Auteur Watch - Henry Hampton

...aw, this guy's no fun.  Looks like his first directorial experience left a bit of a bitter taste, though.  For some, directing is the end-all be-all.  For some like Hank Hampton, however... they look around the setscape past the rather cheap-looking director's chair to where the producer is.  They see him chain smoking and talking on the telephone all the time and think to themselves, "Hey!  That's where I wanna be."  And want to be he did... something like that.  And so, producing shows for PBS was it, right up til the end.  Something depressing about that.  No time to enjoy retirement?  I guess you can't when you're in the business that is show.  Alas, lung cancer claimed Hampton before he could earn that stupid new title of "P.G.A." that seems to go after producers' names now.  What did that used to stand for?  Oh right... a golf tournament.  Maybe this is a step up, who knows.  Or maybe there'll be a big lawsuit like when the two WWF's clashed.