Joan Darling's comedy gives the listener time to react, and often finds the laugh there. We value her most as an ensemble director, able to accommodate feeling without interrupting the joke.
Fi1m perspective
A remark lands, and the person hearing it gets a moment before the next line arrives. That is one of the pleasures of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970), and a useful place to look for Joan Darling's skill. We laughed because there was time to notice how a remark had affected its listener. The direction keeps those exchanges clear, so the joke can involve more than the performer delivering it.
Darling came to directing from acting, and her work with performers is central to what we value in her comedy. In 1975 she began directing under producer Norman Lear on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, helping establish the satirical soap's tone. Her The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode 'Chuckles Bites the Dust' (1975) shows how well she can keep an ensemble funny while allowing the feelings to matter. That suits a director who pays attention to how people receive a line, rather than treating their reactions as gaps to be filled.
Her MASH episode 'The Nurses' (1976) also handles sensitive material within a sitcom. The move into features came with First Love* (1977), while television work continued through the 1980s and 1990s. We see no reason to regard the feature debut as a promotion. Giving actors the right amount of time, and keeping an exchange clear, are substantial directing skills even when the result occupies only a short episode.
Some of the broader jokes in The Mary Tyler Moore Show have dated, however carefully they are delivered. Nor should we give Darling sole credit for a programme whose directors also included Jay Sandrich, and whose writing and ensemble do so much. At 25 minutes, an episode still gives a reaction time to register without making every encounter a major event. That patience is a large part of why we recommend the programme, despite the occasional broad joke that no amount of care can rescue. Start there, and keep an eye on the person who is not speaking.
Biography
Joan Darling (née Kugell) is an American actress and television and film director. Born on 14 April 1935 in Boston, Massachusetts, she began her career with the New York improvisational theatre troupe the Premise Players before moving into off-Broadway and Broadway productions. She made her feature film acting debut in 1964 and later appeared as a series regular on the television drama Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law.
Darling became one of the first women to direct regularly for American television. Her credits include the pilot and multiple episodes of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, the episode 'Chuckles Bites the Dust' of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (for which she received an Emmy nomination), and episodes of MAS*H, Rhoda, Taxi, Magnum, P.I. and Doogie Howser, M.D. She also directed the feature film First Love (1977) and received four Emmy nominations for directing, the first woman to be nominated in the category. She has worked as an acting teacher and creative advisor at the Sundance Institute.
