Alan Rafkin

Alan Rafkin July 23 1928 August 6 2001 was an American director producer and actor for television Rafkin was born in New York City to Til and Victor Rafkin He attended Admiral Farragut Academy in Pine Beach New Jersey and Syracuse University in New York Alan Rafkin was one of the most prolific sitcom directors of all time helming such series as The Andy Griffith Show The Dick Van Dyke Show The Mary Tyler Moore Show Whats Happening MASH Its Garry Shandlings Show Murphy Brown Get Smart Coach The Tim Conway Show Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers and Viva Valdez According to his autobiography Cue the Bunny on the Rainbow its title is taken from a direction on Captain Kangaroo Rafkin directed episodes of over 80 different sitcom series He won an Emmy for an episode of One Day At A Time and two CableACE Awards for his work on Its Garry Shandlings Show2 During his career he worked with legendary producers such as Sheldon Leonard Danny Thomas and Norman Lear Rafkin had endearing relationships with many of his actors including Andy Griffith Dick Van Dyke Jerry Van Dyke Mary Tyler Moore Bob Newhart and Redd Foxx He was also close with Don Knotts directing him on the Griffith show and in three feature films At the same time he had volatile relationships with several others including Demond Wilson and Craig T Nelson