INT: So the pros, the good things and the bad things about directing?
SB: Every time I look at the want ad papers and I say, "What else could I do?" There's nothing else. I love directing. I've loved it from the day I started, and I'm just as passionate about it today as I was then. The big thing that I love about it, it is my family. Even though I'm married, I have kids, now I've got a couple of grandkids, I miss the daily family of going to work and hanging out with all these people that I work with. And they become really friends, you know, I mean, I feel really close to them. [INT: I call it circus people, you know? It's that group of people, production is, can be a pain in the ass, but there's a certain group that love it and the ones who love it and feel the camaraderie, it's like going through war together.] What I have learned is you never ask a camera person if they can do something verbally. When I first started directing I'd see a doorway and I'd see a big pedestal on my camera and I'd say, "Will that pedestal fit through that door?" Inevitably they'd say, "No." Then one day I wised up and said, "Dolly that pedestal into that door and if it gets jammed I won't use that shot but if it goes through I'm gonna use it." You know?

INT: And what are the nightmares of directing?
SB: There's a great pamphlet of a speech that Elia Kazan made that is owned by the Directors Guild [Directors Guild of America, DGA] it was, I think it was at Weimar College [Wesleyan University, Connecticut] or something and it's called, "What is a Director?"[ELIA KAZAN ON WHAT MAKES A DIRECTOR] It's a textbook for me in class because you can't just do it because it's a job, you're making money, you get to, you know, tell people you're a Director, and so forth. It's tough. You have to have legs of steel. You're the first one there, the last one to leave. And you give up a lot of things in your life for directing. But it's something that I've never, I've never resented anything about it. The tougher the job, if we accomplish it, the more satisfaction. And I feel that way about the crew. The crew may moan and groan because you're asking them to do something that takes a little bit of extra effort, you know, they have to work a little harder, whatever, but when you do it, they're the first ones to say we did it, you know? [INT: The process of ego in directing. I mean camaraderie, the sense of sharing, the sense of collaboration. But is there a certain sense that, yeah, that's my vision?] Definitely. I feel, you know, ego is something that I haven't really had to deal with a lot because I've, you know, I'm pretty low key. I'm not a screamer, I'm not a yeller on the set. You know, I'm calm during crises. But I also feel, that when something happens, and somebody is throwing a tantrum, a star, whatever, it's like Diana Ross, you know? If she throws a fit and she's been known to do one once in awhile, I'll say, "Did you used to do that in the Brewster Projects [Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects]?" To remind them where, I mean we're lucky to be in this business and pick up a paycheck. And I've said, and I say it in jest but it's the truth, "And they pay me to do this?" You know, I love it.

INT: Got it? Good. Steve, thanks. [SB: Sure. Thank you Taylor.] I think that anybody watching this, you know, we've got real experience here, you know? Somebody who kind of, like I love the fact that you came into the business like me. I had no show business legacies, you know, what the hell are we doing here? Because we love it. And the sense that you've evolved, and discovered, and experimented. And today on television, every single day, I mean shows that you see that are the biggest shows on TV, you know, late night, everything else, they're using techniques that you developed. They're using techniques that they think, you know, that even the audiences, have seen and they're kind of reacting in certain ways, they're reacting to shows that you've developed and they've learned. So that's gotta be a fine feeling.
SB: There is, you know, I appreciate what you're saying, but there's an advantage to doing film and one camera set-ups and so forth, I mean in terms of the art of directing and I've been fortunate. I haven't done as much as I've wanted to do, but I've done it. And it's like, you know, if you're a Director, you can direct any medium. There isn't this, when I first entered the business it was kind of, "Well, are you a film Director, are you a stage Director?" You know? And everything had to have its own language, you know, and I thought those were just put as hurdles to people who wanted to protect their own jobs, they didn't want anybody else to learn it. But it's basically the same, I mean, if you can direct in one medium you should be able to direct in another one. And it's people. I mean it's, you're working with people and you don't have to have all the answers. I mean, I'm the quickest one, especially in THE DANNY KAYE SHOW. That TD [Technical Director], when that incident happened, when Danny Kaye stormed into the control booth, everybody in that booth was expecting me to say, "It's his fault, he did it." You know? And I've been very consciously, and it may be selfish on my part 'cause I know it works, but I'm very fast to compliment people for doing something that they brought me the idea, I'm very fast basically to take responsibility and take blame...