Alan Rafkin has been directing television sitcoms almost since television sitcoms began. He started in the '60s with shows like Get Smart, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Donna Reed Show, and has been working ever since, most recently on Suddenly Susan and Veronica's Closet. In between, Rafkin, has directed more than 80 series, including Bewitched, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, That Girl, M*A*S*H*, Murphy Brown, Alice, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, and Coach, to name but a few. He has been nominated for four Emmy awards, winning one for One Day at a Time. Never one to rest on laurels, Rafkin has just published his autobiography, Cue the Bunny on the Rainbow: Tales From TV's Most Prolific Sitcom Director.
I had the opportunity to share lunch with Rafkin at Hugo's in Hollywood. Now into his 70s, he bursts with life and energy. It's no wonder that some of our history's most cherished television comedies are his life's work.
Back Stage West: In your book Cue the Bunny on the Rainbow, you said something along the lines, "Without directing I don't exist."
Alan Rafkin: I was like a junkie. For many years, if I wasn't directing, I wasn't anybody. That was my own insecurity. The rest of my life, politely put, stunk. I put everything I had into directing because that was safe and I was the boss. I was in charge. My marriages fell apart one by one, though I had these two wonderful children and that helped balance me somewhat. I was so tilted toward making the people I worked with my family. Every morning I went to work and I gave a lot of myself personally. Some people would reciprocate, but when it was over, it was over, and I was at square one.
BSW: It sounds like you were constantly recreating family every time you had a job.
Rafkin: Absolutely! When I started in this business I worked with Sheldon Leonard, who just recently passed away. I don't think he ever knew that he was my surrogate father. Once, when I was directing Make Room for Daddy, he chastised me in front of the crew, which is just bad form. He didn't know how much he hurt me, because that was my daddy doing that. That night, I snubbed him at a dinner party and I didn't work for eight months because we all had the same agent, William Morris, and they cared more about Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard than they did about Alan Rafkin.
So the point is, I ended up hurting myself because I thought of a business relationship as family. The thing is, when you pick these people as your family‹these producers, writers, and mostly the actors‹they may not know that. They don't know that you're thinking of them as family and perhaps they don't care. So you're living in a kind of one-sided family cocoon. And when you've done as many shows as I've done and you go from show to show, you start to feel like somebody who goes from foster home to foster home. You can't make it personal.
BSW: Let's talk about auditioning. When you look for day roles and guest stars, what kind of actors do you look for other than, of course, the talented kind?
Rafkin: Well, you know the clich is absolutely true: one bad apple ruins the barrel. Other than talented, I want an actor who's thrilled to be there. Don't come on the set as if you're doing me a favor. I don't want to feel that you'd rather be doing ER or Shakespeare. I want you thrilled to be working on this show. That goes for my regulars, too. A regular on a show who doesn't want to be there drags everybody else down with them. Those tend to be the people who either have a lot of emotional baggage or are just self-destructive. Believe it or not, I've worked with a lot of actors who are more comfortable out of work than in it.
BSW: It used to be that when an actor auditioned, the director would offer tips and work with the actor. That seldom happens now. Do you take the time to direct actors at auditions?
Rafkin: I'm ashamed to admit it, but I will usually have an hour before rehearsal to do casting. It may be Monday and I need to cast three actors for Tuesday. I have one hour to see 35 or 40 actors, so logistically, there's just not enough time. I'm not trying to get myself off the hook, because I think it should be done differently. If I sense something in someone I will stop and offer direction but to tell you the truth, nine times out of 10, the person who gets hired is the person who knocks my socks off and gives me something that I didn't expect. If they can do that, I don't care who they are or what's on their resum .
BSW: Speaking of resum s, you have an amazing one. It goes straight from the '60s to the '90s.
Rafkin: I'm gonna do one show in the year 2000, so I can say I've done five decades!
BSW: Has the style of sitcom acting changed dramatically over that amount of time?
Rafkin: There are some very good sitcoms out there but, as has always been the case, there's also a lot of trash. If I were African American, I would be so insulted by some of the shows on UPN or WB. There are shows that are just atrocious and offensive and they perpetuate negative stereotypes. The same is true of what Fran Drescher does on The Nanny. It's offensive and it makes me ill.
Now, they don't even give you a chance to find an audience. If you don't make it in the first six weeks, you'll be canceled and they'll replace you with a mid-season replacement that was worse than what they dumped. As Groucho Marx said, "It's a treadmill to oblivion."
BSW: Many casting directors have said that the best thing an actor can do in an audition is come in and be themselves. Do you agree?
Rafkin: Well, I don't think being yourself works. That's not acting. Actors have the ability to change parts and be different things. I mean, look at Sid Caesar‹the man can't put two words together as himself but when he performs he's brilliant! If you've ever watched his old television show, when he was out of character and was introducing the cast, it was painful.
BSW: Do you have any advice for actors who want to make it in sitcoms in this day and age?
Rafkin: Be a very funny standup. You know, there are very few good "actor actors" who get leads in the series today. Linda Lavin is doing that show, Conrad Bloom, but she's in the minority. The people who have the easiest time making it are the standups. Somebody from CBS goes into the Comedy Store, sees a performer who makes everybody fall down with laughter, and boom: You have Ray Romano and Sue Costello and people like that doing their own shows. If you're a 25-year-old man or woman coming from an acting background, you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than landing the lead in a comedy series. I mean, it's not my job to take the wind out of anybody's sails, but be realistic. You've got a much better chance at a recurring or steady role on somebody else's sitcom.
BSW: You've also directed features. Can you talk about the difference between the media?
Rafkin: I can give you a good example. I directed Don Knotts for two years on The Andy Griffith Show and then he and I left to go to under contract at Universal. We were doing a feature together and instead of yelling "Cut! Print! Ship it!," I could sit with Don and say, "Did you get everything you wanted out of that?" There was just more time. Film was so much more relaxed.
BSW: Do you have any advice for those actors who put their lives on hold until their careers take off?
Rafkin: I understand that, and it can be very frustrating. I can almost tell when an actor or actress comes in my office and they're over a certain age, maybe 34, and you can see that they're almost starting to say, "What have I done? I've given up everything and I'm still out here auditioning. I'm not working a lot and my career is not really a career," and that's sad. You can almost see it in a person's face.
BSW: Is there an answer?
Rafkin: Yeah, but it would have to come from a therapist. What I can offer is that if you put your life on hold, you can find yourself cheated. I've had some disappointment, and it can crush you. Well, it shouldn't crush you. It certainly is a disappointment, but if you can have other stuff that's out there‹a relationship, children, another interest‹that can save you. I'm just having it now, in my 70s. And you know what? Better late than never. BSW