Irving J. Moore

Who was Irving J. Moore?

Irving Joseph Moore was an American television director originally from Chicago, Illinois. He was known primarily for work in two nighttime soap operas, Dallas and Dynasty as well as segments of such other series as Gunsmoke and Eight Is Enough.

Moore launched his Hollywood career as a messenger on the Columbia Studios lot and worked his way to assistant director and then to director. His first directing was done on the old western series Tales of the Texas Rangers. He also directed episodes during the late 1950s on the sets of two ABC/Warner Brothers westerns, Cheyenne and Sugarfoot, starring Clint Walker and Will Hutchins, respectively. In 1960, he directed six episodes of Mike Connors's CBS detective series Tightrope. He directed various episodes of ABC's Surfside 6, including the 1960 premiere episode "Country Gentleman" and the second episode of the second season, "The Wedding Guest." Similarly, he directed a few segments of another ABC/WB production, 77 Sunset Strip. In 1961, Moore worked on three episodes of ABC's The Roaring Twenties, starring Dorothy Provine and Mike Road. In 1966-1967, he directed three segments of NBC's western Laredo, a spin-off from The Virginian and starring William Smith and Peter Brown. From 1965-1969, Moore directed twenty-six episodes of Robert Conrad's unconventional drama with a western setting, The Wild Wild West. From 1966-1974, he directed fourteen Gunsmoke episodes, his last having been the segment named, prophetically, "Like Old Times". He also directed episodes of the short-lived 1974 Gunsmoke spin-off Dirty Sally, starring Jeanette Nolan. From 1974-1975, Moore directed ten episodes of NBC's Petrocelli, with Barry Newman in the title role. In the late 1970s, he directed NBC's The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.