TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Award-winning director Tom Cherones, a Tuscaloosa native, and his wife, Joyce Keener, are teaching a four-week advanced telecommunication and film production class in The University of Alabama College of Communication & Information Sciences (C&IS).

Cherones produced or directed the first 86 episodes of "Seinfeld," one of the most successful situation comedies in the history of television.

The upper-level class provides 15 carefully selected UA students with the opportunity to produce a 30-minute film with one of the best directors in their field. The class began this week and will run until March 15.

Cherones and Keener, who is also a screenplay writer, selected the script the class will be producing. The script, “Speck,” was chosen because of its technical possibilities. UA students John Allan McLeod and William Matt Stewart wrote "Speck," a light drama about two unsuccessful brothers.

Cherones comes to the University as a Hearst Visiting Professional in Residence. He is the first Hearst media professional to teach a month-long class at the University.

He has worked as director on several sitcoms, including "NewsRadio," "Caroline in the City," "Ellen," and most notably "Seinfeld." He also has won numerous awards for his work, including an Emmy, a Director’s Guild Award, a Golden Globe, a Peabody and a Christopher Award.

Cherones was inducted into the 2001 C&IS Hall of Fame at UA.

TOM CHERONES (1939- )

The man who produced or directed the first 86 episodes of Seinfeld, the most successful situation comedy in the history of television, got his first broadcasting job at The University of Alabama. "I was working at the A&P in Tuscaloosa, but I was looking for something more interesting," Tom Cherones remembers. "When I started at University TV, my pay fell from about 80 cents an hour to 40 cents an hour."

Cherones grew up in downtown Tuscaloosa. His grandfather immigrated to the United States from Greece and opened the Tuscaloosa Café on Broad Street (now University Boulevard). His father was a maintenance engineer at WTBC and operated a radio and TV repair shop in Tuscaloosa.

His first jobs in television may have made him wistful for the glamour of the A&P. "We swept floors, we moved sets, we did everything," Cherones recalls about working in the TV studios on the second floor the Old Union building -- now Reese Phifer Hall. "I worked on Chemistry Can Be Fun with George Toffel, and eventually I was directing productions at the University."

Cherones finished his undergraduate work at the University of New Mexico and after serving as producer and director in Pittsburgh at WQED, one of public television’s flagship stations, he returned to The University of Alabama where he earned a master’s degree in telecommunication and film in 1976. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1961 to 1965 where, after duty at sea, he was, among other things, assigned to make motion pictures of explosions.

It was apparently the last time he shot a bomb.

In 1975 Cherones moved to Hollywood. His first job was production manager for General Hospital, and since 1975 he has been an independent producer and director for Warner Brothers, ABC-TV, CBS-TV, Paramount, Lorimar and Mary Tyler Moore Productions. He was also the production manager of Welcome Back Kotter. In 1980 he wrote and produced a movie, Two of Hearts, for cable and public television. He has directed and produced episodes of Caroline in the City, Boston Common, Ellen, Growing Pains, News Radio, and Ladies Man.

Cherones has a reputation for staying calm and running a congenial set in a high-pressure business where tempers flare. "When I produce a show, everyone has his job and everybody is important. If everybody does his job there is no problem."

He has received the Director’s Guild of America Outstanding Comedy Director Award for Seinfeld, an Emmy award for Seinfeld, a Golden Globe award, a Monitor award, The Peabody award, the People’s Choice award, the TV Critics award and the Christopher award. He has also received six Emmy and three Directors Guild of America award nominations. In 1993 he was presented the UA College of Communication’s Outstanding Alumnus award.

Cherones even appeared "on camera" as a director in one episode of Seinfeld. The Tuscaloosa News asked him to critique Tom Cherones, the actor. "Mediocre,"he said. "I wouldn’t hire him again."