Ernest Pintoff
Directing
Biography
Ernest Pintoff (December 15, 1931 in Watertown, Connecticut – January 12, 2002 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles) was an American film and television director, screenwriter and film producer. He won the Oscar for Best Animated Short for The Critic (1963), a satire on modern art written and narrated by Mel Brooks. Born in Watertown, Connecticut, but raised in New York City, Pintoff originally began as a jazz trumpeter who taught painting and design at Michigan State University. However, he had always shown an interest in the animation of film and began writing in 1956. His career took off in 1957, when he wrote the script for Flebus, followed by 1959 as a producer and director for the animated short film, The Violinist. Narrated by Carl Reiner, the film earned Pintoff an Oscar nomination and illustrated a promising young career in directing film ahead of him. In 1964, he won an Oscar for his direction of the 1963 film, The Critic, which was narrated by co-creator Mel Brooks and focused on a man with a grumpy voice trying to understand abstractions he observes. On television, Pintoff directed many episodes of popular television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), Kojak (1968), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), The Dukes of Hazard (1979), Falcon Crest (1981) and Voyagers! (1982). As part of NBC's "Experiments in Television" in the late 1960s, he also directed the documentaries This Is Marshall McLuhan and This Is Sholem Aleichem. Pintoff produced and directed a number of low-budget independent films such as Harvey Middleman, Fireman (1965), Who Killed Mary What's 'Er Name? (1971) and Dynamite Chicken (1972), a film using a collection of old clips from music with appearances by John Lennon, Richard Pryor and Andy Warhol, Nel mirino del giaguaro (1979). Following his last film in 1985, Pintoff taught directing at the School of Visual Arts, American Film Institute, USC School of Cinematic Arts, California Institute of the Arts and UCLA. He received the International Animated Film Society's Winsor McCay Award for prolific lifetime contributions to animation in 1998.
Known For
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced. The series revolves around the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the Californian wine industry. Jane Wyman starred as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, alongside Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela's nephew who returns to Falcon Crest following the death of his father. The series was set in the fictitious Tuscany Valley northeast of San Francisco.
Falcon Crest
He's everyone's favorite action hero... but he's a hero with a difference. Angus MacGyver is a secret agent whose wits are his deadliest weapon. Armed with only a knapsack filled with everyday items he picks up along the way, he improvises his way out of every peril the bad guys throw at him. Making a bomb out of chewing gum? Fixing a speeding car's breaks... while he's riding in it? Using soda pop to cook up tear gas? That's all in a day's adventures for MacGyver. He's part Boy Scout, part genius. And all hero.
MacGyver
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for 12 seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. Jack Lord portrayed Detective Lieutenant Steve McGarrett, the head of a special state police task force which was based on an actual unit that existed under martial law in the 1940s. The theme music composed by Morton Stevens became especially popular. Many episodes would end with McGarrett instructing his subordinate to "Book 'em, Danno!", sometimes specifying a charge such as "murder one".
Hawaii Five-O
The domestic adventures, misdeeds and everyday interactions of five families living on a cul-de-sac in a small California community.
Knots Landing
Follow the adventures of Steve Austin, cybernetically enhanced astronaut turned secret agent, employed by the OSI, under the command of Oscar Goldman and supervised by the scientist who created his cybernetics, Rudy Wells. Steve uses the superior strength and speed provided by his bionic arm and legs, and the enhanced vision provided by his artificial eye, to fight enemy agents, aliens, mad scientists, and a wide variety of other villains.
The Six Million Dollar Man
A bald, lollipop sucking police detective with a fiery righteous attitude battles crime in New York City.
Kojak
After fully recovering from her near fatal bout of bionic rejection, Jaime Sommers, the first female cyborg, is assigned to spy missions of her own.
The Bionic Woman
The White Shadow is an American drama television series that ran on the CBS network from November 27 1978, to March 16 1981.
The White Shadow
Ellery Queen is an American television detective mystery series based on the fictional character Ellery Queen. It aired on NBC during the 1975-76 television season and stars Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, David Wayne as his father, Inspector Richard Queen, and Tom Reese as Sgt. Velie. Created by the writing/producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link, the title character "breaks" the fourth wall to ask the audience to consider their solution.
Ellery Queen
Code Red is an American drama series that ran from 1981 to 1982 on ABC and was produced by Irwin Allen. The series revolves around the family and crew of L.A. Battalion Fire Chief Joe Rorchek.
Code Red
A member of a league of time travelers and a boy travel through time repairing errors in world history.
Voyagers!
No description available.
Occasional Wife
The ABC Weekend Special is a weekly 30-minute anthology TV series for children that aired Saturday mornings on ABC from 1977 to 1997. It featured a wide variety of stories that were both live-action and animated. Similar to both the ABC Afterschool Special and The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie that had started five years previous, the ABC Weekend Special differed in that it was primarily aimed at younger viewers following ABC's Saturday Morning cartoon lineup, whereas the ABC Afterschool Special was known for its somewhat more serious, and often dramatic storylines dealing with issues concerning a slightly older teen and pre-teen audience. With the debut of the ABC Weekend Special, some of the early ABC Afterschool Specials that had been targeted towards younger viewers were subsequently repackaged and re-run instead as ABC Weekend Specials.
Weekend Special
Movin' On is an American drama series that ran for two seasons, between 1974 and 1976. It originally appeared on the NBC television network. The pilot episode for the series was known as In Tandem.
Movin' On
Call to Glory is an American drama series created by Ronald M. Cohen, and starring Craig T. Nelson as USAF Colonel Raynor Sarnac and his family as they navigated the political tensions and military duties of the early 1960s. Heavily promoted during ABC's broadcast of the 1984 Summer Olympics, the two-part pilot aired August 13, 1984. The first episode is related to the U-2 flights over Cuba during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. During production, the plot came to focus more on the loneliness experienced by wife Vanessa while stationed on base and what she and the family would do to spend time in productive pursuits while enduring the Antelope Valley's isolation from civilization. The series, set near Edwards Air Force Base, blended historical events with the challenges of military family life, featuring themes of duty, family relationships, and the looming Vietnam War.
Call to Glory
An anthology depicting the lives of people who hope to win a large amount of money in a sweepstakes and what happens after they win — or do not win — the money.
$weepstake$
The lives and trials of the staff and civilian residents of a US naval base.
Emerald Point N.A.S.
Hell Town is an American drama series that aired on NBC from September 4, 1985 to December 25, 1985. The series features former Baretta star Robert Blake.
Hell Town
James at 15 (later James at 16) is an American drama series that aired on NBC during the 1977–1978 season. Protagonist James Hunter is the son of a college professor who has moved his family across the country to take a teaching job, transplanting James from Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts. James has a hard time fitting into his new surroundings.
James at 16
Spencer's Pilots is an American adventure series that aired on CBS from September 17 to November 19, 1976. The series stars Gene Evans as Spencer Parish, the owner of Spencer Aviation.