Legendary directors James Burrows and Robert Butler will be the first recipients of a new Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Television Direction, in honor of each director’s groundbreaking career.
“For those out there who’ve wondered what kind of impact a television director can have on the medium: Jim Burrows and Bob Butler provide the answers. That’s why we’re beyond thrilled to establish a new award, and to inaugurate it with two men who have had an incomparable influence over decades of precedent-setting television directing,” said Paris Barclay, DGA president. “They’ve shaped the history of television in ways too numerous to calculate, including directing the pilots for some of the most iconic television shows ever. Jim, who will soon helm his thousandth television episode, remains one of the most in-demand pilot directors in the business, having long since established his deft comedic touch on shows like Taxi, Cheers, Friends, Will & Grace, and The Big Bang Theory. Bob set the tone and broke the rules on pilots for Hogan’s Heroes, Star Trek, Batman, Hill Street Blues, and Moonlighting. Between the two of them, there are very few people in America who haven’t laughed, cried and/or cheered while watching their work. They have truly changed the face of television.”
This new award was created by the Board of Directors this year, and will join the Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Motion Picture Direction in being the two highest honors bestowed by the DGA. In the Guild’s 78-year history, only 34 directors have been recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Motion Picture Direction, including Cecil B. DeMille (the award’s first recipient in 1953), Frank Capra (1959), Alfred Hitchcock (1968), Stanley Kubrick (1997), Steven Spielberg (2000), and most recently, Milos Forman (2013). The winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Television Direction are nominated by a blue ribbon committee of prominent television directors and approved by the present and past presidents of the Guild.
“I am honored and touched to receive this inaugural DGA lifetime achievement award in television directing. I’m proud to accept this award in conjunction with Robert Butler, who I respect for his incredible work in television,” said Burrows. “To be lucky enough to work with great writers and actors is a blessing, but this is unbelievable.”
“Burrows-Butler is a great pair. To be DGA-recognized is truly meteoric,” added Butler.
The Awards will be presented at the 67th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 7, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
