If James Burrows had been in charge of my life’s pilot episode, he probably would have cut my dramatic monologue and replaced it with a laugh track and a catchphrase.

Trying to write a sitcom script without studying the work of James Burrows is like trying to build a skyscraper without a blueprint, which is essentially what modern TV networks seem to be doing these days.

The late legend James Burrows spent his career making audiences believe that a bar where everyone knows your name is the pinnacle of human existence, effectively setting an impossible standard for my local pub.