Vincent McEveety was a resourceful television director whose practical strengths left room for experiment. We value his contribution to Star Trek and The Fugitive, without mistaking either programme for one director's achievement.
Fi1m perspective
In 'Spectre of the Gun', the abstract sets are the attraction. Vincent McEveety's inventive camera work makes them worth watching in their own right. One of his six episodes of Star Trek (1966), it shows a practical television director willing to experiment inside an established programme. We value that willingness in someone whose work was largely in westerns, science fiction and mysteries, where keeping the familiar format running was already a substantial part of the job.
We warmed to Star Trek because William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley make its hopeful outlook persuasive even when the moral lessons become blunt. Their disagreements are a pleasure to watch. McEveety deserves a share of the credit, though six episodes cannot make him responsible for everything the series does well or badly. The same caution applies to The Fugitive (1963), whose appeal depends heavily on David Janssen's convincing weariness. We recommend both programmes, with patience for the repeated predicaments and sometimes over-insistent narration of The Fugitive.
His work on Gunsmoke ran from 1965 to 1975, and handling large casts reliably was one of his strengths. The features took him from the western Firecreek (1968), with James Stewart and Henry Fonda, to Disney family comedy with Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977). These films broaden the list without displacing television as the centre of his reputation.
His later detective work brought him to Columbo in the 1990s, directing seven episodes and working as a producer, with Peter Falk among his collaborators. Murder, She Wrote and Diagnosis: Murder also figure in that later stretch. The dependable director deserves respect, but dependability alone is a modest reason to revisit a programme. If 'television craftsman' sounds like faint praise, start with 'Spectre of the Gun'.
Biography
Vincent McEveety (also credited as Vince McEveety) was an American film and television director and producer. Born in Los Angeles in 1929, he began his career as an assistant director in the late 1950s on series including Zorro and The Untouchables before moving into directing.
He directed six episodes of the original Star Trek series (1966) and episodes of The Fugitive (1963), as well as numerous other television programmes such as Gunsmoke, Columbo (for which he also served as producer), Murder, She Wrote, Magnum, P.I. and Diagnosis: Murder. His feature film work included several Walt Disney productions, among them Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) and Herbie Goes Bananas (1980). McEveety remained active until 2000 and died in Los Angeles in 2018.
