Robert Butler - Archive Interview Part 10 of 10

In his 10-part oral history interview, television director Robert Butler describes his early years breaking into the business as an usher at CBS. He describes his experiences in various behind-the-scenes capacities on such classic "live" anthology series as Climax! and Playhouse 90 as well as his first break in television directing on the comedy/drama series Hennesey. He details his varied assignments in series television in the 1960s on such series as The Detectives, Bonanza, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke, The Defenders, The Fugitive, Hogan's Heroes, The Twilight Zone, Batman, and Star Trek. Butler describes his work in the 1970s on television movies (such as Columbo MOWs and James Dean) and feature films and his groundbreaking work on the look of Hill Street Blues, for which he directed several of the initial episodes (including the pilot). He talks about his later work on such series as Remington Steele, Moonlighting (the telefilm pilot), Out on a Limb, Midnight Caller (which he also executive-produced), Sisters, and Lois & Clark.

Visit emmytvlegends.org for all segments.

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News & Politics

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• archive
• american
• television
• interview
• emmy
• tv
• legends
• history

[DMaustrap]

An outstanding,informative interview with part 10 being the meat and potatoes of what i think Mr. Butler wanted to convey. Thank you.

[brewer921]

He seemed to have a longing to have accomplished more, but he directed the pilots for Hogan's Heroes, Star Trek, Batman, Hill Street Blues, Remington Steele, Moonlighting and Lois & Clark.

I think he will be remembered as being underrated by those who understand such things.