LOS ANGELES, CA – FEBRUARY 03: DGA Chairman Howard Storm poses in the press room during the 59th annual Directors Guild Of America Awards held at Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on February 3, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
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Howard Storm, a prolific television director who directed episodes for several classic sitcoms including Mork & Mindy, Rhoda and Laverne & Shirley, as well as the Jim Carrey vampire comedy Once Bitten, has died.
Howard Storm’s son, Anthony Storm, told The Hollywood Reporter that his father died on Tuesday of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills. Storm, who also served as chairman of the Directors Guild of America from 1996 to 2012, was 94.
Born Howard Sobel on Dec. 11, 1931, in New York City, Howard Storm began his career as a stand-up comic and earned his first credit as a screen actor in 1959 before transitioning to work as an actor and director in the mid-1970s.
Before making his directorial debut on Season 2 of Valerie Harper’s Mary Tyler Moore spinoff series, Rhoda, in 1975-76, Storm appeared in guest roles in such series as The Untouchables and Love, American Style, The Don Rickles Show and The New Dick Van Dyke Show.
In 1969, Storm played a supporting role in director Woody Allen’s classic crime caper Take the Money and Run, and worked with Allen behind the camera as a crew member on the filmmaker’s comedies Bananas (1971) and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972).
While Storm continued to act, he shifted his emphasis to directing after helming six episodes of Rhoda. Storm directed more than four dozen screen projects from the mid-1970s through 1999, with the longest tenure coming on the Robin Williams and Pam Dawber sitcom Mork & Mindy.
As such, Storm was a director or contributing director on 59 episodes during the first three seasons of Mork & Mindy, from 1978 to 1981. According to THR, Storm once told the TV Academy Foundation, “Directing Mork & Mindy was the most exciting time of my career.”
Prior to his work on the sitcom, Storm directed eight episodes of the hit Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams sitcom Laverne & Shirley, from 1976 to 1978.
LOS ANGELES, CA – FEBRUARY 03: DGA Chairman Howard Storm, presenter Steven Spielberg, director Martin Scorsese, winner of Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Filmn for “The Departed” and DGA National executive Director Jay D. Roth pose in the press room during the 59th annual Directors Guild Of America Awards held at Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on February 3, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
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Howard Storm Directed Jim Carrey In ‘Once Bitten’
Following his work on Mork & Mindy, Howard Storm went on to direct several notable television series, beginning with two episodes of Taxi in 1981.
Storm reteamed with his Rhoda colleague Valerie Harper in the second season of her sitcom Valerie, where he directed 28 episodes in Seasons 2, 3 and 4 from 1986 to 1989.
Prior to his work on Valerie, Storm hopped over to feature films to direct the vampire movie spoof Once Bitten, which starred the then-up-and-comedy actor Jim Carrey opposite Lauren Hutton.
Storm’s other directing credits include episodes of several notable sitcoms, including The Redd Foxx Show, Perfect Strangers, Full House, Mr. Belvedere, Joanie Loves Chachi, Gimme a Break!, Too Close For Comfort, ALF, Major Dad and Everybody Loves Raymond.
Storm last credit as a director was on the Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell Nickelodeon sketch comedy series Kenan and Kel, where he directed four episodes from 1997 t0 1999. Kenan and Kel earned Storm a Directors Guild of America Awards nomintion for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs in 1998.
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