Director Jerry Foley…’The Late Show With David Letterman’
Director Jerry Foley…’The Late Show With David Letterman’
http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0902-Summer-2009/Television-Directing-David-Letterman.aspx
If you can imagine paving a road while staying ten feet in front of a car going eighty miles and hour, you get an idea of what Jerry Foley’s job is like. Jerry took over ‘Late Night’ directing duties from Hal Gurnee in 1995, but as an NBC technical director, had joined the team much earlier. The Directors Guild article at the link above is an excellent read on how the show works, and why. In it, you’ll also meet some of the many people that help make the show as fresh as new fallen snow, but as comfortable and familiar as your favorite chair. David Letterman is brilliant. Staying ahead of him is not easy, but…that’s Jerry’s job. Congratulations to everyone there for so many years of a job well done.
Jeoffrey Bristow..Enjoyed your remarks…wasn’t it FUN and maybe a tighter production when you Punched your show…I began producing/directing in 1959 till 1994..then a new company purchased the Houston station where I worked, and the newscast became too complicated to switch..was blessed to have good TD…but not the same.
Now ONE person does the whole news production by himself/ herself with a computer.. and some nights, it shows…
Good article. I like how Dave will sometimes showcase his behind the scenes people and have them on the air like Biff Henderson, Pat Farmer, Tony Mendez, etc.
Excellent choice of words for describing a Director or a Technical Director. I did Directing/Technical Directing for 16 years. That and had to do graphics for news stories and was DAMN good at it. I never had the Director and Technical director as a different position. I will brag it is like a Concert Pianaiast. When you are as Good as I was it was a concert. And when you have a team you can trust and are on the same link as you. Then it’s a thing of beauty.
I was privileged to work with them in Las Vegas in 1987. I was editing the field videos and worked closely with Hal Gurnee. He was a very easy man to work with and after explaining what they wanted, he turned it over to me to do my thing. I had the writers and Letterman there to let me know what they had written and how it was meant to be used. It was a very enjoyable time.
Did Hal retire in 95? I wish they would still do the show in real time like when he was on NBC…the edits in the show are usually very evident.