The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: danderson on March 09, 2017, 12:43:33 PM
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I'd go with James Marcione on "Sale of The Century", Bob Levy on "American Gladiators", Marc Berslow on "TPIR", Bruce Burmester on "Pyramid", Paul Alter on many Goodson-Todman shows over the years, and Dick Carson on "Wheel of Fortune." Honorable mention would go to Ken Fouts on "AG"s early days with Theismann, and Jerome Shaw on "Hollywood Squares" and "High Rollers."
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Rich DiPirro. He was essentially the only thing that made TPiR watchable in Season 37, and his current work on Millionaire is pretty slick too.
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Franklin Heller on "WML?" comes to mind too. Having watched that show on GSN, his work really made that show shine.
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Rich DiPirro. He was essentially the only thing that made TPiR watchable in Season 37, and his current work on Millionaire is pretty slick too.
I'd add Richard S. Kline. His work on TJW, from the Jack Barry era to the Pat Finn era, was quite good.
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Mike Gargiulo of the Stewart factory
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Dana Calderwood comes to mind immediately. I adored his work on WITWICS, and I think many of us did.
He currently directs Idiotest, and I think his creativity shines there in what could be a boring show (take a look at some of the cold opens they do). Credit goes to the writers and producers for that too.
I think he did History IQ, which had a very "professional" feel to it.
He also handled some of the Nick game shows.
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I always get my Goodson-Todman directors mixed up, but whoever directed the CBS G-T shows in the late-70s and throughout the 80s came up with some really cool techniques. The camera move on Tattletales below (around the :34 mark) is one of my favorites.
I'd also add Bruce Burmester from 80s Pyramid and Kevin McCarthy on Jeopardy! One of the little things I love about J! is how it stays modern but the production still has a traditional feel to it. Something about Kevin's style tells you he's from the "old school", esp. Alex's introductions at the start of Double and Final Jeopardy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5UtzjFhrQM&t=0m34s
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Honestly it felt less like a question than "look at the names I know," but I'll second the shout-outs to Dana Calderwood and RBDP.
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Franklin Heller on "WML?" comes to mind too. Having watched that show on GSN, his work really made that show shine.
I know you've just started this thread to show off how many director names you know, but c'mon, this is What's My Line? you're talking about. The one that didn't even have any demonstrations. I train high schoolers on more complicated formats.
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I'd also add Bruce Burmester from 80s Pyramid and Kevin McCarthy on Jeopardy! One of the little things I love about J! is how it stays modern but the production still has a traditional feel to it.
Something worth pointing out:
Years ago, Jeopardy! would have a camera dedicated to shooting a closeup of the board. It would always be positioned on the space directly underneath the clue in play (excluding the bottom row). So if the contestants played a category in order, the director would take that camera, ready with the closeup of the next value switching to the selected clue. If a contestant jumped to a different category (or took a clue out of order), then the director would take a wide shot of the board and use the video effect of the clue flying from its box to fill the screen.
It's been years since they've had a camera shooting closeups of the clue in play. Now, the closeup effect is all done digitally. Yet the directing is still conducted as if that camera was there, only using the closeup effect if the contestants play a category in order. I love it.
(I do wonder, though: Why, with the exception of one- or two-word clues, do they never take the closeup shot on the bottom row of the board?)
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Franklin Heller on "WML?" comes to mind too. Having watched that show on GSN, his work really made that show shine.
I know you've just started this thread to show off how many director names you know, but c'mon, this is What's My Line? you're talking about. The one that didn't even have any demonstrations. I train high schoolers on more complicated formats.
Mike Gargiulo, who filled in for Heller on a few episodes: "Directing What's My Line? was the single easiest job that I had in my entire television career. I could have directed that show from a separate room without my headphones on."
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Mike Gargiulo of the Stewart factory
My pick without a question.
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I always get my Goodson-Todman directors mixed up, but whoever directed the CBS G-T shows in the late-70s and throughout the 80s came up with some really cool techniques. The camera move on Tattletales below (around the :34 mark) is one of my favorites.
Paul Alter handled "Tattletales" (I believe all eps of both runs?), and I'm surprised I'm the first to invoke him in this thread. His work on CS '86 and TTTT '90 is particularly superb in my books.
Breslow, Ira Skutch, and George Choderker also get top mentions from me, as well as Bruce Burmester (unpopular opinion, but I prefer his "Pyramid" directing over Gargiulo's), Dick Schneider with J!, and Rich DiPirro with "Price".
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I always get my Goodson-Todman directors mixed up, but whoever directed the CBS G-T shows in the late-70s and throughout the 80s came up with some really cool techniques. The camera move on Tattletales below (around the :34 mark) is one of my favorites.
Paul Alter handled "Tattletales" (I believe all eps of both runs?), and I'm surprised I'm the first to invoke him in this thread. His work on CS '86 and TTTT '90 is particularly superb in my books.
Breslow, Ira Skutch, and George Choderker also get top mentions from me, as well as Bruce Burmester (unpopular opinion, but I prefer his "Pyramid" directing over Gargiulo's), Dick Schneider with J!, and Rich DiPirro with "Price".
For the uninitiated (like myself), what are the differences between Burmester and Gargiulo's directing styles on Pyramid?
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I don't think anybody's mentioned Bill Carruthers yet, so I will. :)
Agreed that Dick Carson was great on Wheel, though I'd add his predecessor Jeff Goldstein. The few available episodes from the first three years (1975-early '78) seem to have a different "style" to them.
Rich DiPirro. He was essentially the only thing that made TPiR watchable in Season 37,
QFT, though I'm sure some would argue that applied to Seasons 38 and 39 as well.
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How could a person who was just watching a game show and not the credits know who was whom? Just to me it seems like good directing is follow the action, hold a shot properly, catch reactions and change shots/angles when the situation needs it.
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The camera move on Tattletales below (around the :34 mark) is one of my favorites.
I like to think that Johnny is chuckling at whatever insulting thing the director just said over the headsets about Zsa Zsa while she was taking her sweet time to sit down, thereby delaying the next cue.
Just to me it seems like good directing is follow the action, hold a shot properly, catch reactions and change shots/angles when the situation needs it.
That's good (or just competent) directing. Exceptional directing is finding ways to make the natural action of the show more exciting.
Competent directing: Two-shot of Barker and the contestant as Barker tosses to the reveal of the big Golden Road prize, cut to tight shot of door #2 as it opens to reveal the prize.
Great directing: Over-the-shoulder shot as Barker is tossing to the reveal of the big Golden Road prize on the other side of the stage, continuous zoom in to door #2 as it opens to reveal the prize.
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Marc Breslow, who was an incredibly imaginative director and put conspicuous extra efforts into everything. One of the things that surprised me when I went on an extended binge of the first three years of CBS TPIR was that I found that I could guess what pricing game was coming up just from the camera shots Breslow used when the contestant ran onstage and the prize was revealed. For a time, he managed to come up with a unique sequence of camera shots for every pricing game, having nothing to do with the game itself.
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I'll throw in John Dorsey for many of the Barris shows -- If only for the rapid-fire back and forth shots like when newlywed couples were arguing with each other on TNG, for example.
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I'll throw in John Dorsey for many of the Barris shows -- If only for the rapid-fire back and forth shots like when newlywed couples were arguing with each other on TNG, for example.
Not to rain on your choice, but this was one of the reasons I have a hard time watching without getting sick. :P For me, it was worse when the couple won a prize, and he'd constantly go back and forth.
But I'll save my rant for the "least favorite" directors thread.
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Paul Alter, from what i have read liked directing with four cameras so much, he stuck with it. I'd assume that Ken Fouts and later on Bob Levy used 4 for "AG" and "SOTC" had four cameras too for Jerry Shaw or James Maricone to choose from. Do most shows use 4 or is there shows that use 5?
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You tell us, Dan.
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My vote goes to Marc Breslow on TPIR, because that's a show where you have to be prepared for the unexpected. I went to see a lot of Bob Stewart shows in the 70s so I'll mention Mike Gargiulo, whose son Michael is now an anchor for the early morning news on WNBC Ch. 4 here in NYC. Paul Alter is a long-time G-T director who worked on the original and current versions of TPIR, among God knows how many other shows.
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I'd also add Bruce Burmester from 80s Pyramid and Kevin McCarthy on Jeopardy! One of the little things I love about J! is how it stays modern but the production still has a traditional feel to it.
Something worth pointing out:
Years ago, Jeopardy! would have a camera dedicated to shooting a closeup of the board. It would always be positioned on the space directly underneath the clue in play (excluding the bottom row). So if the contestants played a category in order, the director would take that camera, ready with the closeup of the next value switching to the selected clue. If a contestant jumped to a different category (or took a clue out of order), then the director would take a wide shot of the board and use the video effect of the clue flying from its box to fill the screen.
It's been years since they've had a camera shooting closeups of the clue in play. Now, the closeup effect is all done digitally. Yet the directing is still conducted as if that camera was there, only using the closeup effect if the contestants play a category in order. I love it.
(I do wonder, though: Why, with the exception of one- or two-word clues, do they never take the closeup shot on the bottom row of the board?)
I miss the technique used during the Dick Schneider years of zooming in on the first clue of each segment as it is read.
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Mark Breslow, who was an incredibly imaginative director and put conspicuous extra efforts into everything. One of the things that surprised me when I went on an extended binge of the first three years of CBS TPIR was that I found that I could guess what pricing game was coming up just from the camera shots Breslow used when the contestant ran onstage and the prize was revealed. For a time, he managed to come up with a unique sequence of camera shots for every pricing game, having nothing to do with the game itself.
Breslow was pretty much the Glenn Weiss (who directed Studs, Legends of the Hidden Temple, and Gladiators 2000 all in the '90s before going on to work the big entertainment shows including the Oscars) of his day in the game show world, and...is John Dorsey still alive? After Chuck Barris, he went on to do Hit Man and Blackout both for Jay Wolpert, where he was "serious".
(Bruce Burmester, by the way, is still in the business today if you look at his IMDB)
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Dorsey died in 1989.
Wasn't Calderwood Conan O'Brien's first director?
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Dorsey died in 1989.
Wasn't Calderwood Conan O'Brien's first director?
Didn't know that (there is no obituary info anywhere online), but imagine the reunion with Chuck Barris and Johnny Jacobs in heaven right now.
And yes, Dana Calderwood was Conan's first director.
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Breslow was pretty much the Glenn Weiss (who directed Studs, Legends of the Hidden Temple, and Gladiators 2000 all in the '90s before going on to work the big entertainment shows including the Oscars) of his day in the game show world
In all fairness, since Breslow came first, wouldn't Glenn Weiss be the Breslow of his day?
And, frankly, I think most people would say "no"...Breslow was an icon among game show directors...for most people, say the name Glenn Weiss and they say "who?"
JakeT
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I love Breslow, but Glenn Weiss has some pretty serious cred (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0918999/). I came to realize just how much he's done once this YouTube video of his directing the Tony's opening number was circulated. I think the intent of Johnny's remarks got mangled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbCQxtK545o
-Jason
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Dorsey died in 1989.
Wasn't Calderwood Conan O'Brien's first director?
Didn't know that (there is no obituary info anywhere online)
Right here (http://articles.latimes.com/1989-11-10/news/mn-1121_1_veteran-tv-director).
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Speaking of Glenn Weiss...I think he directed Nick Arcade as well; at the time, he was still employed with Fox, working at WTTG (the Fox O&O in Washington) and in Los Angeles (directing Studs), though he probably commuted to Orlando for Nick Arcade under the alias "C. Weed."
/Then again, Jack Barry still produced some shows in the '60s under an alias himself
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WTTG (the Fox O&O in Washington)
Yes, we're all impressed that you know this.
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And, frankly, I think most people would say "no"...Breslow was an icon among game show directors...for most people, say the name Glenn Weiss and they say "who?"
I think for most people you'd get the same response to Marc Breslow. Directors in general don't get major credit among the public in almost any fields outside of film.
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George Choderker was one of the sweetest, nicest guys I have ever worked with. There came a point where I had to offer a suggestion regarding the way he dealt with Allen's answer-reveal cues.
Princess Ludden wanted as many close-ups of himself as possible. George would stay on Allen as he said, for example, "Is it the Eiffel Tower?" There was then a slight stage wait, cut to the puzzle board and reveal. I suggested to George that he anticipate things, e.g. "Is it" [cut to puzzle board] "the Eiffel Tower?" [reveal]. He took the suggestion very kindly and graciously, began shooting it that way and thanked me for the suggestion.
I miss working with George.
George got a call at home one morning after the show had aired. It was Allen. "Does the number six mean anything to you?" asked Allen. "Not really, no. Why?" replied George. Said Allen, "That's the number of close-ups you took of me in the show that just aired."
Truth is stranger than fiction.
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No love for Lloyd Gross, Stuart W. Phelps, Lou Tedesco or Agar Jaicks?
Ira Skutch was an adequate director but a brilliant producer. Directing was a waste of his talents. He was an excellent judge of how a piece of material would play to an audience, proven by the high ratings Play Your Hunch got on NBC with Merv Griffin.
Or Bill Chesnutt?
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George Choderker was one of the sweetest, nicest guys I have ever worked with. There came a point where I had to offer a suggestion regarding the way he dealt with Allen's answer-reveal cues.
Princess Ludden wanted as many close-ups of himself as possible.
George got a call at home one morning after the show had aired. It was Allen. "Does the number six mean anything to you?" asked Allen. "Not really, no. Why?" replied George. Said Allen, "That's the number of close-ups you took of me in the show that just aired."
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Wow! This is something I would expect from Barker or Dawson, not Ludden. Oh well.
I saw Lloyd Gross' work in action as he directed the syndie WML and TTTT, the latter after Paul Alter left for California.
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Wow! This is something I would expect from Barker or Dawson, not Ludden. Oh well.
I'm told Allen used to count his close-ups in New York.
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Since we're mentioning every director we can think of, don't forget Chris Darley.