Education
University of Michigan.
director screenwriter film producer
University of Michigan.
Daniels was a graduate of the University of Michigan. After serving in World World War II, Daniels was hired by Columbia Broadcasting System to direct its first dramatic anthology program, Ford Theater, mastering live television direction. He was hired to direct the first 38 episodes of I Love Lucy, an early filmed series.
Daniels recommended Vivian Vance for the role of Ethel Mertz.
Daniels, along with cinematographer Karl Freund, has been credited with introducing the three-camera technique of filming as opposed to the conventional one-camera. In a 1977 interview, Daniels noted that he left I Love Lucy to take another job that paid more.
"Maybe it was a stupid thing to do," he said. "But then we didn"t know we were creating history.
We were just doing a show".
In addition to I Love Lucy, Daniels also directed episodes of Where"s Raymond?, Gunsmoke, Fame, Alice, Hogan"s Heroes, and The Andros Targets. To science fiction fans, Daniels is perhaps best known for directing fifteen episodes of Star Trek (including the episode "Mirror, Mirror") and writing an episode of the animated series ("One of Our Planets is Missing"). Near the end of his career, Daniels worked with Lucille Ball again on her last series, Life with Lucy (1986).
He had an uncredited appearance as Doctor Jackson Roykirk in the Star Trek episode "The Changeling", which he also directed.
He died of congestive heart failure on April 23, 1989 in Santa Monica, California at the age of 77. His death harkened back, coincidentally, to the beginning of his television career: Daniels died just three days before Lucille Ball, who also died at age 77 from a heart-related illness.