Chuck Lorre Remembers ‘Big Bang Theory’ & ‘Two And A Half Men’ Pilot Director James Burrows: “There Was No One Like Him”

Over the span of nine months, Chuck Lorre lost two of the most important people in his career: his long-time agent and mentor Bob Broder, who died in September, and his go-to director, James Burrows, who passed away last month after a brief illness.

Top TV comedy showrunner Lorre and venerable multi-camera comedy director Burrows were both speakers at the Bob Broder memorial last November, delivering deeply heartfelt — and very funny — eulogies. They got to spend time together at the event which marked one of Burrows’ final public appearances.

Broder, a career-long agent of both Lorre and Burrows, likely played a matchmaker, pairing his two signature clients together in 1997 ago when Burrows directed the pilot for Lorre’s ABC comedy Dharma & Greg. It started as a collaboration — and friendship — that spanned three decades and a half a dozen series.

“It’s a great loss,” Lorre told Deadline in his first public comment about Burrows’ death. “He was a great man, singular talent. I was blessed to work with him on Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly. There was no one like him. It was a gift to have gotten to work with him and to be friends with a man like Jimmy Burrows.”

From 1997 on, Burrows directed most Lorre multi-camera pilots that have gone to series, ABC’s Dharma & Greg, CBS’s Two and a Half Men, both pilots (original and retooled) of The Big Bang Theory, and Mike & Molly (on which he served as series director/executive producer), Disjointed (which had a straight-to-series order at Netflix), and CBS’ B Positive.