Irving J. Moore

Irving Joseph Moore (April 7, 1919 – July 2, 1993) was an American television director originally from Chicago, Illinois. He was known primarily for work in two nighttime soap operas, Dallas and Dynasty as well as segments of such other series as Gunsmoke and Eight Is Enough.^[1]

Career

Moore launched his Hollywood career as a messenger on the Columbia Studios lot and worked his way to assistant director and then to director. His first directing was done on the old western series Tales of the Texas Rangers.^[2] He also directed episodes during the late 1950s on the sets of two ABC/Warner Brothers westerns, Cheyenne and Sugarfoot, starring Clint Walker and Will Hutchins, respectively. In 1960, he directed six episodes of Mike Connors's CBS detective series Tightrope. He directed various episodes of ABC's Surfside 6, including the 1960 premiere episode "Country Gentleman" and the second episode of the second season, "The Wedding Guest." Similarly, he directed a few segments of another ABC/WB production, 77 Sunset Strip. In 1961, Moore worked on three episodes of ABC's The Roaring Twenties, starring Dorothy Provine and Mike Road.

In the 1963-1964 television season, Moore directed three episodes of Jeffrey Hunter's unsuccessful NBC western series, Temple Houston, loosely based on the legal career of Temple Lea Houston, the youngest son of Sam Houston. Robert Totten, his directing colleague from Gunsmoke, worked on four Temple Houston episodes.^[3]

In 1966 to 1967, he directed three segments of NBC's western Laredo, a spin-off from The Virginian and starring William Smith and Peter Brown, a light-hearted look at a company of Texas Rangers in the border city of Laredo, Texas. From 1965 to 1969, Moore directed twenty-six episodes of Robert Conrad's unconventional drama with a western setting, The Wild Wild West. From 1966-1974, he directed fourteen Gunsmoke episodes, his last having been the segment named, prophetically, "Like Old Times". He also directed episodes of the short-lived 1974 Gunsmoke spin-off Dirty Sally, starring Jeanette Nolan. From 1974-1975, Moore directed ten episodes of NBC's Petrocelli, with Barry Newman in the title role.^[4] In the late 1970s, he directed NBC's The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.^[1]

From 1977-1981, Moore directed fifteen segments of Dick Van Patten's hour-long family drama/comedy, Eight Is Enough, the last having been "The Last Little Telethon in Sacramento". From 1978-1991, he directed fifty-two segments of Dallas, his last having been "Designing Women." His best known directing on Dallas was the 1980 episode, "A House Divided", better known for the advertising campaign, "Who shot J. R.?", a cliffhanger segment which caused viewers through the summer to guess at the culprit who attacked the detested J. R. Ewing, the Larry Hagman character.^[5]

From 1981-1988, Moore directed fifty-eight episodes of Dynasty, the last having been "A Touch of Sable". He also handled duties of one or a few episodes of such programs as James Arness's other western, How the West Was Won and Walter Brennan's The Guns of Will Sonnett, both on ABC, and CBS's The Doris Day Show, The Andros Targets, and Lou Grant.^[4]

In 1983, Moore directed the television movie, Making of a Male Model, starring Jon Erik Hexum and Joan Collins, who played Alexis Carrington on Dynasty.^[1]

In 1991, Moore's final directing credit was the four-hour ABC miniseries revival of the Carrington clan of "Dynasty."^[1]

Moore died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-four in Sherman Oaks, California.^[2]

References