ON A JUNE afternoon in Austin, a clip reel of scenes from comedies like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laverne & Shirley, Cheers and Friends has an audience at the annual ATX Television Festival howling with laughter. But one person watches with tears in his eyes: TV veteran James Burrows (below), who, over the span of a five-decade career, directed all these famous faces—Moore, Ted Danson and Shelley Long, Kelsey Grammer and Jennifer Aniston—and helped shaped their now-classic sitcoms into the shows we know and love.
As ATX honored Burrows, 82, with the festival’s Achievement in Television Excellence award, TV GUIDE reboot.
