Greetings over your interweb devices
“Come inside, the show’s about to start
Guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you’ll get your money’s worth
Greatest show in Heaven, Hell or Earth
You’ve got to see the show, it’s a dynamo
You’ve got to see the show, it’s rock and roll, oh.”
You’ve spent most of your career in front of the camera, but for some time you’ve fostered a desire to join the group behind the lens. So you do your homework — you shadow other directors and have them show you the ropes. Not from one quick week of observation, but from many years of paying attention and talking about how it is done with others in whose shoes you hope to walk. If your lifelong pal since third grade happens to have directed hundreds of network episodes (including nearly 250 outings of “The Big Bang Theory”) you already have a pretty great role model.
Finally, after his many appearances as Uncle Joey, Dave got his shot to helm his first episode, but they didn’t exactly toss him a softball. In addition to the regular shenanigans with a pretty large cast (including kids and animals), he had to stage and shoot a full ballet number from “The Nutcracker.”
While not quite as long as Cinder, I’ve been friends with Dave since the mid 1980s. It was both my honor and pleasure to be Dave’s wingman on that adventure — the last in a respectable line of first-time directors with whom I served as Associate Director (and even got to share some of my own directing experiences). I never forgot about those who helped me on the way up, and, when I could, did my best to pay it forward.
Dave did a truly magnificent job, by the way, and was able to go on to do several more episodes over the next three seasons.
To one and all, Be Safe-Stay Healthy