Tony Mordente

Director Tony Mordente attended the High School of the Performing Arts and was soon discovered by choreographer Michael Kidd, who cast him in "Li'l Abner" on Broadway. Mordente played several different roles in the original production of "West Side Story," and then began choreographing numbers for television shows before moving into television direction.

Mordente directed one episode of "Phyllis" with Cloris Leachman before taking over as director for another "Mary Tyler Moore Show" spin-off, "Rhoda," with Valerie Harper. Mordente directed several episodes of "The Tony Randall Show" in the late '70s, and in the early '80s he directed another show with Randall, the controversial and short-lived "Love, Sidney." Mordente did six episodes of "Family Ties" before moving into more adventurous fare with "The A-Team" and "Hunter," and he also did some time on the Andy Griffith mystery series "Matlock" before taking on direction for many episodes of "7th Heaven" from 1997 to 2003. Tony Mordente died on June 11, 2024 in Henderson, NV at the age of 88.