Entertainment

Legendary director James Burrows has died, his agent confirmed to ABC News on Friday. He was 85.

Burrows is known for directing some of the most iconic shows on television, from Cheers and Taxi to Will & Grace and Frasier.

Throughout his illustrious career, Burrows won 11 Emmys and five Directors Guild of America Awards. The Directors Guild of America also honored Burrows in 2015 with a lifetime achievement award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2006.

“Jimmy was the greatest comedic television director in the history of the medium,” his agent, Rick Rosen, said in a statement to ABC News. “He directed the most iconic, defining shows of generations. Always a gentleman, it was an absolute honor to represent him.”

Born on Dec. 30, 1940, Burrows made his mark across many television shows in the mid 1970s, directing episodes for several television series in 1975 including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Phyllis and The Bob Newhart Show.

He also helmed episodes of Laverne & Shirley, The Betty White Show, Rhoda and more, before a long stint as director for the TV sitcom Taxi starting in 1978. Burrows directed the first four seasons of the series, which focused on the everyday lives of New York City taxi drivers.

While speaking to the Television Academy in 2025, Burrows said his job as a director on Taxi was to “mold” the actors “into an ensemble.”

“I’m not sure how much the actors learned from me, but I learned a lot about how to deal with people because of that show,” he said.

Following Taxi, Burrows directed several other TV shows as well as the 1988 television movie The Nerd, prior to directing Cheers starting in 1982. He was also a co-creator on the show, and directed 237 episodes.

In 2003, Burrows told Conan O’Brien that it was a “wonderful experience.”

“It was so smooth, it was scary, how the process went,” Burrows said about the writing, cast and crew.

The show won a total of 28 Primetime Emmy Awards, with Burrows winning two for directing.

Burrows went on to direct more television shows after Cheers, including Frasier, Will & Grace and Friends.

When asked in an interview in 2003 by the Television Academy about how he wanted to be remembered, Burrows said, “That every night forever you can tune in somewhere and there’ll be a show I did.”

 ABC News’ Andrea Dresdale contributed to this report.

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The Netflix phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters celebrates the one-year anniversary of its release on Saturday, June 20. The animated film has gone on to dominate the streaming service’s “most-watched” list, global pop culture and the Billboard charts in equal measure.

Here’s a look at KPop Demon Hunters by the numbers, courtesy of Netflix:

– It’s the first title ever to spend 52 straight weeks on Netflix’s Global Top 10.

– It was the most-streamed movie of 2025, with 20.5 billion viewing minutes.

– KPop Demon Hunters’ lyric videos drew 32 million views worldwide.

– The soundtrack spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard 200, and racked up more than 15 billion streams worldwide, making it the most-streamed soundtrack of the decade. 

– The HUNTR/X song “Golden” was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks, becoming the first-ever #1 by a female K-pop act, and the longest-running #1 by a female group in this century. It was also the fastest song to reach a billion streams on Spotify.

– In addition to “Golden,” the soundtrack also sent three other songs into the top 10 simultaneously: “Your Idol,” “Soda Pop” and “How It’s Done.”

– At the Oscars earlier this year, KPop Demon Hunters won best animated feature, while “Golden” won best original song, making it the first K-pop song to win an Oscar. “Golden” also won the Golden Globe in the same category, and the Grammy in the category of best song written for visual media.

– Since the film’s debut, Duolingo has seen a 22% jump in Korean language learners. 

On Saturday, the official Netflix TikTok account will host a nine-hour livestream featuring multiple versions of the film, plus appearances from fans, cast members and filmmakers, live commentary and more.

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Artificial, the upcoming film by director Luca Guadagnino, will no longer be released by Amazon MGM Studios.

The studio confirmed the news to ABC Audio on Friday.

“We have the utmost respect and admiration for Luca Guadagnino as an award-winning filmmaker – not to mention a longstanding relationship that we hope to continue,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “We believe that Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio and are working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home.”

Artificial is described as a comedic drama about the world of artificial intelligence. It explores Sam Altman’s OpenAI during a period in 2023 when Altman was fired and rehired in a matter of days. It is directed by Guadagnino from a script by Saturday Night Live alum Simon Rich.

The film’s cast includes Mark Rylance, Andrew Garfield, Yura Borisov, Monica Barbaro, Billie Lourd, Jason Schwartzman, Cooper Koch, Cooper Hoffman and Ike Barinholtz.

It would have reunited Guadagnino and Amazon MGM Studios after he directed the 2024 film Challengers for the studio, as well as 2025’s After the Hunt.

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Anne Hathaway is pregnant with her third child, a representative for the actress confirmed to ABC News on Friday.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 star, 43, revealed the news Friday morning in a video posted on her Instagram.

In the video, Hathaway steps into frame wearing a long, flowy white skirt set with her arms folded across her midsection before dropping them to the side to reveal her pregnancy with a smile.

“Baby, I’m yours,” Hathaway wrote in the caption of the video, set to the 1965 song of the same name by Barbara Lewis.

Hathaway’s Instagram post amassed more than 800,000 likes in just over 30 minutes, and the comments section was immediately flooded with congratulatory messages and well-wishes from friends and fans alike.

Hathaway has two other children with husband Adam Shulman — sons Jonathan Shulman, 10, and Jack Shulman, 6.

Hathaway and Shulman have been married since 2012.

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Dungeon Crawler Carl is being taken to the next level.

The popular Matt Dinniman sci-fi book series has officially been greenlit for TV by Peacock. The author confirmed the news on social media with a graphic proclaiming, “The apocalypse will be televised!”

“Surprise! I’m happy to announce that our friends at Peacock have *officially* greenlit the Dungeon Crawler Carl television series!” Dinniman writes. “Me, Chris Yost and Seth MacFarlane and his team at Fuzzy Door are all really excited to get to work.”

Yost is writing the series, with MacFarlane’s company producing. Dinniman, who is also serving as an executive producer, promises more details in the coming weeks and tells fans to be sure to catch his panel at San Diego Comic Con.

“In the meantime I wanted to thank you, the fans, for helping make this happen,” he writes.

Dungeon Crawler Carl takes place in a world that has been invaded by aliens who wipe out most of the population. The humans who survive are forced to compete in an intergalactic game show with various video game-inspired levels. There are currently eight books in the series.

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Toy Story 5 rides like the wind into theaters on Friday. Joan Cusack once again stars as the voice of Jessie in the film.

Cusack told ABC News that now, after all this time, she hopes she’s more like Jessie than she is like Joan.

“I strive to be more like Jessie,” Cusack said. “She’s fearless and hopeful and relentless and loving and all the good things. She’s like the ideal parent, I think, which is so sweet that they captured that in a toy.”

The fifth installment in the Toy Story franchise introduces a new character in Greta Lee’s Lilypad. The smart tablet represents how technology threatens to take over playtime. Lee said while she grew up with some tech in her childhood, she was “on the cusp of all of it.”

“I’m so thankful that I had a childhood that was completely free of all this. So I know what that’s like, as opposed to my own kids who actually don’t have that at all,” Lee said. “It’s so different now. And the kids are — I’m worried that they’re losing the ability to go back to basics, basically, and form real connections, human connections, without the assistance of these screens.”

Toy Story 5 is an emotional watch, Lee said. She watched the film for the first time with Cusack, and said she cried six times.

“I was so moved by it. I really was, and I laughed so much, too. I’m so genuinely proud of the movie,” Lee said, noting that while making the Pixar animated film they had only watched clips featuring their respective characters ahead of time.

“We saw it for the first time as fans, basically. And they did such an amazing job.”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News and Pixar.

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Outwit, outlast, outplay … outperform at the box office? That’s surely what Survivor host Jeff Probst hopes will happen with the upcoming animated movie based on the reality competition series. The film, which is in the works at Paramount Animation, will be set in the animal kingdom and feature animals competing for the chance to be crowned the sole survivor. Probst announced the upcoming comedy in a video shared to Instagram, where he said the movie will have “everything we love about Survivor: big personalities, funny characters, surprising alliances, competition, chaos, and of course, a lot of heart. But this time, the players aren’t humans.” …

We now know when Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson’s upcoming comedy series Brothers will premiere. The show will debut to Apple TV on Sept. 23. Its first two episodes will be available at that time, followed by one new episode every Wednesday through Nov. 4. McConaughey and Harrelson play fictionalized versions of themselves in the show, which follows what happens when they find out they may actually be brothers instead of simply just friends …

Liza Colón-Zayas and Jeff Hiller are set to announce the nominations for the 78th Emmy Awards. The Emmy winners will present this year’s nominations during a ceremony on July 8 at 11:30 am ET …

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Mariah Carey is returning to The Proud Family, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

She is set to guest star in the fourth and final season of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, premiering July 29 on Disney+. Mariah previously appeared on season 3 of the original series, voicing an animated version of herself. Her character’s pet monkey, Francois, is accidentally switched with Oscar’s monkey, Mr. Chips, during a visit at Trudy’s veterinarian office. Francois is then subjected to life at Proud Snacks, while Mr. Chips enjoys a life of luxury.

Mariah is one of several guest stars joining the reboot for the fourth season, including Chlöe Bailey, Kym Whitley and J.B. Smoove. Recurring guest stars Anthony Anderson and Tiffany Haddish will reprise their roles as Ray Ray and Ms. Hill, respectively.

According to a press release, the new season will find “the Proud family at a life-changing turning point,” with Penny’s courage and identity put to the test as the family navigates challenging and chaotic circumstances.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Your heart may grow three sizes, because a sequel to How the Grinch Stole Christmas is in the works.

Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment are developing a live-action sequel to the 2000 holiday blockbuster film, ABC Audio has confirmed.

Jim Carrey is in talks to reprise his role as The Grinch in the new movie. Ron Howard, who directed the original film, is set to return at the helm.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas and this new, currently untitled film are, of course, based on the beloved book by Dr. Seuss. Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel are writing the new film’s screenplay. The trio also wrote the 2003 live-action adaptation of The Cat in the Hat, which starred Mike Myers.

Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas opened in theaters on Nov. 18, 2000, and earned over $345 million at the worldwide box office. It was the highest-grossing domestic release that year and won the Academy Award for best makeup.

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Halle Bailey, Ludacris and CeeLo Green have lent their voices to the upcoming animated feature Groove Tails.

They joined a cast that also includes J.B. Smoove, Ansel Elgort, Alan Ritchson and Agnez Mo.

Based on a screenplay by Johnny Mack, and written and directed by Bob Logan, Groove Tails follows a young mouse who dreams of becoming an internationally famous dancer but lacks support from his father. That struggle leads him to a group of fellow misfits who, together, “discover their own unique rhythms while fighting to save the only place they’ve ever truly called home,” according to Variety.

“Groove Tails is a celebration of individuality, perseverance and the universal language of music,” Logan tells the outlet. “We’ve assembled an extraordinary cast that brings incredible energy, humor and heart to these characters. This is the kind of movie audiences of all ages can enjoy together.”

Groove Tails is currently in production and is expected to complete animation later this year.

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