Tv Direction Quotes

As the 'Batman' TV series was returning to ABC for its second season in 1967, the TV bosses decided to take Catwoman into another direction... lucky for me.

In the year and a half I was on SNL, I never saw anybody ad lib anything. For a very good reason - the director cut according to the script. So, if you ad libbed, you'd be off mike and off camera.

When you're directing an ongoing series, the tone has already been set. So a director will come in and fulfill that tone - reinforce the characters and their behavior. The challenge is to find unique ways that you can visually tell the story while keeping the established tone and the pace and the characters.

If I was going to direct an episode of 'Younger', I wanted it to look like an episode of 'Younger.'

I was... 15? And Garry Marshall, who had many, many seasons in the sun and a very long career, was in the middle of the brightest of all his seasons - I think he owned network television - and it was his next thing, and he was directing [Mean Jeans ]. And I thought, "If there's anyone who can bring comedy out of a designer jeans shop, it's gotta be Garry."

I've been in the director's chair for 'Battlestar Galactica' since its first season. I directed the only comedy that's ever been done in Galactica history.

TV is generally an unfriendly environment for directors because you're expected to come in and tell a story in the voice of the show that already exists and just fill in the blanks and then submit it back.

I've never directed anything before 'Mad Men,' so I don't feel I have any advice for the other directors.

The best thing as a director is being able to be part of the thing that's so cool about a TV show, like running a character arc over six episodes or multiple series.

Coming off 'Sopranos' and 'Mad Men,' I was starting to feel like I was being spoiled creatively. I wanted to move forward as a director in TV and get more involved in the process. After having those two great experiences, doing regular episodic TV wouldn't be quite the thrill.

Louis C.K. directs his show, which is very much like a series of short films.

I never thought of myself as a TV director.

I would direct TV. That's a little different. It's more of a contained world as a director. When you're doing a film you get on the rollercoaster, you put the safety bar down and then you're gone. And it's hard. It's hard, too, as a parent, I think, because the hours are so long. It's hard.

The difference between directing film and directing television is so stark simply because TV is a living breathing organism already when you direct an episode.

Andy Ackerman directed the episodes that I was doing, and he directed a lot of Seinfeld [episodes]. And that was great.

'The Newsroom' is phenomenally bad good TV. Sam Waterston and Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer are all terrific! So is the production, and the direction, and even the editing!

Rosemary Rodriguez directed on Rescue Me for us, and I love her. She's fantastic with actresses and she's got a great sense of humor. That was a huge thing for me.