Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More by James Burrows & Eddy Friedfeld

Author:James Burrows & Eddy Friedfeld [Burrows, James & Friedfeld, Eddy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

BOY

How about a beer, chief?

SAM

How about an ID?

BOY

An ID? That’s very flattering. Wait till I tell the missus.

SAM

(looks at the boy’s ID)

Ah, military ID. First Sergeant Walter Keller, born 1944. That makes you thirty-eight. Must have fought in Vietnam.

BOY

Oh, yeah.

SAM

What was it like?

BOY

Gross.

SAM

Yeah, that’s what they say: “War is gross.” I’m sorry, soldier.

BOY

This is the thanks we get.

Instead of just throwing the kid out, Sam is gracious. It immediately shows the audience that he’s a decent man and a worthy center. Everyone likes Sam, in part because he’s got flaws and vulnerabilities. He’s a recovering alcoholic. He’s also a very compassionate person. The character and his point of view are crucial to the success of the show, because the audience sees this bar and all its wacky patrons through Sam’s benevolence. The windows of the show are his eyes, his soul, and his passion for his bar and the people in it.

We could underplay the jokes because they were so good. Cheers looked effortless, because of the way it was played. Other than a few tough moments, like Sam and Diane arguing, it was always an understated show, which means we wanted the audience to figure it out. Like radio, where comedians competed with each other with just their voices, the subtlety was crucial to the show. We’d undersell the joke so you’d have to meet us halfway.

That was attributable to Teddy Danson, whose best skill was that he could throw away a joke as part of another action, like pouring a beer. That’s the way a bar actually is. People have conversations. They don’t scream or yell unless there’s a problem.

Throwing away jokes is a particular style of comedy. The jokes become more like subtle comments. Henny Youngman didn’t toss off comedy (Woman: Too late for the garbage? Garbage Man: No, ma’am, jump right in). Chris Rock screams his comedy and you’re already on board. Dave Chappelle underplays his pieces; he waits for you to get on board. Steven Wright and Woody Allen never hit anything hard. That subtlety is as important now as it ever was, given the rise of comedy podcasts and new generations of audiences getting their laughs from people they are only listening to.

The best laughs I’ve ever directed were on people’s backs. A joke is often funnier if it’s said over someone’s shoulder as they’re leaving a room or under their breath. Not hitting it hard makes it funnier. On Mike & Molly, I directed jokes to be told to the hanging coats. That style works best in an ensemble. Kelsey as Frasier threw away jokes. Roseanne Barr threw jokes away; most of her show was underplaying. If you have a hard-hitting center, like John Lithgow, jokes are shot into outer space.

It helps if your center can do that, because the subsidiary characters can’t. Rhea couldn’t ever throw away a joke, because her jokes were too vitriolic. We thought of Carla as Groucho Marx, a sniper poised to insult. Her comedy was “sharking.” Whenever she appeared behind a character, I’d tell Rhea, “Shark in there.

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