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Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

Russell B. "Russ" Mayberry (22 December 192527 July 2012; age 86) was a former television director born in Duluth, Minnesota. His credits included the Star Trek: The Next Generation first season episode "Code of Honor". Mayberry left the production during filming and was replaced by First Assistant Director Les Landau.

Mayberry directed many episodes of such shows as That Girl, The Brady Bunch, Ironside, Kojak, The Rockford Files, The Equalizer, and In the Heat of the Night. He frequently worked with writer-producer Glen A. Larson, for whom he directed numerous episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man, McCloud, The Fall Guy, and Magnum, P.I., as well as a 1971 episode of Alias Smith and Jones (which guest-starred Paul Fix), two episodes of Manimal (including the pilot, which guest-starring Ed Lauter), and the 1982 television movie Rooster (also featuring Ed Lauter). He also directed for I Dream of Jeannie, Dallas, and Miami Vice, among many others.

In addition to his work on episodic television, Mayberry directed a number of made-for-television movies, including two for Walt Disney and NBC in 1978 – The Young Runaways (with cinematography by Charles F. Wheeler) and The Million Dollar Dixie Delivery (starring Brock Peters) – and many for CBS. He even had a few feature films to his credit: The Jesus Trip (1971) and Walt Disney's The Spaceman and King Arthur (aka Unidentified Flying Oddball) (1979). His last directorial credit was an episode of the Prime Time Entertainment Network series Pointman in 1995.

Mayberry died on 27 July 2012 from a brief illness in at Fort Collins Medical Center in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Other Trek connections[]

In his long career, spanning over seventy different television series and made-for-TV movies across three decades, Mayberry worked with many Star Trek alumni. For example, before working with Alan Oppenheimer on three episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man (on which Oppenheimer was a regular), Mayberry directed him in two episodes of That Girl ("Sue Me, Sue Me, What Can You Do Me?" in 1969 and "Gone-A-Courtin'" in 1970) and a 1971 episode of McCloud entitled "Encounter with Aries", which was written by Peter Allan Fields and also guest-starred Elisha Cook

As the director of thirteen episodes of The Equalizer, Mayberry worked many times with Trek guest actors Robert Lansing and Keith Szarabajka. He also directed the likes of Lori Petty, Saul Rubinek, and Christian Slater on this series; three of the episodes he directed were co-written by Maurice Hurley and one (1986's "Joyride", the episode featuring Slater) was written by Jim Trombetta. Outside of The Next Generation, however, Mayberry worked with only one actor who became a regular cast member on a Star Trek series: Robert Beltran, who played Chakotay on Star Trek: Voyager. Mayberry directed Beltran, as well as Trek guest actor Sherman Howard, in a two-part Miami Vice episode called "Freefall", which aired in May 1989.

Among the other projects which teamed him with fellow Trek alumni are:

  • The Monkees episode "The Monkees at the Movies" (1967, guest-starring Hamilton Camp)
  • The Monkees episode "The Monkees in Manhattan" (1967, guest-starring Susan Howard)
  • The Second Hundred Years episode "Lucky Luke" (1968, guest-starring Monte Markham)
  • McCloud episode "Manhattan Manhunt, Part 2: The Stage Is All the World" (1970, starring Diana Muldaur)
  • McCloud episode "Encounter with Aries" (1971, guest-starring Elisha Cook and Alan Oppenheimer; written by Peter Allan Fields)
  • McCloud episode "Fifth Man in a String Quartet" (1972, guest-starring Alex Henteloff and Dick Miller)
  • A Very Missing Person (1972 TV movie, featuring Robert Easton, James Gregory, and Julie Newmar)
  • Ironside episode "Camera... Action... Murder!" (1972, guest-starring Anthony Caruso)
  • Search episode "The Gold Machine" (1972, guest-starring Mark Lenard)
  • Search episode "A Honeymoon to Kill" (1973, guest-starring Antoinette Bower and Meg Wyllie)
  • Search episode "The 24 Carat Hit" (1973, guest-starring George Murdock and Nehemiah Persoff)
  • Ironside episode "All About Andrea" (1973, guest-starring John McLiam)
  • Ironside episode "All Honorable Men" (1973, guest-starring Arthur Batanides and Sandra Smith)
  • Search episode "Suffer My Child" (1973, guest-starring Byron Morrow)
  • Ironside episodes "In the Forests of the Night" and "The Armageddon Gang" (both 1973, guest-starring Gene Lyons)
  • The Six Million Dollar Man episode "Wine, Women and War" (1973, starring Alan Oppenheimer and guest-starring Lee Bergere)
  • The Six Million Dollar Man episode "The Solid Gold Kidnapping" (1973, starring Alan Oppenheimer and guest-starring James B. Sikking)
  • Barnaby Jones episode "Friends 'till Death" (1974, starring Lee Meriwether and guest-starring Susan Oliver, Gail Strickland, Peter Brocco, and Walker Edmiston)
  • Ironside episode "A Death in Academe" (1974, guest-starring Malachi Throne)
  • The Rockford Files episode "The Countess" (1974, guest-starring James Cromwell)
  • Kojak episode "Slay Ride" (1974, guest-starring Stephen McHattie)
  • Fer-de-Lance (1974 CBS TV movie, featuring Bill Catching, Jason Evers, and Robert Ito)
  • McCloud episode "Lady on the Run" (1975, starring Ken Lynch and guest-starring Mariette Hartley)
  • The Rockford Files episode "Charlie Harris at Large" (1975, guest-starring Diana Muldaur)
  • Kojak episode "Two-Four-Six for Two Hundred" (1975, guest-starring Roger Aaron Brown)
  • The Six Million Dollar Man episode "Steve Austin, Fugitive" (1975, starring Alan Oppenheimer and guest-starring Gary Lockwood)
  • Kojak episode "My Brother, My Enemy" (1975, guest-starring Charles Napier)
  • Kojak episode "Be Careful What You Pray For" (1975, guest-starring Meg Wyllie)
  • Harry O episode "Group Terror" (1975, starring Anthony Zerbe and guest-starring Jay Robinson)
  • The Rockford Files episode "Resurrection in Black & White" (1975, guest-starring Sandra Smith)
  • Petrocelli episode "Falling Star" (1976, starring Michael Bell, Susan Howard, and David Huddleston)
  • Baa Baa Black Sheep episode "Flying Misfits" (1976, starring James Whitmore, Jr. and John Larroquette and guest-starring Byron Morrow, Charles Napier, and Lance LeGault)
  • Harry O episode "Death Certificate" (1976, starring Anthony Zerbe and written by John Meredyth Lucas)
  • The Rockford Files episode "Feeding Frenzy" (1976, guest-starring Susan Howard)
  • The Rockford Files episode "Coulter City Wildcat" (1976, guest-starring Noble Willingham)
  • Kojak episode "The Godson" (1977, guest-starring F. Murray Abraham)
  • The 3,000 Mile Chase (1977 NBC TV movie, starring Cliff DeYoung and featuring Marc Alaimo, Roger Aaron Brown, and Jerry Hardin)
  • The Rockford Files episode "Hotel of Fear" (1977, guest-starring Barry Atwater)
  • Kojak episode "Chain of Custody" (1978, guest-starring Paul Sorensen)
  • The Rebels (1979 TV movie, featuring Kim Cattrall, Paul Fix, Nehemiah Persoff, Warren Stevens, and Kevin Tighe)
  • Marriage Is Alive and Well (1980 TV movie) featuring David Clennon
  • Reunion (1980 CBS TV movie, starring Joanna Cassidy)
  • The Fall Guy pilot episode (1981, guest-starring Percy Rodriguez)
  • A Matter of Life and Death (1981 CBS TV movie, starring Salome Jens)
  • The Fall Guy episode "License to Kill, Part 1" (1982, guest-starring Monte Markham)
  • Manimal episode "Night of the Beast" (1983, guest-starring Jeff Corey)
  • The Scarecrow and Mrs. King episode "The Mole" (1984, guest-starring Byron Morrow)
  • Challenge of a Lifetime (1985 TV movie, featuring Keone Young)
  • Magnum, P.I. episode "Rapture" (1985, guest-starring Henry Darrow)
  • Magnum, P.I. episode "A.A.P.I." (1986, guest-starring Elisha Cook)
  • Magnum, P.I. episode "Unfinished Business" (1988, guest-starring Lance LeGault; co-written by Jeri Taylor)
  • Paradise episode "Home Again" (1989, starring Michael Ensign and guest-starring Richard Lineback and Warren Munson)
  • Matlock episode "The D.A." (1990, guest-starring Gregg Henry and Steve Vinovich)
  • In the Heat of the Night episode "Ruda's Awakening" (1991, guest-starring Fran Bennett)
  • Matlock episode "The Last Laugh" (1993, guest-starring Daniel Roebuck and Gwynyth Walsh)
  • Matlock episodes "The Coach" and "Matlock's Bad, Bad, Bad Dream" (1993, guest-starring Daniel Roebuck)
  • In the Heat of the Night episode "Give Me Your Life" (1994, guest-starring Gwynyth Walsh)

External links[]

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