Linda Day, Nov. 25, 1938 – Oct. 23, 2009, one of the few woman TV directors of the 1980s, has died in Georgetown, Texas after battling leukemia and breast cancer. She was 71
She worked on more than 350 episodes and 50 different series. Her shows read like a TV Guide listing and include the long running series “Dallas,” “Married…With Children,” “Archie Bunker’s Place,” “Kate & Allie,” “Mad About You,” Who’s the Boss?” “Clueless,” “Baby Talk,” “The Nanny,” “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” and more. MUCH MORE.
So, how did Linda Day break through the men’s club of Hollywood to achieve such a stellar and long-lasting career? She did receive an Emmy nomination for her work on “Archie Bunker’s Place” and she was honored by the DGA for paving the way for women in television. But…in checking with IMBD, there is hardly any information about Linda Day. There isn’t even a photo and I haven’t found any photos of her on any of the other (few as there is) obituaries.
So how can this be? How can a television director with such an outstanding listing of achievements over such a long period of time have so little, shall we say PR? Men directors with much less of a career have their faces and names plastered everywhere. The discrepancy isn’t just in television either. Take Jane Campion for example. She is just one of three women to be nominated for Best Director. Are you asking who Jane Campion is? She directed “The Piano” for which she did win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 1994 and she was nominated for Best Director. But no woman has ever succeeded in winning that coveted "Best Director" title.
According to an interview with Jane Campion by Missy Schwartz, Campion talks about why more women aren’t directing:
“Well, it’s about time [the Academy] gave one of them the best director! I’ve thought about it and I’ve thought about it and this is the best way I can explain it. I think we have to come to accept that this is a man’s world. Every anecdotal piece of evidence leads us to think about that and see it that way, especially in the arts. I’m not moaning or complaining, cause I love being a woman. But it’s a bit like Father Christmas. When you grow up, it’s all equal-equal, girls and boys. You go to film school — still equal number of boys and girls, and the girls do very well. But as soon as they graduate, it’s like, ‘Okay, and by the way, Father Christmas doesn’t exist! [laughs] That equality you enjoyed? It’s over — it’s over.’ It’s not even spoken, but that’s what you come to realize because you hit the boys’ club. And it’s impenetrable.”
Linda did the impossible. She did break through. And she had a long and glorious career.
