Leonard Katzman

Leonard Katzman left his native New York to move to Los Angeles in his teens. He got his start in the film industry working as an assistant director on the serials Batman, Superman, and Brenda Starr for his uncle Sam Katzman, a producer. Katzman later became a television director during the medium's early years. He later spent 20 years working with the CBS network on such series as Gunsmoke, The Wild, Wild West, and Hawaii Five-0, but he is best known for Dallas. Katzman produced 365 episodes of the popular nighttime soap and also wrote and directed a few episodes. His three children also took part in the show's production. Katzman died in his Malibu home of an apparent heart attack on September 5, 1996; he was 69.