10 Times Movie Directors Directed TV Episodes

10 Times Movie Directors Directed TV Episodes

Some of the best directors moviegoers love have taken their talents and brought them to the small screen.

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For a long time, television was regarded as the minor league of filmmaking. Actors and directors lucky enough to be working in the movies would never even consider directing TV except on rare occasions. As the media landscape has shifted, so has this attitude. Not only are movie stars increasingly turning to TV for dramatically fulfilling work, but so are directors. This means that plenty of TV episodes are being helmed not by professional TV directors, but by auteur filmmakers.

And while there are a number of talented filmmakers who have created their own TV series, like David Lynch with Twin Peaks, there are also “guest directors” who worked on TV shows they otherwise had no part in creating, just coming in to helm a few episodes and hone their craft.

10 Richard Donner Began His Career In TV

Richard Donner was a prolific director, helming everything from horror (The Omen) to action (the Lethal Weapon series). He even launched the superhero genre by directing 1978’s Superman. Fitting for a journeyman, Donner got his start as a director in television working on numerous episodes of famous 1960s programs, from Gilligan’s Island to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Donner’s greatest accomplishment from this era is The Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare At 20,000 Feet,” starring a pre-Captain Kirk William Shatner. One of the most famous Twilight Zone episodes, up there with “To Serve Man” and “Eye of the Beholder,” “Nightmare At 20,000 Feet” gave Donner the experience crafting horror which he used to make The Omen a hit.

9 Steven Spielberg Directed The First Columbo Episode

1971 was an important year for Steven Spielberg. A few years before he would change Hollywood forever with Jaws, he proved his talent for suspense filmmaking on television. For one, there was the TV movie Duel, about a lone driver pursued by a menacing trailer truck, but he also kick-started Columbo by directing its movie-length premiere, “Murder by the Book.”

A blue-collar Sherlock Holmes living in 20th century LA instead of 19th century London, Lieutenant Columbo was portrayed by Oscar-nominated actor Peter Falk. With feature-length runtimes and longer than usual gaps between episode airings, it’d be more accurate to describe Columbo as less a conventional TV series and more a series of television films. These cinematic qualities track when a director of Spielberg’s caliber kicked off the show.

8 Quentin Tarantino Directed Episodes Of ER And CSI

Quentin Tarantino is something of a filmmaking traditionalist; he’s one of the loudest advocates for the preservation of celluloid film and theatrical exhibitions. This might make it a bit surprising that he’s tried his hand at TV before; even more shocking would be the shows he was involved in. As an actor, Tarantino appeared as the villain McKennas Cole on Alias; while Tarantino frequently cameos in his own movies, his acting isn’t what earned him fame. He got to flex his real talent, directing, on the ER episode “Motherhood” and the CSI episode “Gravediggers.” Pairing one of the modern auteurs with network procedurals, a genre not known for visual innovation, was certainly an odd choice.

7 Justin Lin Directed Three Community Episodes, Most Notably “Modern Warfare”

After breaking in with the underrated crime drama Better Luck Tomorrow, Justin Lin has become one of the most reliable action filmmakers in Hollywood. He revitalized the Fast and Furious series with Fast Five and directed Star Trek: Beyond, considered by many to be the best Trek film in ages. Lin has occasionally turned his talent to television; he directed three episodes in Season 1 of Community, most notably “Modern Warfare,” where a paintball war consumes Greendale Community College. While Lin never returned for more, he later directed the first two episodes of True Detective Season 2.

6 David Mamet Guest Directed On Season 3 Of The Shield

Even as he’s worked in both film and stage, David Mamet is mostly known as a writer. He has plenty of directorial work under his name, to be sure, but oftentimes the most beloved movies with his name on them, from Glengarry Glen Ross to The Untouchables, were ones made by other directors. This makes his decision to direct an episode of The Shield a surprising one, especially since he hasn’t done anything like it since. Helming the Season 3 episode “Strays,” Mamet makes the most of it, wringing a chilling performance out of Clark Gregg as a confessing but unrepentant serial killer. The episode’s closing moment, when Dutch (Jay Karnes) strangles a stray cat to see what killing something feels like, is one of the most infamous moments of a show filled with them.

5 Rian Johnson Delivered Some Of The Best Breaking Bad Episodes

Before trying his hand at science-fiction, Rian Johnson was known for his crime movies Brick and Brothers Bloom (a genre he’d return to in Knives Out). This made him a perfect fit for Breaking Bad. He initially directed the Season 3 bottle episode “Fly,” which explores Walt’s control-freak tendencies while he and Jesse fail to kill a fly in their laboratory. The episode met some divided reactions; it’s a great character study, but also a change of pace for a show which relies on forward momentum as much as Breaking Bad.

Johnson returned for the series’ fifth and final season, directing “Fifty-One” in the season’s first half and “Ozymandias” in the back half. The latter is acclaimed as Breaking Bad’s finest hour and one of the best ever episodes of dramatic TV.

4 Joel Schumacher’s Last Directing Was On House Of Cards

Netflix’s first foray into original programming, the American remake of House of Cards recruited movie-level talent. David Fincher was an executive producer and directed the first two episodes and James Foley was a regular director during the first three seasons. The late Joel Schumacher directed Episodes 5 & 6; tragically, these wound up being his final work before he passed in 2020. Doubly tragic after House of Cards’ legacy was sunk by revelations about star Kevin Spacey’s sex crimes, including toxic behavior on set. Schumacher didn’t have the most consistent filmography, but he still deserved a better farewell.

3 Robert Rodriguez Joined Star Wars With The Mandalorian

Robert Rodriguez is a technician’s filmmaker. From Spy Kids to Sin City to Alita: Battle Angel, his films often feature digital innovation. As such, it makes sense that he’d be drawn to The Mandalorian, which brought the filmmaking technology of Star Wars to television. Rodriguez joined the series’ second season and directed Chapter 14: “The Tragedy,” which featured the triumphant return of Boba Fett and a spectacular action scene that showed what a skilled warrior the bounty hunter really is. After the acclaim of the episode, Rodriguez joined spin-off The Book of Boba Fett as a producer and director of three out of seven episodes.

2 Peter Bogdanovich And Mike Figgis Both Directed The Sopranos

Season 5 of The Sopranos featured not one but two acclaimed film directors working behind the camera. Given creator David Chase’s admiration for the New Hollywood, he must have been over the (paper) moon to cast Peter Bogdanovich as Dr. Elliot Kupferberg. After joining the supporting cast in Season 2, Bogdanovich got to direct the Season 5 episode “Sentimental Education.” A few episodes later, Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis directed “Cold Cuts.” The episode boasts some of the most distinctive camera work in the series, even if a couple of Figgis’ flourishes don’t mesh with the established Sopranos aesthetic (in particular a freeze-frame transition).

1 Paul Thomas Anderson Wrote And Directed An SNL Skit

Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the few directors keeping a New Hollywood sensibility alive in American filmmaking. However, one would be remiss to think he’s any sort of snob because of this. His movies, from Boogie Nights to Licorice Pizza, have plenty of comedy, he’s said that superhero movies “get a bad rap,” and he is a fan of Adam Sandler movies (hence them working together in Punch Drunk Love). Considering he’s life partners with Maya Rudolph, him directing a Saturday Night Live sketch for Ben Affleck and Molly Shannon isn’t surprising.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/movie-directors-who-directed-tv-episodes/

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