Jay Sandrich

Jay Sandrich was an American television director.

The Interviews remembers Jay Sandrich.

Sandrich began his television work in the mid-1950s as a second assistant director with Desilu Productions, and began his career as an assistant director on I Love Lucy and assistant to the producer on The Andy Griffith Show.

Sandrich has directed and/or produced episodes of Get Smart, Here’s Lucy, The Odd Couple, Laverne & Shirley, Rhoda, Welcome Back, Kotter, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, Soap, Benson, Night Court, and The Cosby Show.

Sandrich was responsible for the series pilots of The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Empty Nest, and The Golden Girls. He also directed several episodes of those shows.

His final credited work as a director on television was an episode of Two and a Half Men in 2003.

In addition to his ten nominations and four Emmys for primetime programming, Sandrich received a Daytime Emmy for directing an episode of Insight in 1984.

Sandrich directed only one theatrical movie: the 1980 film Seems Like Old Times (with Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn).

Jay Sandrich was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2020.  

Sandrich died September 22, 2021, in Los Angeles, California. He was 89.