Norman Tokar
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Norman Tokar (November 25, 1919 in Newark, New Jersey - April 6, 1979 in Hollywood) was a prolific director (and occasionally writer and producer) of serial television and feature films, who directed many of the early episodes of Leave it to Beaver, and found his greatest success directing over a dozen films for Walt Disney Productions, spanning the 1950s to 1970s.
Mr. Tokar’s success working with the juvenile actors on Leave it to Beaver encouraged Walt Disney to hire him to direct family features for his studio, which frequently used children in key roles. The Disney Studio under the control of Walt Disney until his death in 1966, and then led by Ron W. Miller (Disney’s son-in-law), fell into specific formulas that were developed in the late 1950’s, perfected in the 1960s and then struggled through the 1970’s as what had been formula began to tend toward the formulaic.
Tokar arrived on the Disney lot in the early 1960s as Walt Disney was at the peak of his influence as the standard bearer of family entertainment. His first feature film assignment was the Western adventure Big Red (1962) which was followed in quick succession by the Old Yeller sequel Savage Sam (1963) and Those Calloways (1965). All three of these films were set in early rural America and featured young protagonists - a key feature and formula for live-action Disney films of the era. All three films were met with respectful reviews and box office, but none could compare or compete with the juggernaut of 1964’s musical spectacular Mary Poppins, the most successful Disney live-action feature to date.
With 1967’s The Happiest Millionaire Tokar had his opportunity for a runaway hit, as the studio poised it to follow the success of Mary Poppins, but it was not to be. Originally intended to be a “road show” attraction, playing in large-scale urban theatres complete with an overture and intermission it had an original running time of almost three hours. It was not well received and suffered greatly from comparisons to Mary Poppins (a problem that would plague all of The Disney Studio’s live-action musicals well into the 1970s), though a few critics found it rather charming. After its initial showings, it was trimmed to 144 minutes for a run as the Christmas attraction at Radio City Music Hall, and then eventually cut to 118 minutes for showings at small, neighborhood theatres.
The Happiest Millionaire also was the last live-action film that Walt Disney worked on personally, and Tokar continued working for the studio that bore the Disney name, but seemed to be losing the Disney touch for over a decade, adding several trademark “gimmick comedies” to his resume. In a typical Disney Studio gimmick comedy, a supernatural force and/or wild slapstick situations invade an otherwise typical milieu, these began with the early successes The Shaggy Dog (1959) and The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and were a staple of the studio’s output (along with the aforementioned rustic dramas) into the early 1980s. Tokar directed such comedies as The Ugly Dachshund (1966), The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit (1968), The Boatniks (1970) and Snowball Express (1972). These films, like Tokar’s earlier efforts all met with reasonable acclaim and box-office revenue but were eclipsed by The Disney Studio’s biggest live-action hit since Mary Poppins (and also the top-grossing movie of 1969), the gimmick comedy The Love Bug, which like Mary Poppins was directed by Robert Stevenson, the most prolific and successful director in the history of The Disney Studio. The Disney Studio tended to use the same producers, directors, writers, designers and actors repeatedly; Mr. Stevenson could be considered the “first-string” director with Mr. Tokar a pace behind making films of almost imperceptible difference in quality, but frequently missing the mark of directing a film that was hugely successful.
Throughout his career, Tokar was renowned for his ability to work quickly and within budget and schedule (virtues learned from his television career) and also had the opportunity direct several high-profile actors of renown, such as Helen Hayes in Candleshoe (1977), Fred McMurray in The Happiest Millionaire and Follow Me, Boys! (1966, also featuring a young Kurt Russell), and David Niven in Candleshoe and No Deposit, No Return (1976). He also helped revitalize the stalled career of comedian Don Knotts in The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975), which was a huge box office and critical success and the pinnacle of Tokar’s career at The Disney Studio.
At the time of his last feature, The Cat From Outer Space (1978), the Disney Studio’s domain over the family film had waned as other studios took advantage of the stagnant creativity grown from too many years and too many films utilizing the same formulas. Also, the sweeping social changes of the era had changed public tastes drastically, and the name “Disney” no longer held the cachet it had during Walt Disney’s heyday. Tokar even found himself directing Where the Red Fern Grows (1974), which one could easily mistake for a Disney production of that era, though it was produced by another studio.
Norman Tokar also directed and wrote for many television series, including Colgate Theatre, Naked City, M*A*S*H, and countless episodes of the Disney Television anthology series (under various names, Disneyland, Wonderful World of Color, Wonderful World of Disney, etc.).
