Sitcom directors and the ratings hex

I’ve always had a theory that three-camera sitcoms which did NOT have a consistent director were somehow ratings-cursed. The shows here are all classics and deserved higher ratings. But for two reasons, I feel they had a hex: 1) the lack of a regular director (even though the on-air product was always first-rate), and 2) network programmers who kept moving the shows around, then killing them off too soon. “Barney Miller” is likely the exception here since it ran for eight seasons and often hit the Top 20 in a consistent time slot (Thursdays at 9pm). In its later years, it also was shot less like a conventional multicam sitcom. Anyhow, have a look at the diverse number of directors for these shows...

 

"The Odd Couple"

The show's first season was shot single-cam, on a closed set, an approach which necessitates multiple directors. But even for seasons 2-5, it was all over the map. The most frequent directors were quite accomplished:

Jerry Paris (18 episodes)

Jack Donohue (14)

Hal Cooper; Mel Ferber (11)

Frank Buxton (9)

Beyond that, I get the sense they were letting anyone who could handle directing do the job -- usually one of the show’s writers or producers, though there are definitely some notable directors like Jay Sandrich, George Tyne, and Alan Rafkin:

Bruce Bilson; Garry Marshall; Jay Sandrich (6 episodes)

Harvey Miller (5)

George Tyne; Norm Gray (4)

Alan Rafkin; Bob Birnbaum; Jerry Belson (3)

Alex March; Charles R. Rondeau; George Marshall (2)

Charles Shyer; Dan Dailey; Dick Michaels; Jack Winter; George Tyne and Bob Birnbaum (1)

 

“WKRP in Cincinnati”

This show is the poster child for constant schedule changes. Seems like every time audiences found the show, CBS moved it. And the same with directors – each time someone notched up an impressive string of episodes, they were snatched up by another show:

Rod Daniel (23 episodes) -- by the way, that's his picture above

Will Mackenzie (17)

Asaad Kelada (15) – left for “The Facts of Life”

Linda Day (11) – left for “One Day at a Time”

The rest of the run has a large number of castmembers/show staff mixed with some surprising names like John Stamos’ uncle, or George Gaynes (of later of “Punky Brewster” and the Hugh Wilson-directed film, “Police Academy”):

Frank Bonner (6)

Michael Zinberg (4)

Nick Stamos; Dolores Ferraro (3)

Hugh Wilson; Dan Guntzelman (2)

George Gaynes; Jay Sandrich; Howard Hesseman; Gordon Jump (1)

 

“NewsRadio”

Tom Cherones left “Seinfeld” after its fifth season to helm “NewsRadio,” eventually directing 57 episodes. The remainder went to a mix of people – almost all of whom are well-known sitcom directors. I guess the ratings never materialized because the show -- like its radio cousin, “WKRP” – kept getting moved around. Or maybe it was just too smart:

James Burrows (7 episodes) – Burrows often directs the pilots for multicam sitcoms, but here he stuck around and did the first four shows, returning for three more near the end of season two.

Alan Myerson; Judi Elterman (5)

Patrick Maloney (4)

Gregg Heschong; Leonard R. Garner Jr.; Michael Lembeck (3)

Lee Shallat Chemel; Peter Bonerz; Skip Collector (2)

Dave Foley; Joe Furey; Peter Baldwin; Rich Beren (1)

 

“Barney Miller”

An interesting mix here, but Noam Pitlik directed 102 episodes from seasons 1-7. The show almost ended at that time according to thisHal Linden interview, but everyone agreed to return for an eighth and final season (1981-82). Unfortunately, Pitlik had signed on to become a regular director for “Taxi,” taking over for James Burrows, who was leaving to begin formulating “Cheers.” And fittingly, after “Barney” ended in the spring of ’82, its Thursday 9pm time slot was taken over (on another network) by “Cheers.” Anyhow, back to “Barney” directors, there are a LOT of people who did just one or two episodes, probably because of the long shoots and endless rewrites. Still, the show looked remarkably consistent on-air (again, this exercise doesn’t mean these shows weren’t excellent; it just means that I suspect they had a ratings hex). Even showrunner Danny Arnold, who didn’t do much directing by this point in his career, gets into the act… I wonder if he stepped in when a previously hired director dropped out or suddenly had issues with the production schedule? That’s a LOT of times as a sub!

Danny Arnold (12 episodes)

Bruce Bilson (10)

Lee Bernhardi (8)

Max Gail (5)

Gennaro Montanino (4)

Alex March; David Swift; Hal Linden; Jeremiah Morris (3)

Alan Bergmann; Homer Powell; Lee Lochhead; Tony Sheehan (2)

Allen Baron; Bill Davis; Bob Finkel; Dennis Steinmetz; John Rich; Mark Warren; Richard Kinon; Stan Lathan; Danny Arnold & Alex March (1)