Marty Callner, an Emmy-nominated director who pioneered the art of the network comedy special but whose legacy were a series of provocative music videos in the Eighties, died March 17 at the age of 78.
Callner’s family confirmed his death to The Hollywood Reporter, adding that he died of natural causes at his home in Malibu.
If you grew up watching MTV or any other music video network in the Eighties, you also grew up with Callner’s work. He directed videos for Whitesnake (“Here I Go Again”), Cher (“If I Could Turn Back Time”), Aerosmith (“Cryin’,” “Love in an Elevator,” “Dude Looks Like a Lady” and more), Poison (“Every Rose Has Its Thorn”), Heart (“Alone”), Stevie Nicks (“Stand Back”), Pat Benatar (“We Belong”) and Twisted Sister (“We’re Not Gonna Take It”), among many others.
Born Aug. 25, 1946, Callner got his start in TV news in Cincinnati before moving into the world of directing commercials and Boston Celtics games. After being hired by the then-new HBO, Callner was credited with directing the first stand-up comedy special for the network, 1975’s An Evening with Robert Klein. “Nobody had ever really done standup on TV before,” Callner said later. “I had come from directing Boston Celtics games, so I did it like it was a sporting event. It was crude, there weren’t enough closeups, but it worked.” As he also later recalled, “At the time it was kind of revolutionary that someone could actually come out and say shit on TV.”
The success of that special led to a string of similar pioneering Callner-directed comedy specials for the network that presented Billy Crystal, Robin Williams and Steve Martin. As part of HBO’s Young Comedians specials, Callner also helped introduce the world to Jerry Seinfeld (later directing Seinfeld’s first post-Seinfeld comedy special), Jim Carrey and Billy Crystal, and he was an early champion of Paul Reubens
Callner’s in-your-face approach, stemmed from his sports background, would come in handy when he moved into the world of music videos, starting with the Twisted Sister clip in 1984. “There are no rules in rock video,” Callner said three years later. “You can experiment and play with film and have a good time. You can get as weird as you want.”
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The timing, a period when hair metal was overtaking rock & roll and injecting larger-than-life rockers and their fantasies into the culture, couldn’t have been more perfect. Over the next decade, Callner’s clips became known for their risqué scenes and plenty of leggy women. “That’s what I think rock & roll is all about,” Callner said in 1987. “That’s what kids relate to. Hopefully we’re not gratuitous about it. I’m not really the Russ Meyer of rock videos. I don’t want you to think it’s sex for sex’s sake—although it is and it isn’t, if you know what I mean. It’s not a lot of skin; it’s all attitude.”
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In 1989, that attitude backfired slightly on Callner and other music video directors when MTV decided that some videos, including his clips for the Cher hit and Aerosmith’s “Love in an Elevator,” should only be shown in the evenings or when slightly censored. “It creates censorship in art around the country,” Callner said at the time. “We don’t know what the line really is. I really feel that five years ago I had more creative freedom and expression than I do now.”
In later years, Callner and his company, Cream Cheese Films, directed concert films for Nicks, Benatar, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Paul Simon, Garth Brooks, Fleetwood Mac, and Diana Ross, among others. Callner was also nominated for 12 Emmy Awards (including for Will Ferrell’s You’re Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush) and two Grammys.
