TV Summer School: How to Become a Snazzy Sitcom Director
An accomplished television director and industry veteran, Pamela Fryman has wielded her magic wand over a couple of sitcoms you may have heard of: Friends, Suddenly Susan, The King of Queens and Frasier, just to name a few. She’s currently the in-house director on How I Met Your Mother, and after seeing her in action on set last season—a total pro and so well respected by cast and crew—I just had to have her for our TV Summer School feature. So, without further ado, class, let’s get our learnin’ on…
I'm in awe of your résumé. Can you tell us how someone ends up being a successful television director? What was your first job in the business?
Well, as a kid, I was sure that I loved to watch TV, so I got an internship when I was in high school. This will now really date me, but in 1977, I worked on The Mike Douglas Show, a talk show in Philadelphia. I grew up right outside of Philly and got to know some people there. I would do anything for them: I would get them coffee, whatever they needed, it didn’t matter. My first job, actually, was to pull the files of dead celebrities. But it was so thrilling to be around any place that had TV cameras. Back in those days—I hate to say that—but people came to do that show. I remember Robert De Niro was there, and I know John Lennon had done it. I just thought, Oh my God, how cool is this? I was 16.
How did you move from there to scripted TV?
What I really wanted was to work on a soap opera. I used to watch soap operas. That’s what you do in college, and I thought, Hey, there’s a job in television that is 52 weeks a year. I was working on the John Davidson version of Hollywood Squares when I got a call that there was an opening for a booth PA on Santa Barbara, and I jumped at it. That is where it really started. That was dramatic television. It was actors. It wasn't washers and dryers.
I ended up getting promoted from a PA to an AD [assistant director] a short time later. That meant I was editing the shows, which is what this is all about. Once you really learn what editing is, [you see that] it’s the most important part of how a show goes together. [From editing], you can figure out how to shoot the show. So, I went from a PA to an AD, and then they were nice enough to ask me to direct. After that, I went to Days of Our Lives for a year and then did General Hospital for a year.
And from soaps you moved to sitcoms?
After General Hospital, I got a call from my agent to do a show called Muddling Through. And there was a girl on that show by the name of Jennifer Aniston. I was only supposed to do one episode, and I ended up doing three in a row. All the people there were very nice, and this girl is telling me about a show called Friends that she had gotten the pilot for. She really had such a good time, and during that three weeks, I get a call from my agent, saying, “We booked you on this show called Friends that hasn’t aired yet.” Jimmy [Burrows] had done the first few episodes, and I went in and did episode four. I already knew Jennifer, which was a great thing, and I ended up doing one more before it even aired. But I thought, It’s certainly cute, these people are pretty delicious. And long story short, when that show hit, I had it on my résumé.
How is it working on How I Met Your Mother?
It's a dream and so different from anything that I have ever done. I did almost 100 episodes of Just Shoot Me; I did Frasier, that was so spectacular, and King of Queens. I just thought, Pinch me. This is extraordinary. And now, here I am starting my third season of this show which has no [in-studio] audience, a lot of single camera, which has really stretched me as a director, and working with [cocreators] Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, who are unbelievably talented and just as excited about the show now as when we shot the pilot. Nobody is jaded, and everybody is appreciative of what’s happening to this show. It’s heaven.
Are you still learning things, or is it already old hat?
You learn things every day [in this business]. Especially in the beginning, what I thought was a great thing to do was ask questions. All of the people that work on this stage are experts in their own field, and when you go up to a camera operator and say, "Explain this to me. Why is this better than this?" and sit up on a camera and feel what that feels like, people are so anxious to teach. It empowers everybody. It makes for a really great atmosphere. I never pretended to know everything. I still don’t know everything.
On any given week of How I Met Your Mother, what exactly are your responsibilities?
I’m reading the script and kind of breaking it down, I’m looking at the set, seeing if it’s shootable. We’re having rehearsals for the cast, trying to figure out where they should move, finessing their performance a bit.
Throughout the course of your career, have you ever felt that as a woman you were at any disadvantage?
I have to tell you, I don’t know why, but no. And I know it happens a lot. There are certain people I could probably point to who have treated me a little differently because I’m a woman. But it has not hindered me at all, and in some cases, it has worked to my advantage. It can be hell for some people, but I have to tell you, I do everything I can to push other women into this. We all have that responsibility.
What would you tell someone who wants to be you in 10 years?
The best thing you can do is learn everything you can from those who are willing to teach. The DGA is great, because it has a lot of wonderful programs in this town, but for me, it’s [all about] being on the stage and watching the people who are already doing it. Everybody lets observers come in, and I always thought that was the best way to learn. Also, watch these shows from home and break them down, and if you can get into the edit bay, do it, because that’s the most fascinating part of all.
Of course, you can go to school for this, but I didn’t do that. However, I know these days it’s much harder and the window was a little more open when I came through. Somehow, I was lucky enough to dive through before it closed. I feel very fortunate.
Prom Night Remake Announced
Television director Nelson McCormick will helm a remake of Prom Night starring Brittany Snow (John Tucker Must Die) for Screen Gems. So how are they going to ruin this horror classic? Probably by introducing supernatural elements and casting good looking youngsters instead of actors.
The original 1980 film starring Leslie Nielsen and Jamie Lee Curtis, followed the accidental murder of a young girl at the hands of four children, who swear to silence. But someone saw the whole thing happen. Six years later, revenge will be served at the senior prom. The movie spawned three sequels:
- Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II
- Prom Night III: The Last Kiss
- Prom Night IV: Deliver us from Evil
Gotta love those classic horror sequel titles.
Mark your calendar, Prom Night is early next year - February 1st 2008.
Maggie Gyllenhaal Biography
A versitile and intriguing actress, whose penetrating acting and off-kilter beauty were initially relegated to supporting roles, Maggie Gyllenhaal broke out to the forefront with the edgy S&M themed drama “Secretary.” Despite this being her first starring role, she did not spend much time in the trenches, having a relatively painless decade paying dues before getting her first major role at the age of 24.
Having grown up in a family of entertainment professionals, it is no surprise Gyllenhaal decided to pursue a career in acting. Her mother is successful screenwriter Naomi Foner (Oscar nominated for her 1988 screenplay for “Running on Empty,” starring River Phoenix) and her father is accomplished film and television director Stephen Gyllenhaal (nominated for an Emmy for 1990 telepic “A Killing in a Small Town” and directed feature “Losing Isaiah” in 1995). Adding a healthy dose of sibling rivalry to go along with these parental expectations, her brother is successful actor Jake Gyllenhaal (”Moonlight Mile” 2002).
Gyllenhaal was born in New York City but grew up in Los Angeles where she and her brother attended the prestigious Harvard-Wakeland prep school, known as a “who’s who among who’s whose kids” in the Hollywood circle. Here Gyllenhaal was an excellent student and active in the drama program. At the age of 15, Gyllenhaal had her feature debut in the nostalgic drama “Waterland” (1992), directed by her father and starring Jeremy Irons and Ethan Hawke. She next had another small role in “A Dangerous Woman” (1993), also directed by her father. In 1995, Gyllenhaal moved to New York to attend Columbia University. While she was busy studying Eastern religion and literature in school, she also found the time to further her professional acting career. She appeared in two more television movies directed by her father as well as the feature “Homegrown” (1998), also written and directed by her father.
After graduating from Columbia in 1999, Gyllenhaal certainly had ample exposure to the film and television world. However, in order to really break into the business, Gyllenhaal would need a stand-out role to get her in the running for the high-profile parts. That break came in the form of her role as Raven, a Satanic make-up artist in the eccentric John Waters film “Cecil B. Demented.” (2000). This gave Gyllenhaal enough recognition that she landed a string of supporting roles the following year. She played her brother’s sister in the far-out sci-fi movie “Donnie Darko” (2001), appeared in “Riding in Cars with Boys” (2001) and was featured in the teen romance “40 Days and 40 Nights.”
Not the kind of actress meant to lay wait in obscurity for very long, Gyllenhaal had a breakout performance with “Secretary” in 2002. Playing a timid young woman recovering from a mental breakdown who engages in a S&M relationship with her boss, Gyllenhaal brought the depth and delicacy called for in the role. The movie won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance and was promptly picked up for theatrical distribution. Gyllenhaal’s indie actress, star-on-the-rise status was solidified with awards nominations–including a Golden Globe– and her next projects, Charlie Kaufman’s mind-bending film-about-writing-a-film “Adaptation” (2002) and the John Sayles directed “Casa de Los Babys” (2003). She also joined fellow up-and-comers Julia Stiles and Kirsten Dunst as students of a liberal-minded instructor (Julia Roberts) at 1950s Wellesley College, nearly stealing the entertaining but routine movie as Giselle Levy, the wised-up class rebel who sleeps around and almost loses her bearings. Quickly gaining a reputation as a cerebral actress, often compared to the likes of Cate Blanchett, Emily Watson or a young Diane Keaton, Maggie Gyllenhaal has stepped out from the shadow of her parents and her brother and to shine alone in the spotlight.
The actress continued to deliver a string of unflinching, unselfconscious performances, including Sidney Lumet’s harrowing HBO telepic “Strip Search” (2004), in which two parallel plotline exploring post-9/11 issues of civil liberties and personal freedoms. Gyllenhaal played an American woman detained in China on suspicion of terrorisim, forced to defend her own rights to an interrogator (Ken Leung) in a sweltering basement prison, stripped bare both physically and emotionally. After compellingly playing a hustling con artist in the otherwise middling crime drama “Criminal” (2004), Gyllenhaal turned in one her most winning performances to date in director Don Roos’ seriocomic “Happy Endings” (2005). As the morally ambiguous singer Jude, who seduces a closeted gay youth (Jason Ritter) then turns her sights on his lonely, wealthy father (Tom Arnold) Gyllenhaal dazzled with her subtle, shifting behaviors, creating a compelling, fully realized character than was neither fully good or fully bad.
- Born:
on 11/16/1977 in New York City, New York - Job Titles:
Actor, Writer, Bussed tables in an upscale Massachusetts restaurant
Family
- Brother: Jake Gyllenhaal. born in 1980
- Father: Stephen Gyllenhaal.
- Mother: Naomi Foner.
Significant Others
- Companion: Peter Sarsgaard. reportedly engaged as of December 2002
- Companion: . Dating un-named person “in the entertainment industry” as of August 2002
- Companion: . Had live-in boyfriend during college who was a painter; no longer together
Education
- Columbia University, New York, NY, literature and eastern religion, B.A.
- Havard-Westlake School, Los Angeles, CA
Milestones
- 1978 Moved with family to Los Angeles
- 1990 Attended presigious Los Angeles prep school Harvard-Westlake along with younger brother Jake; involved in theater in school and staged performances for friends and family
- 1992 Had feature acting debut in “Waterland”
- 1995 Moved to New York to attend NYU
- 2000 Had supporting role in “Cecil B. DeMented”
- 2001 Had small role in Drew Barrymore film “Riding in Cars with Boys”
- 2001 Played the sister of her real-life brother in “Donnie Darko”
- 2002 Appeared in Spike Jones directed “Adaptation,” written by Charlie Kaufman
- 2002 Breakout role starring as a mentally fragile woman who embarks on an S&M relationship with her boss in the Sundance hit “Secretary”; received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical
- 2002 Had supporting role in “40 Days and 40 Nights” starring Josh Hartnet and Shannyn Sossamon
- 2003 Co-Starred with Julia Roberts in “Mona Lisa Smile”
- 2004 Starred as an American student in China, in HBO’s “Strip Search,” a provocative drama about civil liberties in the post-9/11
- 2004 Starred opposite John C. Reilly and Diego Luna in “Criminal” an English-language version of the Argentine hit “Nine Queens”
- 2005 Co-starred in “Happy Endings,” a comedic drama about the ups and downs of relationships; earned an Independent Spirit Award Nomination for Best Supporting Female
- 2006 Played an ex-con in the indie drama, “Sherrybaby”
- Acted in a series of low-budget films and tv movies
- Will play the wive of a Port Authority officer rescued from the World Trade Center in Oliver Stone’s upcoming 9/11 movie (lensed 2005)