Michael Zinberg

Before he was a director, Michael Zinberg learned the ropes as an assistant producer and associate producer on two venerable 1970s TV series, the single woman comedy "Mary Tyler Moore" and the comedy following the personal and professional life of a psychologist in"The Bob Newhart Show." He worked his way up to directing episodes for the Newhart program, beginning in 1975, and has never looked back. Zinberg's credits read like a virtual history of the TV sitcom era, touching everything from "Taxi," a comedy about the lives of employees at a taxi cab company; and the family at political odds in "Family Ties"; to the comedic life of a cartoonist in "Caroline in the City"; and the dysfunctional, yet lovable, family comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond." But it hasn't been all funny stuff. As Zinberg's career has progressed, he has also been able to work on more serious long-form entertainment such as the crime drama in which the cases run the show in "The Practice," a dramatic examination of the lives of American super-secret operators in "The Unit," and the show with Tim Roth as the human lie detector in "Lie to Me." Having paid such exhaustive dues, it's no surprise that in the later stage of his career, Zinberg has also been able to marry his director duties with executive producer status on programs like the navy law drama "JAG."