Summer 2020
Directing Better Call Saul
Although it's a prequel, the directors of Better Call Saul treat the series like its own animal, with no detail too small, and no situation too outrageous.
Spring 2020
Recent TV Hall of Fame inductee Jay Sandrich emerged as a pioneering sitcom director, and he was generous in paying his knowledge forward.
Spring 2020
In search of authenticity, the directors behind Succession jettison the glitz by deglamorizing its rarified settings and capturing performances on the fly.
Spring 2020
Empire's directors discuss how they used music to enhance the show's mix of dynastic drama and a fanciful take on the recording biz.
Summer 2019
Producer/directors seek a unifying vision without sacrificing artistic integrity.
Summer 2019
As the Showtime series enters its final season, Lesli Linka Glatter and her directing team reflect on Homeland's global reach and the prescience of its storylines.
Summer 2019
For the Starz series set in L.A.'s Boyle Heights, directors and producers keep it real.
Summer 2019
Directors behind the battle sequences in Game of Thrones talk tactics, scale and the escalating stakes of television's most epic water-cooler series.
Spring 2019
Director Morgan Sackett used a combination of in-camera and VFX techniques to bring multiple personalities within the same character to life.
Summer 2018
Justin Simien uses cinematic language on Dear White People, which series directors find liberating.
Summer 2018
No detail is too small for directors Alec Berg and Jamie Babbit in Silicon Valley's quest for authenticity.
Summer 2018
Directors discuss finding the tricky balance between desperate drama and absurd humor on TV's latest wave of crime comedies .
Spring 2018
Pamela Fryman
Director Pamela Fryman was tasked with directing no less than six comedy pilots by the time the broadcasters’ upfronts start in May. Here's how she did it.
Spring 2018
Directors Anthony Hemingway, Daniel J. Minahan and Lesli Linka Glatter walk the tightrope between reality and dramatic license with fact-based murder dramas.
Summer 2017
Event series directors Reed Morano, Ron Howard, Ryan Murphy, Gus Van Sant, and Jean-Marc Vallée discuss their creative visions.
Summer 2017
For This is Us, directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa aim for emotional catharsis while reining in the 'schmaltz'.
Summer 2017
In this Age of Anxiety, directors Alec Berg, Mark Cendrowski, Jonathan Krisel, Steve Levitan, Beth McCarthy-Miller, Melina Matsoukas and Ken Whittingham talk about the current state of TV comedy, which ranges from blatantly slapstick to uncomfortably anxious.
Spring 2017
The new series from Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood, reflects the racial strife prevalent in today’s headlines.
Spring 2017
A thirtysomething Reunion
Four thirtysomething cast members—Timothy Busfield, Peter Horton, Melanie Mayron and Ken Olin—discuss how the landmark series shaped their careers as directors.
Fall/Winter 2016-17
In the cover story of our newly redesigned DGA Quarterly, Directors Ava DuVernay, Hiro Murai, Steven Zaillian, Christine Gernon, Peter O'Fallon and Marcos Siega sound off on forging a series template for some of the most buzzed-about shows in the Platinum Age of Television, and why sometimes rules are meant for breaking.
Fall/Winter 2016-17
Documentary Now!
It’s a thin line between reverence and parody for the directors of Documentary Now!
Fall/Winter 2016-17
Fresh Off the Boat directors relate to their characters' need to belong.
Summer 2015
Director Rosemary Rodriguez has excelled in directing all sorts of dramatic television, but where she really feels at home is on the set of her own films.
Spring 2015
First-Time Directors
Breaking in as a first-time director in episodic television is never easy. It takes talent, persistence, and a helping hand. We interviewed some recent newcomers to see how they got started.
Winter 2015
Karen Gaviola
Karen Gaviola learned her craft as an AD and has now directed almost 100 TV episodes. For her, it’s all about exercising different muscles.
Summer 2014
The Newsroom
With rapid-fire dialogue and complex visual schemes, The Newsroom was no easy assignment for director-producer Alan Poul and his team of directors. But no matter how big the stories, it's always about the characters.
Spring 2014
Chicago Fire
Director-producer Joe Chappelle and a fine-tuned directorial team balance some of the biggest, most daring visual effects on TV with everyday human drama on Chicago Fire — and all this in the dead of winter.
Winter 2014
The Following
As characters drop like flies in the hit TV series The Following, director-producer Marcos Siega and his team create an authentically tense and scary atmosphere. Even the blood is directed.
Fall 2013
Boardwalk Empire
In an extraordinarily creative environment, director-producer Tim Van Patten and a team of highly skilled veteran directors recreate the glamorous, seedy and seductive world of Prohibition-era America in Boardwalk Empire.
Summer 2013
Mark Cendrowski
In sitcoms as in science, timing is everything. On The Big Bang Theory, director Mark Cendrowski carefully calculates how to make the jokes work—and has fun doing it.
Spring 2013
The Good Wife
Executive producer-director Brooke Kennedy and her team of directors smoothly manage to find the sly humor and elegant look of The Good Wife. That’s what makes it more than just another legal drama.
Spring 2013
Jay Sandrich
Jay Sandrich modestly credits quality scripts and talented casts for the success of such beloved TV series as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Cosby Show and Soap. But it took a great director to put all the pieces together.
Winter 2013
House of Cards
House of Cards is Netflix's first original series. But the real difference is that David Fincher and a team of five directors are calling the shots.
Winter 2013
Women Directors on TV
Most people in the industry agree the number of female directors in episodic TV is appalling. We asked showrunners, network executives and DGA members to weigh in on how to solve the problem.
Winter 2013
Law & Order: SVU
Jean de Segonzac and a host of directors have kept Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fresh, fast-paced and inventive for 14 seasons. It may be familiar but it’s never routine.
Fall 2012
The Colbert Report's
Jim Hoskinson
Even in an election year, with more details, graphics and odd characters to worry about, The Colbert Report's director Jim Hoskinson never misses a beat.
Fall 2012
Homeland's Michael Cuesta
With handheld cameras and a subjective style that gets under your skin, Michael Cuesta has turned Homeland’s cat and mouse game into a suspense-filled ride. Voyeurism never looked so good.
Summer 2012
Grimm Director Norberto Barba
Battling "wesen" and solving mysteries in the wilds of Portland, may not be for everyone. But in Grimm, director/producer Norberto Barba makes it look easy.
Summer 2012
Breaking Bad
With a distinctive visual style and lots of locations, Breaking Bad is a challenging show for directors. Fortunately, a great team is in place to help them.
Spring 2012
Blue Bloods
With hundreds of extras, elaborate stunts, and numerous locations, the directorial team on the cop show Blue Bloods has plenty to think about. Making sure the subway is running on time is the easy part.
Spring 2012
Directing Modern Family
Working at a breakneck pace and with creative solutions, directors have made the everyday humor and documentary style of Modern Family seem like real life—only funnier.
Fall 2011
Directing Seinfeld
Two directors--Tom Cherones and Andy Ackerman--helped make Seinfeld one of the most influential shows of time.
Winter 2012
Directing House
Greg Yaitanes has directed 30 episodes of House, M.D., more than anyone else. Along the way he has streamlined shooting and coming up with creative solutions to production problems--right up until what might be his last show.
Summer 2011
Hill Street Blues
Before Hill Street Blues arrived in 1981, cop shows were tame by comparison. Using a realistic, in-your-face style, the directors helped pioneer a look and feel that has inspired countless crime series.
Summer 2010
Directing True Blood
How do you incinerate a vampire at sunrise, and twist a head 180 degrees? These and more otherworldly challenges are met head on by directors on the gothic TV series True Blood.
Spring 2010
Pamela Fryman
With its single-camera sensibility on a multi-camera show, How I Met Your Mother has tons of moving parts. Director Pamela Fryman relies on her talented team to help her put all the pieces together.
Winter 2010
Friday Nights Lights
Directors and their teams on Friday Night Lights find some novel solutions for shooting at a breakneck pace.
Fall 2009
Locations for Law & Order
UPMs and location managers cover the waterfront—and every other part of New York City—to find unique sites for the three long-running Law & Order series. The trick is keeping it fresh and not tripping over each other.
Summer 2009
Sitcom Roundtable
The Quarterly brings together six of the most accomplished sitcom directors to discuss the creative and commercial side of making funny shows.
Summer 2009
AD's and Child Actors
Child actors working on TV comedies just want to have fun. It's the 1st and 2nd ADs who make sure they get the job done.
Spring 2009
Directing In Treatment
Capturing the intense emotion but limited movement of therapy sessions in HBO's In Treatment presents a challenge to the show's directors. Here's how they solve it.
Fall 2007
Directors/Producers
With the demand for higher quality programming, more and more TV directors are becoming producer/directors. And the studios like what they see.
Spring 2007
The Sopranos
As David Chase's 80-hour tale of crime and punishment comes to its grand finale, we look at the contribution of its unsung heroes-the directors.
Summer 2006
Directing Television Pilots
With TV getting bigger, better and more competitive, pilot directors have a lot at stake.
Spring 2006
UPMs on Episodics
It's not just about balancing books. UPMs on one-hour episodic television have to be nimble balancing a multitude of duties. And the job's not getting easier.
DGA Magazine May 2004
Few television shows enter the public awareness as brazenly as HBO's The Sopranos. Directors Timothy M. Van Patten, Henry Bronchtein and John Patterson discuss their experiences on the show.
DGA Magazine January 2004
The directors of Sex and the City, in its sixth and final season, bare all.
DGA Magazine July 2003
This HBO hit has brought the concept of working without a script into the TV mainstream, transforming its creator and star Larry David from the man behind the genius of Seinfeld to the butt of every self-inflicted joke on camera in Curb.
DGA Magazine July 2003
Many cinematographers said it was impossible to film multi-camera before a live audience. It just couldn't be done. But that was not a phrase in Desi Arnaz' vocabulary.