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Lesli Linka Glatter
Art by Tina Fino (@tina_fino)
Letter by Richard Gold (@postmdernsleaze)
Twin Peaks Season 1, Episode 6 (1990): For one of Lesli's 1st gigs, she was given an intimidating task - replicate the inimitable style and tone of David Lynch. That she did so the best of any of the series' directors speaks volumes, in a vintage season 1 classic that finds Agent Cooper and the Twin Peaks sheriff's dept. venturing into the woods, where they discover an eerie crime scene and have tea with the enigmatic Log Lady.
Mad Men Season 3, Episode 6 “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency” (2009): One of the all-time great episodes of one of TV's all-time great dramas, which you might remember as the one with the John Deere riding mower in the Sterling Cooper offices. Yep, that was Lesli, and it won her a DGA award in the process, as well as an Emmy nod for her awesomely shocking and macabre work.
Homeland Season 2, Episode 5, “Q&A” (2012): Lesli was nominated for Emmy and DGA accolades for an episode now widely considered to be one of the hit Showtime spy thriller's best and most iconic episodes. An almost unbearably tense two-hander set almost entirely during a one-on-one interrogation between Carrie and Brody, it almost plays more like great theater than television, and earned Lesli her role as the show's directing producer.
Lesli Linka Glatter
Dear Lesli Linka Glatter,
How on earth is it that you are one of the greatest women directors who has ever lived, yet somehow not a household name?
Well I won't hear of it. Nobody directs television like you. There are few who have the range, versatility and the goddamn talent you have. You deserve to not only be a household name, but to be recognized as a heavyweight of today’s Golden Age of Television.
For heaven's sake, do I have to list everything you've done? Ok, fine. You have directed episodes of Amazing Stories, Twin Peaks, NYPD Blue, Freaks & Geeks, Law & Order: SVU, The West Wing, Gilmore Girls, The O.C., Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, ER, Weeds, House, Mad Men, The Good Wife, True Blood, Pretty Little Liars, The Walking Dead, Justified, Masters of Sex, The Newsroom, Homeland, The Leftovers, Ray Donovan, AND you've directed the first couple episodes of the upcoming Law & Order Menendez brothers series. And those aren't even all of the shows you've done; it's just a handful in a career that few could ever dream of competing with.
I can't think of any other director who can paint in such an array of colors and tones. You are a remarkable chameleon and that is the greatest prerequisite for working as a TV director, and perhaps why you're not a household name. A premium is placed on "auteurs," and while I understand that to an extent, auteurs are often limited in what they can do; they have their one thing that they obviously do well. But not you; you have no limits on what you can do. No limits in terms of tone, voice, scope, style and genre that you can express. Because you can do anything.
The only thing rarer than a director of your caliber is that you also happen to be a kind human being. When I sheepishly approached you at USC's Twin Peaks retrospective a few years ago, you couldn't have been nicer or more excited to talk to me, and you even asked me about myself and tried to get to know me. It meant the world to me, and I just wanted to say thanks, and thanks for everything you do make TV a better world to live and work in.