factors come into play for a series to become a success, according to the experience of James Burrows. “You have to be lucky with the actors, because you don’t know if they are going to be stars or not, they have to be available… And then, they have to put the series in a good place on the grid so that it doesn’t get canceled. Because in the series I have done there were no stars, we turned them into stars, so there are no reasons for viewers to watch them. It is a compendium of all that. Before recording the first episode, an audience is selected to watch the series, and if that test audience likes the series, it will be a success.”
Of all the titles he has worked on, Burrows does not hesitate to highlight those of which he is most proud. “cheers It is number 1 without a doubt. The Charles Brothers [Glen y Les Charles], who created the series, were so kind that they also gave me the creator credit, so to me it’s like a baby that I gave birth to. And then Will & Graceit was very funny and made me very happy, I loved that series, and also Frasier because I love Kelsey so much.”
From his position of semi-retirement, we asked James Burrows for advice for anyone who wants to get into television, something he has learned in his career. “Something I always say is try to be in a series in any way. Being a job, as a scriptwriter’s assistant, as a driver… be around the production because at some point someone will see you and may give you a chance. But when that opportunity comes, you have to be ready, because that only happens once. You have to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunity when it appears.” Word from a television legend.
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