Greg Garrison

Greg Garrison was the very definition of a successful television director in the 1950s-60s. Breaking into live TV in the late 1940s directing Milton Berle on his wildly popular The Buick Circus Hour (1952) (AKA "Texaco Star Theater"), Garrison quickly learned the mechanics of fast-paced production, lessons learned in the frenetic world of live TV could would be well applied to taped production, decades later. His career seldom ventured away from the one-eyed monster, he directed a few game shows at ABC (on the short-lived, Bon Voyage (1949) and 1949's Ladies Be Seated (1949)) and CBS (a 1949 game show, Majority Rules (1949)) but had much greater success working on NBC within the now-defunct variety show format. He enjoyed his first extended taste of success with that network's The Kate Smith Hour (1950), which enjoyed a 5-season run into 1954. He was one of 6 rotating directors on John Forsythe's popular Bachelor Father (1957) (running through CBS, NBC and ABC, throughout its 1957-62 production history!) and dabbled in a couple of low-budget feature films that went nowhere at the box office; television was clearly his métier. Garrison also holds the distinction of having directed one of the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debates, setting a standard for the political electoral process that continues to this day. But to anyone in the industry old enough to remember, his name was most closely associated with superstar Dean Martin. Garrison worked with the singer/actor almost exclusively after 1965 (eventually earning a much deserved producer credit) and is largely responsible for the show's enormous success; somewhat of a miracle due to the star's contractual restrictions he worked under. Martin never rehearsed with guest stars; camera set-ups and blockings were done on Saturdays without the star and the actual shooting schedule was limited to Sundays (with Martin frequently departing the set before the taping was completed!). Garrison believed that his #1 function was to keep the show's principal star happy at all costs (perhaps his best contemporary likeness is Rip Torn's character, "Arthur" on The Larry Sanders Show (1992)) and he employed overbooking as a means to replace guest stars and lesser acts should they balk. Guest stars who learned to work within these unique restrictions enjoyed frequent encore appearances, those that didn't weren't seen with Dean on TV again. His directorial approach and handling of the laid-back Martin, who often blew lines and ad-libbed out of necessity, only made the show more endearing to audiences. Garrison required guest stars to rehearse with stand-ins (often himself and choreographer Lee Hale) and would seldom tolerate dissent. Making it look easy was hard work but Garrison also understood the importance of surrounding himself with high caliber of production talent and ran each production with speed and precision. His office at NBC was relatively shabby; he was rarely there, preferring to spend his time more effectively on the set. As The Dean Martin Show (1965) progressed and morphed into a roast format, the star gradually grew somewhat sluggish. Garrison responded by cleverly editing Martin's reaction shots from older shows (made easier since the star typically wore a tuxedo and shots could easily be edited in) into the later installments. He eventually became part-owner of the show and owned a large percentage of Martin's "Roasts", which proved extremely lucrative in his later years once it was made available on DVD; those roast infomercials --- still being shown on late-night cable courtesy of Guthy-Reiker as of late 2007-- made Greg Garrison millions in his retirement. This prototypical production icon died at age 81 of pneumonia on March 25, 2005.