Life and career

Sandrich began his television work in the mid-1950s as a second assistant director with Desilu Productions, and began his career as an Assistant Director on I Love Lucy. Sandrich has directed and/or produced episodes of The Bill Dana Show, Get Smart, The Odd Couple, Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers, Loves Me, Loves Me Not, Soap, two-thirds of the episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and the first three seasons of The Cosby Show. He was responsible for the series pilots of The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Empty Nest, and The Golden Girls. Sandrich also directed for Theatre Aspen, in Aspen, Colorado, Rounding Third (2008), Chapter Two (2009), and Same Time, Next Year (2010). The only theatrical movie he directed was the 1980 film Seems Like Old Times, originally written by Neil Simon.

In 1965, Sandrich put in his only stint as a producer, serving as associate producer for the first season of the NBC-TV comedy Get Smart, which co-starred Don Adams and Barbara Feldon. He enjoyed the experience but vowed to stick to directing in future. He told Andy Meisler of Channels magazine, "I really didn't like producing. I liked being on the stage. I found that, as a producer, I'd stay up until four in the morning worrying about everything. As a director, I slept at night."

Meisler's article also paints an appealing portrait of the director's relationship with Bill Cosby. who preferred Sandrich, who directed 100 episodes of The Cosby Show from 1985 to 1992, the series' last season, as the director of choice of the series, and with other Cosby production personnel, quoting co-executive producer Tom Werner on the show's dynamics: "Although we're really all here to service Bill Cosby's vision, the show is stronger because Jay challenges Bill and pushes him when appropriate." Sandrich was proud of the program's pioneering portrayal of an upper-class Black family, and of its civilized view of parent-child relations.

Further reading

• Kuney, Jack. Take One: Television Directors on Directing. ISBN 978-0275935467 New York: Greenwood, 1990.
• Meisler, Andy. "Jay Sandrich: Ace of Pilots." Channels magazine (New York), October 1986.
• Ravage, John W. Television: The Director's Viewpoint. Boulder, ISBN 978-0891583370, Colorado: Westview, 1978.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]