Known as the master of the multi-camera, Burrows is credited with pioneering the use of four cameras (as opposed to three) in sitcoms, creating the modern, theatrical style viewers have grown accustomed to over the years. The legendary director got his big break in 1974, when he was working in theater but wrote to Mary Tyler Moore and her husband Gary Tinker looking for a job with their production company, MTM Enterprises. He ended up directing four episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

MTM Enterprises also hooked Burrows with up The Bob Newhart Show, of which he directed 11 episodes between 1975 and 1977. "They are some of my favorite episodes I've ever done," he told the Archive of American Television.

Burrows helmed eight episodes of the ABC comedy from 1976 to '77, but he had no intentions of staying there permanently because of the feud between stars Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, and the show's writing. "The writing was much more haphazard," he told the Archive of American Television. "It wasn't as uptown. It was definitely not an MTM show."

Burrows directed four episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore spin-off and made his acting debut, credited as "Agent," in a 1974 episode. He also called the shots on 19 episodes of Mary Tyler Moore's second spin-off Phyllis, on which he also made a cameo as "Telephone Man" in 1975.

After receiving the script, Burrows immediately said "yes" to being the in-house director on Taxi. "It was probably the hardest show I've ever done," he told the Archive of American Television. "It's, No. 1, the biggest set -- bigger than Cheers. No. 2: seven characters without a bar to tether them." Burrows directed 75 episodes between 1978 and 1982, and won his first two Emmys in 1980 and 1981.

Wanting to do their own show, Burrows and the Charles brothers, Glen and Les -- with whom Burrows worked on The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi -- created Cheers, which would run for 11 years from 1982 to '93, despite struggling in the ratings during its first year. Burrows directed 237 of the series' 275 episodes, winning his third and fourth career directing Emmys, along with four Emmys for comedy series. "It was like it was blessed," he told the Archive of American Television. "Everything came together. When somebody left the show, we got somebody just as good. ... It was an amazing run on that show for how lucky we were to get the right people."

After the success of Cheers, Burrows was the go-to director for sitcom pilots by the '90s. (By 2012, he had directed more than 50 comedy pilots.) He helmed the pilot of Wings, which would run for eight seasons and was created by Cheers writers/producers David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee.

Burrows and the Charles brothers had no plans for any more Cheers spin-offs after The Tortellis failed, until David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee came to them with the Frasier pitch in 1993. Running for 11 years, including five straight Emmy wins for comedy series, Frasier is the most successful spin-off of all time. Burrows won his fifth Emmy for helming the pilot, and also directed 31 other episodes.

Despite a packed schedule, Burrows forced his agent to make time for him to direct the Friends pilot after reading the script in 1994. "I knew from the minute I read that script there was something different about it," he told the Archive of American Television. "It was vignettes. ... The Seinfeld vignettes are the people against the world. The Friends vignettes are the relationships with the characters." Burrows directed 15 episodes between 1994 and '98. Before the show premiered, he famously flew the cast to Las Vegas to bond and take in their last minutes of relative anonymity.

Burrows directed the pilot of NewsRadio in 1995, along with six additional episodes, and according to a former NBC executive, the Friends stars weren't happy about sharing his talents. "The Friends cast came to the pilot taping of NewsRadio," Karey Burke said in Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV. "Jimmy Burrows was directing it, and the Friends cast was jealous."

Burrows only directed two episodes of the John Lithgow comedy, but he received an Emmy nomination in 1996 for helming the pilot. More than a decade earlier, Burrows had eyed Lithgow for the part of Frasier on Cheers, but he was busy.

Burrows received another Emmy nomination for directing the Dharma & Greg pilot (he directed one other episode), which would prove to be the beginning of a partnership with creator Chuck Lorre. "I'd always wanted to work with Chuck Lorre. I think Chuck Lorre is a brilliant writer," he told the Archive of American Television. "It's a different kind of show for me. That show was a lot broader and a lot crazier."

Burrows directed all 194 episodes of Will & Grace's eight-year run from 1998 to 2006, receiving six Emmy nominations and a win for comedy series. "This is maybe the most political show I've ever done in my life," he told the Archive of American Television, recounting the conversations he'd have when he drove his kid's carpool to school. "They'd say, 'What's on the show tonight? What's on Will & Grace?' And I say, 'Oh, my God. They don't see [homosexuality] as a problem.' This is amazing. I have four 14-year-olds here who won't be prejudicial when it comes to homosexuality, and will be embracing and understanding and say, 'God, we're all alike deep down.'"

Burrows reteamed with Chuck Lorre to helm the pilot of Two and a Half Men in 2003. It'd be the only episode he'd direct in the show's 12-year run.

Burrows was behind the camera on the pilot of Lorre's biggest hit to date. He points to the producer and the success of Big Bang as signs that the multi-cam is not dead yet. "It's not as popular as it used to be, but I've been around for comedy being dead four or five times," he told USA Today last year. "It will turn around. The networks are doing single-camera comedies, very precious shows. Still, the No. 1 comedy on the air is The Big Bang Theory. [Lorre] is keeping the form alive."

Burrows was Mike & Molly's in-house director during the show's first two seasons, and returned to direct the series finale this year. His next show? He'll celebrate his 1,000th directorial episode with the premiere of NBC's Crowded on March 20.