# Roger Director (writer / producer, Hill St. Blues, Moonlighting)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290/roger-director-writer-producer-hill-st-blues-moonlighting
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290/roger-director-writer-producer-hill-st-blues-moonlighting.md
Podcast: [Ian Talks Comedy](https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290)
Published: 2025-12-20T14:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ian-fermaglich/episodes/Roger-Director-writer--producer--Hill-St--Blues--Moonlighting-e3cgqr3
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/21d579e4/podcast/play/112797987/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-11-18%2F6e5530a2-e1f9-fe95-9af1-1056cadcb41c.mp3
Processing state: processed
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ian-talks-comedy-140290/episodes/roger-director-writer-producer-hill-st-blues-moonlighting
Duration seconds: 3297

## Resource

Roger Director discusses his last name; how TV is the writers medium; growing up in East Rockaway inhaling DDT; like to tell stories economically so went into journalism; covering a house fire on Guy Lombardo Blvd, jazzed him up; writing a term paper on Lenny Bruce; decided to get a job instead of more education; created Stretch the Limo Driver for Vanity Fair; Sport Magazine; friend suggests him to Steven Bocho; writes a spec Bay City Blues and gets hired; Bay City cancelled and goes to Hill Street Blues; Michael Conrad still on show; his roll call was a great way to hook in audiences; writes poem that is Estherhaus' epitaph; stories were outlined on index cards, given to writers, then polish and assembled into an episode; favorite character was Howard Hunter; mine is Belker; changed TV; Bochco writes about human condition so there's humor in the episodes; going from newspapers to Emmys in year; doesn't remember being Michael O'Donoghue's Silverman leak; did a year profiling Tim Hutton; Knicks v. Lakers fandom; NY Football Giants; going to Moonlighting; pilot go to him; show had no parameters; having crazy ideas and using them; breaking the fourth wall; Rona Barrett clip show; Camille episode with Whoopi Goldberg and slapstick ending; Maddie gets married, America outraged; creating Herbert Viola to be David's sidekick; Charles Rocket; Eva Marie Saint asks for a line reading; working with Orson Welles &Stanley Donnen; writing with Mel Brooks on Mad About You; his new novel, Killing in Havana; writing a roman a clef about his career; writing a book about the 2006 champion NY Giants; liking women's soccer; being a Mets and Yankees fan; working with Charles Floyd Johnson on NCIS; Arliss; working on a show for "people who don't watch televison"

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ian-talks-comedy-140290/episodes/roger-director-writer-producer-hill-st-blues-moonlighting/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290/roger-director-writer-producer-hill-st-blues-moonlighting.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.