James Burrows, the director who spent five decades reshaping how Americans laugh — and what they laugh at — through sitcoms like "Cheers," "Friends," and "Will & Grace," died Friday at 85, and the establishment press is celebrating a legacy that quietly rewired the country's moral norms.

Burrows didn't just make people laugh. He directed more than 1,000 episodes of television and co-created "Cheers," according to his family's statement confirming his death, which was reported by People. No cause was disclosed. He won 11 Emmy Awards and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2006. The New York Times called him "the Steven Spielberg of sitcoms." NBC, which aired the majority of his shows, said he "knew how to make us laugh" and "what buttons to push."

What the press won't say is which buttons.

Burrows directed every episode of "Will & Grace" during its 1998-2006 run — all 246 of them, according to AP News. The show was the flagship effort to normalize homosexuality in prime time, and it worked. "Will & Grace" made gay life sitcom material at a time when most of the country still defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The AP, the Daily Caller, the Daily Wire, and the Times all noted his work on the show in their obituaries. None of them mentioned what it meant.

"Friends" did its own work on relationship norms. Cohabitation, casual sex, and serial monogamy without marriage were presented as the default mode of adult life — and tens of millions of Americans tuned in every Thursday to absorb it. NBC even branded the lineup "Must See TV," as AP noted. "Cheers" made the local bar the community's living room. Each show was funny. Each show was also a vehicle.

The four outlets covering his death ran essentially the same story — warm, respectful, celebratory. The Times listed "Will & Grace" among his credits without comment. The Daily Wire, which covers culture-war stories daily, didn't flag the significance either. When the entire press corps agrees on what to leave out, that omission is the story.

Burrows was born into the industry. His father, Abe Burrows, was a Broadway writer and producer behind "Guys and Dolls," according to AP. He grew up watching his father work, dining at Sardi's, meeting celebrities at his father's New Year's Eve parties. He attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Oberlin College before finding television at 35. In his 2022 memoir, "Directed by James Burrows," he wrote that he tried to reach "that sweet spot where the best script meets the best performance and the best chemistry between performers." He found it, again and again.

His family remembered him as a man of "kindness, generosity, and unwavering belief in the people around him," who "was known for remembering every person he met by name." That may all be true. Talent and decency are not mutually exclusive.

But the question isn't whether James Burrows was good at his job or kind to his colleagues. The question is what that job did to the country that watched it — and whether Americans were ever given a vote on the culture beamed into their homes every Thursday night.