Will Mackenzie

In his three-and-a-half-hour interview, Will Mackenzie speaks about his early television guest appearances, his voice-over work in commercials, and his part in Broadway's Hello Dolly! He looks back on landing a semi-regular role on The Bob Newhart Show as the husband of "Carol" (Marcia Wallace). He describes his transition into directing for television, which began with a single episode of The Bob Newhart Show, an opportunity he was given by MTM Productions head Grant Tinker. He talks about his work on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati and how the series launched the careers of Loni Anderson and Howard Hesseman. Mackenzie gives his impressions of the chemistry between the leads of Bosom Buddies, for which he served as a season-one director. He recounts a story of a one-shot directorial job on Taxi. He expresses his difficulty in working with Nell Carter on Gimme a Break!, and how she won him over with a rendition of "Amazing Grace.” He speaks in great detail about his long tenure on the sitcom Family Ties, and he comments on each of the main cast members, discusses Michael J. Fox's rise to stardom, and recalls memorable episodes (including the dramatic "A, My Name Is Alex," in which Fox's "Alex P. Keaton" has to deal with a friend's death). He recounts working with the cast and crew of Moonlighting and his direction of one of the series' most well-known episodes, the Taming of the Shrew-inspired, "Atomic Shakespeare." He then talks about his work as the main director of the early episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond and his long tenure as the main series director on Reba McIntire's sitcom Reba. Other series Mackenzie discusses include Newhart and Scrubs (for which he directed, among others, an Emmy-nominated musical episode). Finally, he speaks about his career mentors (actor Barnard Hughes, among others along the way) and some of the pilots he worked on that he felt should have gone to series, including an adaptation of Driving Miss Daisy. Gary Rutkowski conducted the interview on March 7, 2008 in Sherman Oaks, CA.