Jay Sandrich, Emmy Award-Winning Director of ‘The Cosby Show’ and ‘Mary Tyler Moore Show’, Dies at 89
Jay Sandrich, the Emmy-winning television director who played musical instruments on series such as “The Cosby Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” died on September 22 in Los Angeles, CAA confirmed . He was 89 years old.
Sandrich is beloved in the creative community and is considered a mentor to generations of television directors, especially James Burrows. Sandrich had a major influence on television comedy as pilot director for “Soap”, “WKRP in Cincinnati”, “The Golden Girls”, “The Bob Newhart Show”, “Empty Nest”, “Night Court ” and “A Different World,” among other shows. His career began on the set of “I Love Lucy” and lasted until “Two and a Half a Men”. He worked primarily in television but his notable credits included the 1980 Chevy Chase-Goldie Hawn comedy “It Seems Like Old Times.”
His father, Mark Sandrich, is the director of such musicals as “Holiday Inn” and “Top Hat” and is a former president of the Directors Guild of America.
Jay Sandrich has won five Emmy awards for directing throughout his career, including two for “The Cosby Show” in 1985 and 1986, plus two for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in in 1971. and 1973. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for “Insight, a weekly anthology series about religion, in 1984. In 2020, Sandrich was inducted into the Academy of Television Hall of Fame pictured in 2020.
“Jay Sandrich is the godfather of the sitcom – making his mark on all of his series and eliciting some of the greatest comedic performances in television history,” said DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter. “A tremendous and generous mentor to so many who have achieved greatness, Jay is always willing to help budding directors and chart a clear path for everyone to follow. As the son of former DGA president Mark Sandrich, fighting for members’ rights is in Jay’s blood, and he has always fought to ensure the director’s vision is protected.”
Sandrich won three Directors Guild of America awards for “The Cosby Show,” “The Golden Girls” and “The Lily Tomlin Special.” In addition to his wins, he also received six other Emmy nominations and six nods from the DGA. Sandrich’s long list of credits includes some of the most popular and acclaimed comedies of the past half-century: “The Odd Couple,” “That Girl,” “He & She,” “Benson,” “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, ““The Nanny and the Professor,” “Welcome Back, Kotter,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “That’s Life,” “Love, Sidney,” “The Cosby Show,” “Thea,” “Ink, ” “Pearl” and “Carol & Co.”
Ron Howard, director and co-head of Imagine Entertainment, worked with Sandrich when Howard was a child actor on “Andy Griffith.” “His talent, taste, hard work and great teamwork have earned him an excellent reputation,” Howard wrote on Twitter.
Born in Los Angeles in 1932, Sandrich attended Beverly Hills High School and UCLA. He served in the Army and began his career as a second assistant director on the film “I Love Lucy.” He quickly became a sought-after director for hit films such as “The Andy Griffith Show”, “The Danny Thomas Show” and “Get Smart”.
In a 2001 interview with the Archive of American Television, Sandrich said he learned an important truth about directing from actor Richard Benjamin, star of He and She, which is that directors need understand the script to be effective. “Emotion,” Sandrich told the archive, “is a very strong word in my vocabulary as a director.” He is survived by his wife, Linda, and three children from a previous marriage, Eric, Tony and Wendy, and four grandchildren.
