Bonerz’s Direct Approach

Fans of the old “The Bob Newhart Show” may wonder what happened to Peter Bonerz, who played bachelor dentist Jerry on the CBS series, after the show left the airwaves in 1978. Though Bonerz still occasionally acts, he spends most of his time behind the camera and has become one of television’s top comedy directors.

Last month, Bonerz won the prestigious Directors Guild of America award for the season-opener of CBS’ “Murphy Brown,” in which the caustic FYI anchorperson (Candice Bergen) discovers she is pregnant and announces it to her friends and co-workers.

The DGA award, Bonerz said, marks the first time he’s received an accolade for his work and he’s justifiably proud. “I consider it (an award) by my peers,” he said. “It is not a publicity-generated award. It is not a popularity award.”

Bonerz directed half of this season’s “Murphy Brown” episodes, including Monday night’s installment, in which Murphy is given a surprise baby shower by real TV news personalities Katie Couric of NBC’s “The Today Show,” Paula Zahn of “CBS This Morning,” Joan Lunden of ABC’s “Good Morning, America” and Faith Daniels and Mary Alice Williams of NBC. Bonerz also directed several episodes of ABC’s new Linda Lavin comedy, “Room for Two,” and he is set to direct the first 12 episodes of “Murphy” next season.

The directing bug hit while Bonerz was working on “The Bob Newhart Show.” He directed nearly 40 episodes of that comedy, which aired 1972-78. “It was something I thought I could do,” he said. “In fact, being a co-co-star of a half-hour situation comedy can get kind of tedious. You average one or two scenes a week, which is a dozen lines of dialogue. You can do that standing on your head. And, you have to be there all week for run-throughs and rehearsals. I thought as long as I was there I might as well subsidize my time a little by learning another skill.”

So Bonerz observed in the editing room, chatted with the cameramen and discussed the fine art of directing with such “Newhart” directors as Jay Sandrich and Peter Baldwin, who also directs “Murphy Brown.”

When he felt confident, Bonerz discussed the idea of directing with Newhart and Grant Tinker, who was then president of MTM, the company producing the series. “They both were very supportive,” he said.

By the time “Newhart” had concluded its run, Bonerz had built a reputation for himself in the industry as a first-class director. “I was warm, if not hot, at that point,” he said. He’s been directing ever since.

Working on “Murphy Brown” has been a delight for Bonerz. He has high praise for “Murphy Brown” creator and co-executive producer Diane English and her husband, co-executive producer Joel Shukovsky (who are both leaving the show after this season).

“Lots of TV producers don’t let their directors direct,” he said. “There are a lot of executives in TV who really direct each show themselves and what they want is someone to direct the scenes for them while they are upstairs doing other things. They (English and Shukovsky) allow their people to direct.”

Shooting Monday’s episode, Bonerz said, was a unique experience. “We rehearsed all week with staging assistants standing in for our news panel. They didn’t show up until about four hours before we shot and they were in about 20 pages of the script. It was incredible. They came in fully prepared and they weren’t flustered by the cameras. We (told them) where to stand and sit and they were very, very relaxed. And since they were playing themselves, they were fully prepared and equipped to do it. It went off wonderfully.”

“Murphy Brown” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBS . Repeats of “The Bob Newhart Show” air weekdays at 5:30 p.m. on KDOC.