Director Howard Zieff: RIP.

Here's a link to an IMDB obit for director Howard Zieff, who passed away Sunday at the age of 81: http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0689037/

Zieff had a long career as a hired-gun director of mainstream comedies such as HOUSE CALLS (1978), PRIVATE BENJAMIN (1980) and MY GIRL (1991). But I prefer his earlier work as a director of Alka-Seltzer commercials, the film SLITHER (1973) with James Caan and Sally Kellerman--filled with the sardonic humor/worldview of Zieff's Madison Avenue period--and the cult classic HEARTS OF THE WEST (1975), with Jeff Bridges as an aspiring B-Western actor, Blythe Danner in a role reminiscent of Jean Arthur's wised-up Frank Capra heroines and Andy Griffith as Bridges' mentor-of-sorts.