dyd777 Marty Callner, Director of Comedy Specials and Music Videos, Dies at 78

　　

Marty Callner, a director of comedy specials who set the template for the genre at HBO in the 1970s before going on to make music videos infused with humor during the early heyday of MTV, died on March 17 at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 78.

His son Jazz Callner said the cause was not yet known.

Over a half-century, Mr. Callner worked with some of the biggest names in popular culture, including Jerry Seinfeld, Madonna, Robin Williams, George Carlin, the Rolling Stones and Chris Rock.

The Republican preparations have taken place at Mr. Vance’s home in Cincinnati and in online sessions with members of his own inner circle and Jason Miller,betef cassino a Trump campaign strategist. Mr. Vance’s team also pointed to his frequent media interactions on the campaign trail as helpful prep for the debate spotlight. Mr. Vance has offered a potential preview of his debate strategy by repeatedly questioning Mr. Walz over his military service and attacking him as an out-of-touch liberal.

More bleak headlines follow: “Bidenomics FAILED.” “Bidenomics is a RECORD FAILURE.” “Americans’ incomes down THREE STRAIGHT YEARS.” “Unemployment RISING.” “America may soon be in a RECESSION.”

Mr. Callner, who preferred to stay in the background but was far from shy, “might be the most successful director you have never heard of,” Jason Zinoman of The New York Times wrote in 2022.

One day in the early 1980s, Mr. Callner had an epiphany. While watching television at his home in Beverly Hills, he found himself enraptured by a music video. It was Kim Carnes’s “Bette Davis Eyes” — and he couldn’t take his eyes off it.

“I said, ‘This is unbelievable,’” he recalled on the “HawkeTalk” podcast in 2021. He called it “the most artistic and entertaining thing I’ve ever seen” and recalled thinking, “I’ve got to go do this.”

ImageMarty Callner in his home office in 2022 with a Sports Emmy Award that he won for the football reality series “Hard Knocks.”Credit...Peter Fisher for The New York Times

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