Richard Sarafian, director of TV spy shows, dies at 83

A true talent that the likes of Hollywood is rare to have been blessed with given all the schlock in the business.
“Home To Judgement” may be my most favorite piece of episodic television, certainly my number one “I Spy” episode. The opening images of Scott and Robinson, coming over those hills all broken and beaten but defiant, is one I think of often in connection with that show.
Robert Culp may have written that episode, and did a fine job, but Sarafian certainly applied a fine chisel that sculpted the work.

The Spy Command

Richard C. Sarafian, who directed episodes of 1960s spy television shows, died Sept. 18, according to AN OBITUARY POSTED BY VARIETY.

Sarafian directed the 1965 pilot for The Wild, Wild West, which combined spies with the Wild West. Star Robert Conrad, in a commentary track for the first-season DVD set, said that pilot, The Night of the Inferno, was expensive by mid-1960s standards. The Sarafian-directed episode sold the series and the director returned for one more first-season installment.

Sarafian also helmed EIGHT EPISODES of the 1965-68 I Spy, starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, which was probably took the darkest take among ’60s spy shows. His final work on the series was the 1968 episode Home to Judgment, which had a plot SIMILAR TO THE 2012 007 MOVIE SKYFALL.

In the 1970s, Sarafian got the chance to direct some feature films, including Vanishing Point and THE NEXT…

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