Michael starts us off.
When you direct an episode on a show you haven't worked on before, does the showrunner first give you a heads-up on any unusual on-set dynamics such as 2 co-stars who don't get along or an actor who is overly sensitive to feedback?
Yes, although if there’s bad behavior on the set it’s generally well known around town. I’ve never personally encountered that in all the shows I’ve directed. Of course I told my agent don’t put me up for ROSEANNE or CYBILL or GRACE UNDER FIRE because who needs the headaches?
But I like to meet with the showrunner beforehand and find out when he likes runthroughs, what he expects of the cast and me, whether I have the freedom to toss in a joke, how hard the cast likes to rehearse, and maybe a heads-up on an actor who will ask a lot of questions. By the way, I don’t mind if an actor asks a lot of questions. That’s his process and that’s my job to answer them. My goal is to get every actor to peak performance when the cameras are rolling.
sueK2001 queries:
What are your thoughts on Disney Plus (or any streaming service) putting an "offensive content" label on The Muppets or any retro comedy?
I think it’s utterly ridiculous.
Children are going to be scarred emotionally by something on THE MUPPET SHOW, but Disney + is fine with kids being turned into donkeys in PINOCCHIO, or Bambi’s mother dying, or Dumbo’s mother being locked up, or the witch in SNOW WHITE scaring the shit out of everybody with the poison apple?
Let the Snowflakes watch the Hallmark Channel.
From 71dude:
You said you never worked on any family shows, but do writers generally ask the child actors or their parents before they hand them a potentially embarrassing or puberty-related storyline?
Absolutely! The parents, the network, the studio, standards & practices, and the child. There are all kinds of guidelines in place for the protection of minors.
And finally, Mike Bloodworth has a MASH-related FQ.
Was having only Asian actors play Asian characters a conscious decision on the part of the creators/producers? Was it just coincidence? Had they ever considered using a big name, white guest star in Asian makeup?
It was a conscious decision. We tried to be as accurate as possible. And it was nice to give these Asian actors roles because there weren’t too many of them at the time.
We never once considered putting a non-Asian actor in make up. Even back then in the writers room we made fun of John Wayne as Genghis Khan in THE CONQUEROR.
What was fun was meeting veteran actors like Keye Luke who had been in tons of movies and shows. Imdb lists him in 226 different projects. He had amazing stories.
from By Ken Levine
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