10 TV Episodes You Didn't Know Were Filmed By Famous Hollywood Directors

Because Quentin Tarantino once directed ER, and that in itself is hilarious.

TV directors never seem to get much attention. It's always the writers and showrunners who get the credit €“ people like J.J. Abrams, Aaron Sorkin, Dan Harmon, and Joss Whedon. They're seen as the helmsmen of TV, the ones who keep the ship righted. But directors? It doesn't help that most of the big name directors stick to film. Or so you thought. Actually, famous directors do TV episodes far more often than you'd think. Some got their start there, like Robert Altman with multiple TV shows, including Bonanza and U.S. Marshall, or Steven Spielberg with Marcus Welby, M.D. and Columbo. And, of course, certain directors had pet projects in T.V., like David Lynch's eerily offbeat Twin Peaks. In recent years, in the so-called "Golden Age" of television, more famous directors are coming to the small screen. You think you know them €“ David Fincher defined House of Cards sleek, dark aesthetic from the pilot, Frank Darabont directed and ran The Walking Dead, Judd Apatow directed multiple episodes of Freaks and Geeks, and who can forget Edgar Wright's short lived but brilliant reinvention of the sitcom Spaced? All of these "famous" Hollywood directors all directed episodes or ran whole seasons, or both. Still, there're a lot more out there than you thought. But here are ten episodes of T.V. that you didn't know where directed by famous Hollywood directors.
Contributor
Contributor

Josh is a freelance writer and editor from Vancouver, B.C.