Harold Gurnee (born January 25, 1925, in New York, New York) is an American television director whose career stretched from the 1960s (directing episodes of ''

The Tonight Show ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has been broadcast on NBC since 1954. The program has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2 ...

'' during the

Jack Paar Jack Harold Paar (May 1, 1918 – January 27, 2004) was an American talk show host, writer, radio and television comedian, and film actor. He was the second host of ''The Tonight Show'' from 1957 to 1962. ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine's ob ...

era, through the early 2000s (directing episodes of '' The Man Show''). However, he's best remembered for having directed all of the television shows hosted by

David Letterman David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer, and auto racing team owner. He hosted late-night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut of ''Late N ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

during the 1980s and '90s. Gurnee directed the NBC daytime program ''

The David Letterman Show ''The David Letterman Show'' is an American morning talk show that was hosted by David Letterman on NBC. It originally aired from June 23 to October 24, 1980. Originally, the series lasted 90 minutes, then 60 minutes from August 4 onward. Bac ...

'', then moved with Letterman to ''

Late Night with David Letterman ''Late Night with David Letterman'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the first installment of the '' Late Night''. Hosted by David Letterman, it aired from February1, 1982 to June 25, 1993, and was replaced by ...

'' in 1982. By his own account, Gurnee (then in his late 50s) was preparing to retire when Letterman approached him to direct his show; Gurnee stayed with Letterman for 15 years. Gurnee himself would often be heard or appear on the show, when Letterman would call on him in the control room to facilitate a comedy segment. When introducing him, Letterman would deliberately stumble over and mispronounce his last name (e.g., "Hal Gurtner...Gurnter"), or confuse him with

Dan Gurney Daniel Sexton Gurney (April 13, 1931 – January 14, 2018) was an American racing driver, engineer and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of motorspo ...

(e.g. "Hal... our Emmy award winning director and legendary race car driver"). When Letterman moved to CBS in 1993, Gurnee followed him to direct the ''

Late Show with David Letterman ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production com ...

'', and remained its director and supervising producer from 1993 to 1995. He retired from the Late Show at this time, but still took occasional directing assignments elsewhere.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurnee, Hal American television directors 1925 births Living people Television personalities from New York City