Andy Cadiff

Theater provided the background that enabled Andy Cadiff to compile a long and impressive slate of television sitcoms as a director. The Newton, Massachusetts, native was originally a Harvard University pre-med student before poor science grades convinced him to switch his major to theater arts. While serving as assistant director of Harvard's Spring 1974 production of "Kiss Me Kate," the nascent theater major met legendary Broadway impresario Hal Prince. After graduating magna cum laude in 1977, Cadiff was hired by Prince as assistant stage manager of the Broadway show "On the Twentieth Century." Cadiff soon started writing and directing his own original material including the musical bBrownstone," the award-winning off-Broadway play "3 Guys Naked from the Waist Down," and "Mail," which was staged on Broadway and at the Kennedy Center. Cadiff made his television directorial debut helming an episode of the obscure 1988 Scott Bakula sitcom "Eisenhower & Lutz," which featured a young Patricia Richardson, whom Cadiff would work with on "Home Improvement" years later. Stints directing episodes of "Empty Nest," "Lenny," and "Herman's Head" led to his working with Tim Allen and later with Michael J. Fox on "Spin City." Amid all the television work, Cadiff ended up with film directorial credits with the 1997 movie remake of "Leave It to Beaver" and the 2004 Mandy Moore vehicle "Chasing Liberty." He later directed episodes of Betty White's 2010 TV Land sitcom comeback "Hot in Cleveland."