10 Things Didn't Know About Night Of The Living Dead
4. Romero’s Feature-Length Directorial Debut
The man went on to the direct all five sequels to Night, serving up Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. He also has directorial credits for classics such as The Crazies, Creepshow and The Dark Half, but as for feature-length movies, it all started for Romero with Night of the Living Dead.
Before his big break in 1968, George mostly worked in commercials and industrial training and safety videos. In 1959 he worked on the set of Doris Day comedy It Happened to Jane and Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. He was later critical of what he saw of Hitchcock’s style, saying it seemed passionless and mechanical.
His first paid directing gig came in children’s television. He was hired to make short films to be shown on the very wholesome Mister Rogers’ Neighbourhood, a show that ran from 1968 to 2001. This could mean that the children he entertained with his films on that show would have been growing into adulthood around the time Dawn of the Dead was released.