Joan Darling

'Joan Darling' (qv) began her career with the New York improvisational theater troupe "Premise Players", and soon graduated to off-Broadwy and Broadway productions. She made her film debut in 1964 and, in the early '70s, landed a regular role on the _Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (1971)_ (qv) TV series. In addition to acting in TV series, she began to write for them. Her first directorial job was for the pilot of the hit '70s TV series _Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976)_ (qv) and she directed several of the series' episodes. She became one of the first female TV directors to be steadily employed on various series, and directed many episodes of _M*A*S*H (1972)_ (qv), the _The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)_ (qv) show and _The Bob Newhart Show (1972)_ (qv). She made her film debut in 1977 with the critically acclaimed but financially unsuccessful _First Love (1977)_ (qv), and has made several theatrical and made-for-TV movies since then.::Anonymous