September 23, 2021
Directors Guild of America President Lesli Linka Glatter made the following statement upon learning of the passing of Jay Sandrich:
“Our hearts are heavy today as we mourn the loss of a legend among legends. Jay Sandrich was the godfather of sitcoms – making his mark on all of his series and eliciting some of the best comedic performances in TV history. His prolific, award-winning body of work reads like a ‘Best Of’ list across five decades, from the hundreds of episodes he directed of such classics including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Soap, The Cosby Show, and The Golden Girls – back to The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy where he cut his teeth as an assistant director. An enormous and generous mentor to so many who themselves went on to achieve greatness, Jay was always willing to help budding directors and blazed the trail far and wide for everyone to follow. As the son of past DGA president Mark Sandrich, fighting for the rights of members was in Jay’s blood, and he always battled to ensure the director’s vision was protected. We were lucky to have benefited from his numerous contributions to Guild service spanning our National Board, Western Directors Council and the Directors Guild Foundation. We will miss Jay tremendously. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
DGA Service and Awards
A DGA member since 1952, Sandrich’s Guild service includes two terms as an alternate on the DGA National Board, six terms as either a member or alternate on the Western Directors Council, and he also served four terms as an alternate on the Directors Guild Foundation Committee.
Sandrich received two DGA Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series: for his pilot episodes of The Cosby Show in 1985 and The Golden Girls in 1986; and was nominated in that category for episodes of Soap and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He also received a DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical/Variety for The Lily Tomlin Special in 1976.
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