By Elif Cercel

Editor's note: The following is the first in a two-part series about directing television pilots. In the November issue we'll be covering one-hour episodic pilots.

Director Lee Shallat Chemel.

"As the pressure to achieve instant numbers has increased, the working process on many shows has become less satisfying," said director Lee Shallat Chemel who directed the pilot for The Nanny. Voicing a sentiment that many of her colleagues share, she added, "Quite often, creative input from the director is neither expected nor desired."

Many feel that one area of television where directors still shape the look, style and tone of a show is the television pilot.

"Directors can help define characters and the visual style, work with the set and costume designer to support that visual style, and make some determinations with the DP on how to achieve that style. It is exciting and stimulating to collaborate in that way," Shallat Chemel said.

After The Nanny, which earned her a fourth Emmy nomination in 1995, Shallat Chemel directed many pilots, most recently Absolutely Psychic, the Disney Channel's first half-hour sitcom for a live audience.

For a time, the half-hour format was dominated by multi-camera situation comedy, using multiple cameras and shot before a studio audience. Within the last few years there has been a return to single-camera film techniques exemplified by comedies such as Malcolm in the Middle and Sex and the City.

Director Todd Holland (right) with Frankie Muniz on the set of Malcolm in the Middle.
(Photo: Richard Foreman ©2000 Fox Broadcasting)

"I insist on being very involved in the entire production," Holland said from the set of Malcolm, where he recently wrapped the show's third season opener. "I won't step into something where the sets are already designed and where I don't have a hand in the conception."

Holland admits that the autonomy he now enjoys is largely due to the success of Malcolm. "People view you as magical or something," he said. "Everyone comes to you because network television is where the money is and they all want to get close to whatever creativity makes that kind of success." Holland also directed the pilot for the horror spoof FreakyLinks.

Director Arlene Sanford

"The director's job on a pilot is to do what it takes to get a show on the air. That means collaborating with producers, writers and network executives because they are the ones who will ultimately buy your show," Sanford said.

"A pilot is just a selling tool," said Jay Sandrich, who directed pilots for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Cosby Show, Soap, Golden Girls, The Bob Newhart Show and scores of other groundbreaking sitcoms. "It's one episode of the show and sometimes the pilot is not necessarily the best show of the season. Sometimes shows find their way after six, seven or eight episodes. But a lot of shows today get pulled before they've ever had a chance to grow and find their way and get better."

John Rich concurred, noting that both All in the Family and The Dick Van Dyke Show, were canceled after their first 13 episodes. Eventually these TV classics, Rich noted, "came back by the merest fluke in the summer reruns to become big successes." Rich also directed the pilots for Barney Miller, Maude, The Jeffersons, Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch, On the Rocks, Mr. Sunshine, Newhart (the innkeeper series), Good Times and many others, as well as All in the Family.

Rich recalled the now seeming luxury of directing the first three years of The Dick Van Dyke Show as well as the first four years of All in the Family where he was allowed, in each instance, three days to rehearse alone with the cast. "Three incredibly gifted and brilliant producers, Sheldon Leonard, Carl Reiner and Norman Lear, had the wisdom, the courage and the confidence to allow directors and actors to experiment, to innovate without interference," he said. "On a Tuesday-night shooting schedule with rehearsal starting Wednesday, no one was permitted to visit the set until Friday evening when a run-through (at this time a performance without scripts was presented) and notes were given. This freedom to work things out over the course of three long rehearsal days is generally denied directors today by intrusive visits of some writer-producers as well as committees of studio and network 'suits' who are too often on the set offering comments to the detriment of the finished product.

Director John Rich (back row, right) with All in the Family cast. From left: Jean Stapleton, Carroll O'Connor (sitting), Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, guest star Sammy Davis, Jr. and Mike Evans.

Sandrich, who's reputation assured him similar autonomy, also believes that this approach allowed for the success of many groundbreaking shows he helped create.

"There was much less outside interference. The producers, the production company, the writers, the directors made the show that they felt worked," Sandrich said. "The directors didn't say this is the way it's going to be, but the good producers would really listen to us. We'd discuss things and collaborate and sometimes we'd come up with a third and better way that grew out of the disagreements."

Director Pamela Fryman (right) directing an episode of Frasier starring David Hyde-Pierce (left) and Kelsey Grammer. (Photo: Gale Adler)

"There's a mutual respect, and that's important," Fryman said. Her credits include multiple episodes for such NBC hits as Just Shoot Me and Frasier.

Today managing a lot of input has become one of the director's overwhelming responsibilities on pilots, Fryman and others suggest.

"That's one of the most important jobs when you are doing a pilot," Fryman said. "You have to please everyone and you have to make sure that everyone's heard. So whether it's the network, the studio, the creators, the actors or the other thousand people who are involved, you have to make sure that you give them all time."

Holland notes that it's the way a show's executive producer approaches a project that has played a big part in his own involvement as a director.

"Linwood Boomer is very specific about the words on the page, but he would not get involved in set design," Holland said about his collaboration with the executive producer of Malcolm. "He left that up to me and the production designer. So I had a great deal of autonomy on that level, as well in the visual look. Linwood only wanted the light to be pretty because he feared the material would feel dark or morose. It seems funny now in retrospect, but the show is sort of autobiographical and Linwood feared it was darker than it was."

Holland said he read the Malcolm script while still working on the D.C. pilot and says he agreed to direct it even though he was exhausted because the story was "wacky" yet had "a lot of heart."

"I stepped over to Malcolm and started casting. I was involved with all the principal casting and design of the sets and all the visuals and building blocks of it," Holland added.

Director Jim Brooks (left), actors Joan Cusack and Kyle Chandler (middle) and director Michael Lembeck (right) on the set of What About Joan.

"Directing the pilot for Everybody Loves Raymond was a fantastic process. From the beginning, both Phil Rosenthal, the head producer and writer for the show, and Ray Romano knew the comedic tone they wanted," he said. "It was a real pleasure to only have to deal with Phil on the pilot. CBS let Ray and Phil do the show they wrote. They had a clear vision of what they wanted to create."

Lembeck further described his Everybody Loves Raymond experience as a breath of fresh air, because normally, when he's hired onto a series, decisions are made by committee and he doesn't really get the opportunity to get hands-on with the show.

"During pilots, I work a lot closer with producers and the writer. When you're on a regular sitcom, there's a staff of 15 writers," he said. Lembeck participated heavily in the long casting process for both Everybody Loves Raymond and What About Joan. "On a pilot, there are only a couple of us. Then my job in shaping the pilot becomes that much more fun and involving for me."

But good collaborations do not always spell success for the shows themselves and most directors of pilots experience the disappointment of the networks not acquiring a show or canceling it during or after its first season.

This was the case for Shallat Chemel who directed the pilot for The Dave Chapelle Project for the Fox network. It never aired.

"It was the funniest show I've ever directed in my life," Shallat Chemel said about the project starring stand-up comic Chapelle and written by Peter Tolan (whose feature credits include Analyze This and America's Sweethearts). "It was a situation where there was a connection. I had tremendous creative freedom. Dave and I worked well together. Peter and I worked well together and it was just one hell of a funny pilot."

Chapelle eventually walked away from the show after a string of disagreements, Shallat Chemel said. But on both The Dave Chapelle Project and The Nanny, Shallat Chemel was closely involved in setting the tone by helping the actors find the core of their characters. "This was especially important in The Nanny where we had a lot of young kids who needed to learn how to act in a sitcom and be real even though they were on a more presentational show."

Sanford, who directed the Live Girls pilot with Jenny McCarthy, which never aired, has attained wisdom about this disappointing aspect of the work.

"You can't control what gets on the air," Sanford said. "You can only do your best work and let the marketplace determine whether it's going to be picked up."

The production of half-hour comedies and their pilots has also evolved in other ways. The resurgence of the single-camera approach in half-hour comedies has also had an impact on the director's role in the creative process.

Multi-camera shows require skills such as control-room directing. The single-camera format meanwhile mimics feature film directing and enables directors close involvement in design, location and style decisions.

Director Susan Seidelman (middle).

"Working on the pilot, we were given more time to film and so you get to be more playful and experimental in the way you tell the story," Seidelman said. "That visual sense of playfulness is what I hope I contributed to the pilot. Finding quirky ways to connect scenes, breaking the fourth wall by having characters comment directly to the camera, using certain documentary film techniques to capture the feeling of New York City street life, are the kinds of structural devices that then become part of the look of the show. I'm not really interested in directing episodic television per se, but when you direct a pilot you feel you have contributed in some way to the conceptualizing of it. A script is one thing when it's on the page. It's something different when you find the visuals and cinematic language to communicate the writer-producer's words and ideas."

It is not uncommon for an actor with a strong vision and style to be the source of the comedy. So directors who specialize in this format also have to master ways of collaborating with actors.

This was the case on The Nanny which was the brainchild of Fran Drescher and her then husband, producer Peter Marc Jacobson. Shallat Chemel was brought on to direct the pilot with writers Prudence Fraser and Rob Sternin, having worked with Drescher on Princesses. She worked very closely with Drescher, Fraser and Sternin to find the essence of the characters.

"Every step along the way it was Fran pushing for what she wanted," Shallat Chemel said, adding that she was very happy in the collaboration. "I was her handmaiden. I certainly had some creative input but Fran's perspective, her creative vision was so strong that it was really my job to try and fulfill that vision. In that case it was something that she just knew and wanted."

The choice to tape the show also came from Drescher, who liked the retro look it brought to the series. According to Shallat Chemel, Drescher also opted for a theatrical wardrobe, a flat style of shooting that avoided tight shots and the animated credit sequence which also gave the show its retro feel.

For most directors who have found an approach in which they feel comfortable, the challenge is to then repeat the experience on future projects.

"On other pilots that I've done since Malcolm through varying circumstances, I've had enormous autonomy," Holland said, stressing that this was because he was able to communicate that he was "passionate and had a vision."

On the FreakyLinks pilot, Holland worked with executive producer Tommy Thompson who was hired a week before Holland to rewrite the script. "I was able to come in with Tommy and work very intimately on the script, and pitch and change material."

For young directors there is plenty of advice from those who have left their mark on this field.

"You can't shoot all the characters' relationships in a pilot on the first day," Rich said on the practical side. "It's better to just pick the most interesting or the lead characters first. Don't worry about the secondary characters just yet. That'll come along."

More importantly, Rich believes a director must have story-sense and show conviction. "He or she needs the courage to stand up and have a viewpoint. Too often the directors back off to the point where they are so afraid of losing the job and they don't contribute."

Director Jay Sandrich (right) discusses a scene with Bill Cosby for the The Cosby Show.

"Basically my whole approach is be collaborative, include people in the process, have a very clear vision and communicate it clearly," Holland added. "The kind of pilots I don't do anymore are the ones where I am micromanaged. I can't do that anymore. I've done those where the producers have lived and breathed every word so minutely that there's no room to explore, there's no room to grow."

Where the actual credits are concerned, a director may even merit special recognition, but under the current industry formula may not get it. Today the 'Created By' credit is exclusively given to Writers Guild members.

Holland said that sharing the credit has obvious implications. "Everyone stakes out their territory in that credit area and fundamentally there's not only ego but huge economics involved in the ownership of the 'Created By' credit," Holland said. "Everybody who has a 'Created By' clause in their contract knows that if you get 'Created By' credit, sole or shared, your profit participation is much greater."

It's also important to Lembeck that credit is given where credit is due. Kobe Bryant can't take the entire credit for the Los Angeles Lakers winning two back-to-back NBA championships. Then why, asked Lembeck, are Writers Guild of America writers the only ones who are eligible for 'Created By' credit?

"Under the current guidelines, if you bring a fully fleshed out outline -- story and character -- to a writer, then if the network loves it and the writer writes it, you can't get 'Created By' credit. I am absolutely, diametrically opposed to this," said Lembeck.

"It's not about directors. It's about anybody who creates a show. If they're not in the WGA, they don't get 'Created By' credit. That seems to me all wrong."

Elif Cercel is a freelance journalist and former editor of an online trade publication for directors. Monice Mitchell also contributed to this story.

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