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Abner E. "Abby" Singer worked as a production manager and assistant director
Assistant director

An assistant director is a person who helps the filmmaker in the filmmaking of a movie or television show. The duties of an AD include setting the shooting schedule, tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking the arrival of cast and crew, maintaining order on t...
 in film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 between the 1950s and the 1980s. His name has become famous in Hollywood as a phrase describing the second-to-last shot of the day ("the Abby Singer"). There are several stories as to how this came about. One is that he would mislead his crew into thinking that the second-to-last of the day was actually the last shot.






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Abner E. "Abby" Singer worked as a production manager and assistant director
Assistant director

An assistant director is a person who helps the filmmaker in the filmmaking of a movie or television show. The duties of an AD include setting the shooting schedule, tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking the arrival of cast and crew, maintaining order on t...
 in film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 between the 1950s and the 1980s. His name has become famous in Hollywood as a phrase describing the second-to-last shot of the day ("the Abby Singer"). There are several stories as to how this came about. One is that he would mislead his crew into thinking that the second-to-last of the day was actually the last shot. Another is that, as a production manager, when Abby Singer came down to set it meant the crew was allowed to complete the shot they were doing and then do only one more. According to Abby, however, it was actually because as an assistant director when the crew reached the second-to-last shot of the day he would say "this and one more" so they could start wrapping (putting away) anything that was not needed for that or the last shot of the day ("the martini shot").

Abner E. Singer is currently a faculty member and mentor at the AFI Conservatory
AFI Conservatory

The AFI Conservatory is a division of the American Film Institute founded in 1969, located in Hollywood's Griffith Park. Dubbed by some as "Juilliard for Filmmakers," the school is the only existing Master of Fine Arts conservatory in advanced film education....
.

Abby now has a restaurant named after him in Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana

Shreveport is the third-largest city and the principal city of the third largest metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Louisiana, as well as being the 99th-largest city in the United States....
, Louisiana
Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
 called Abby Singer's Bistro, an upscale, New York-style eatery located on the top floor of the Robinson Film Center.

The second-to-last episode of St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere

St. Elsewhere is a U.S. drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End, Boston, Massachusetts....
 is titled "The Abby Singer Show."

Selected filmography


As assistant director

  • Death of a Salesman (1951) (Second AD)
  • Income Tax Sappy (1954) (as Abner Singer)
  • Shot in the Frontier (1954) (as Abner E. Singer)
  • 7th Cavalry (1956) (as Abner E. Singer)
  • The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957) (as Abner E. Singer)


  • M Squad (1957) TV Series (assistant director)
  • Hellcats of the Navy (1957) (assistant director)
  • The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957) (assistant director)
  • 7th Cavalry (1956) (assistant director)
  • He Laughed Last (1956) (assistant director)
  • Over-Exposed (1956) (assistant director)
  • A Lawless Street (1955) [a.k.a. Marshal of Medicine Bend (USA)] (assistant director)
  • Gypped in the Penthouse (1955) (assistant director)
  • Cannibal Attack (1954) (assistant director)
  • Shot in the Frontier (1954) (assistant director)
  • Massacre Canyon (1954) (assistant director)
  • Income Tax Sappy (1954) (assistant director)
  • Death of a Salesman (1951) (second assistant director)


As production manager

  • Columbo: Sex and the Married Detective (1989) (TV) (unit production manager)
  • Columbo: Murder, Smoke and Shadows (1989) (TV) (unit production manager)
  • Columbo: Columbo Goes to the Guillotine (1989) (TV) (unit production manager)
  • Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) (unit production manager)
  • Remington Steele
    Remington Steele

    Remington Steele is an United States television series, produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 in television to 1987 in television....
     TV series
    • "Signed, Steeled & Delivered" TV Episode (executive in charge of production)
    • "Your Steele the One for Me" TV Episode (executive in charge of production)
    • "Sting of Steele" (1983) TV Episode (executive in charge of production)
    • "Steele's Gold" (1983) TV Episode (executive in charge of production)
    • "Vintage Steele" (1983) TV Episode (executive in charge of production)
    • "Steele in the News" (1983) TV Episode (executive in charge of production)
    • "Steele Among the Living" (1983) TV Episode (executive in charge of production)
  • WKRP in Cincinnati
    WKRP in Cincinnati

    WKRP in Cincinnati is an United States situation comedy that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling radio broadcasting in Cincinnati, Ohio....
     (1978-1982) (executive in charge of production)
  • Hill Street Blues
    Hill Street Blues

    Hill Street Blues is a serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. It is currently being aired on AmericanLife TV Network on Sunday nights in the United States, and on weekday afternoons on digital network More 4 in the United Kingdom....
     (1981-1987) (executive in charge of production)
  • St. Elsewhere
    St. Elsewhere

    St. Elsewhere is a U.S. drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End, Boston, Massachusetts....
     (1982-1988) (executive in charge of production)
  • A Little Sex (1982) (production manager: Los Angeles)
  • First, You Cry (1978) (TV) (supervising production manager)
  • Something for Joey (1977) (TV) (production manager)
  • "Rhoda" (1974) TV Series (unit production manager)
  • Istanbul Express (1968) (TV) (unit manager)
  • The Doris Day Show
    The Doris Day Show

    The Doris Day Show is a 128-episode United States television situation comedy that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 1968 until September 1973....
     (1968) TV Series (production manager)
  • The Meanest Men in the West (1967) (TV) (unit production manager)
  • Out of Sight (1966) (unit production manager)
  • Gunsmoke
    Gunsmoke

    Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
     (1955) TV Series (production manager)


External links

  • (Abby Singer the Movie
    Abby Singer (film)

    Abby Singer is a 2003 film, which also had a different version released in 2006 and a limited DVD release in 2007. The film had some film festival screenings in 2003 and in 2006....
    , named after Singer)