Before I Forget - Directing Television

James Sheldon directed many of the radio and televisions shows that shaped the American consciousness.He directed the original radio version of We The People when it became the first commercial CBS network program to telecast nationally on June 1 1948. Since then he experienced technological changes from live to electronic tape to film from black and white to color and from a few hundred thousand to multi-millions of television sets that in use today.His early live credits include dramatic series such as Robert Montgomery Presents and Studio One; comedies such as Mister Peepers; musicals such as Don Ameche's Holiday Hotel. He was also part of the move from New York to Los Angeles as television production shifted west in the mid-1950s directing The Johnny Carson Show West Point Story Harbor Command and Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater.In the 1960s he directed episodes of 87th Precinct Naked City Route 66 The Millionaire My Three Sons The Twilight Zone Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color and Gunsmoke.In the 1970s he directed episodes of M*A*S*H The Virginian Sanford & Son Rock Hudson's McMillan & Wife and Raymond Burr's Ironsides. In the 1980s he directed episodes of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Cagney & Lacey and The Equalizer.He helped many actors begin their careers including James Dean Paul Newman Dustin Hoffman Gene Hackman Carroll O'Connor Clint Eastwood Burt Reynolds Lee Remick Tony Randall and Tyne Daly.This is his story.