Harvey Laidman

Harvey Laidman is the prolific director of many popular television shows, including "7th Heaven" and "The Waltons." In the early '70s, Laidman worked as assistant director on such shows as "The Bold Ones: The New Doctors" and "The Waltons," and by the end of the decade he had worked his way up to series director of the latter. While filming the show, which focused on the lives of a '30s-era family living in rural Virginia, Laidman also directed episodes of many other hit TV series, including "Eight is Enough," "CHiPS," and "Lou Grant." During the '80s Laidman worked on primetime soap operas like "Falcon's Crest" and "Knots Landing," and action-adventure series like "Knight Rider" and "The Dukes of Hazzard." After a brief stint on the Tom Selleck crime series "Magnum, P.I.," Laidman directed over 25 episodes of the Andy Griffith legal drama "Matlock" between 1988 and 1994. In the early 2000s he regularly worked on the family drama "7th Heaven," and also directed episodes of the naval legal series "JAG" and the multi-generational "Safe Harbor." Harvey Laidman died on January 3, 2025 in Simi Valley, CA at the age of 82.