James Burrows's Friends colleagues moved quickly after he died at 85 following a brief illness. Lisa Kudrow, Ted Danson, Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Scott Icenogle, Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, and Kat Dennings all paid tribute, turning the news into a fast accounting of how far his work reached across TV comedy.
Lisa Kudrow and The Comeback
Lisa Kudrow posted a behind-the-scenes photo of the two of them from the recent third and final season of The Comeback, then wrote, "Thank you Jimmy. I mean, for everything…" on her Instagram Story. Burrows had played himself on The Comeback after directing several episodes of Friends, including the pilot, which made her tribute feel like a receipt for a long professional partnership rather than a generic farewell.
Debra Messing went further on the scale of his reach. She called him "a legend. An Icon. A singular talent and revolutionary in television" and said he "brought laughter and love into more homes, globally, than any other TV director in history." She added that "Jimmy changed my life 28 years ago and has been in my life ever since," a line that places him not just in one credit list but in the center of an entire career.
Cheers, Taxi and 16 seasons
Ted Danson said Burrows was his "show business father, my mentor and my friend" and added that "for 11 years his laughter taught me what was funny and what was not." He also said, "Mary and I send all our love to his family. He will be in our hearts and our funny bones forever," a reminder that the response was personal, not just professional.
Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman said they were deeply saddened by the passing of Jimmy Burrows and that he guided them through 16 seasons of television. They added that he was "the very best at his craft," language that fits the way these tributes kept circling back to the same point: he was a working director, not a nostalgia figure.
Will & Grace and 50 years
Scott Icenogle said the world lost a "cultural, television icon" and wrote that Burrows directed and executive produced every episode of Will & Grace. Eric McCormack matched that reach with his own tribute, saying, "We lost a giant today, a mentor to me and a dear friend," and adding that Burrows directed "every single episode" of Will & Grace and was "the 800 lb gorilla of television comedy for fifty years."
Kat Dennings also worked with Burrows on 2 Broke Girls, extending the list of collaborators beyond the shows most often attached to his name. That breadth is the real story here: the tributes span Friends, Cheers, Taxi, Will & Grace, The Comeback, and 2 Broke Girls, and they all point to the same loss for TV’s multi-cam world. The remaining open question is not whether his influence was large; it is which awards made him the most decorated in that format.
