10 Promising & Big-Name Directors Who Turned To The Small Screen

These days, it appears the whole system is upside down. Time was, you put in your hard years earning director's guild credits working your way up through television until you eventually land a plumb gig directing a feature. There was no room for the arty, independent filmmaker in the era of three networks and a few successful studios. Directors like John Frankenheimer proved their worth on the likes of Playhouse 90 before moving on to features as wide-ranging as The Manchurian Candidate to Ronin.

Part of the reason Frankenheimer was such a solid action director was that he had worked in television when the medium meant tighter shooting schedules and smaller budgets. He knew how to prioritize - the precise reason they brought him on board to salvage what they could of Richard Stanley's notoriously troubled The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Today, however, well-known filmmakers who found their way into the system via other means (including Roger Corman) are flocking to the new generation of television - some surprisingly embracing the new streaming models. While other indie directors, their flagship film failing to gain ground, have been relegated to single-camera sitcom television.

Either way, here are some names you may notice popping up in the credits of your favourite shows. Some have been there for years, some are new arrivals seeking refuge from a broken studio system.

You've probably seen the name Ted Kotcheff more times than you even realize. For true cinephiles, he's the director of First Blood, the surprisingly thoughtful, harrowing tale of John Rambo's PTSD after coming back from Vietnam. But to anyone who has ever zoned out in front of a Law & Order marathon (and we're assuming everyone has done this at least once in their life, if not nightly), he's the name under the "Executive Producer" credit.

Kotcheff is a Canadian filmmaker who moved to England to direct British television before returning to his country to helm The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordechai Richler's Montreal-centric novel about a young Richard Dreyfuss trying to make it on his own. When Dreyfuss saw his performance, he was so mortified he jumped at the role of Matt Hooper in Jaws, fearing he had killed his career.

Kravitz, nonetheless, remains a landmark in Canadian film history, being the most successful of its time. But even those unfamiliar with Canuck cinema will know his other major features other than First Blood including the 80s corpse comedy Weekend at Bernie's and Fun With Dick and Jane.

Last year at Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival, he was awarded a lifetime achievement award, though most of his later work has been producing television, notably the aforementioned Law & Order and its spinoffs and