By Robert Goldrich

There’s something about this past awards season that brought out the best in Michael Spiller. He scored at one awards show the conventional way, earning a coveted honor. But at two other marquee competitions, his impact wasn’t felt as a nominee or winner but rather on a comedic promotional front.
    First on the conventional score, Spiller in January won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award in the TV comedy series category for the “Halloween” episode of Modern Family.
    “Being recognized by your peers against such great nominees [including directors behind episodes of 30 Rock, Glee and Entourage] is the highest honor,” said Spiller. One of those nominees was Steve Levitan for another episode of Modern Family, a series he co-created. “The joke going into the DGA Awards was that if I win, I’m in big trouble,” laughed Spiller. “When I was announced as the winner, the Modern Family table I was at cheered and there were hugs all around. Steve hugged me and whispered in my ear, ‘You’re fired.'”
    The fact is that Spiller’s role on the series has only grown, blossoming to his directing 12 of season two’s 24 episodes. He helmed four episodes during year one of Modern Family.
    As for those two other alluded to awards shows in which Spiller made a splash, consider last month’s Oscars during which a Modern Family promo ran, featuring the series’ families engaged in an Oscar night contest of charades with some characters playing considerably better than others. Spiller directed the spot.
    And then there was the Emmy Awards show last September. Though Spiller didn’t personally win an Emmy, Modern Family earned the award for outstanding comedy series. At the same time, Spiller made his mark during the Emmy proceedings with a short film featuring the Modern Family cast and actor/director George Clooney. The short had the sitcom’s families living out certain far-fetched, Nielsen-boosting proposals from a wet-behind-the-ears television network executive–like adopting a son, Stewie, from the animation series Family Guy, or going 3D to exploit a certain cast member’s physical attributes.
    Ultimately none of these new wrinkles gained approval from the cast–that is until the slickster television executive pitches killing off a character to make room for Clooney.
    Cast members then start to envision their Modern Family lives with Clooney–and they very much like what they see. Each wants Clooney to be part of his or her family, and you can feel the lobbying is about to begin.
    Each lead wife character quickly embraces Clooney literally and figuratively–as does the series’ gay male couple who are seen lying blissfully in bed with Clooney.
    This scenario has Clooney wistfully coming to the conclusion that he better get another movie gig so he can escape sitcom purgatory.
    The short drew big laughs from the audience, and critics cited it as being one of the Emmy show’s highlights.
    Still, Spiller is not a Modern Family one trick pony. Recent credits include his first episode of The Office, as well as a comedy pilot for Sony and NBC titled My Life As An Experiment.
    Spiller’s career TV credits span not only comedy but also dramedy (Sex and the City, Ugly Betty, Scrubs) and drama (HBO’s Big Love, The Riches for FX, Big Shots for ABC). Even his comedy series work often has an emotional core such as Modern Family and The Middle.

Spot on    Now Spiller is looking to bring his range of experience to bear on commercials and branded content, for which he is handled by Lookout Entertainment, a Hermosa Beach, Calif.-based production house headed by president/exec producer Yvonne Bernard. Spiller has directed a number of spot assignments for Lookout, and earlier in his career as a DP shot assorted commercials (adidas, HBO, ESPN, MTV), working with such notable directors as Noam Murro. (Spiller was also a DP on Sex and the City before getting his chance to direct that show.)
    The meshing of Spiller’s comedic chops and ad biz sensibilities was recently exhibited in his direction of the Valentine’s Day episode of Modern Family, which realized a product placement/tie-in between the series and Toyota. The scene has Claire Dunphy (played by Julie Bowen) driving her Toyota Sienna minivan when her hubby Phil (Ty Burrell) phones her to tell her how great she was last night. Of the romantic escapade, he says, “Sorry, I got the oil everywhere–but they’re not our sheets.”
    The only problem is that the couple’s three kids are in the minivan listening to the conversation. Claire responds, “Remember when the salesman told us the Sienna was built with the whole family in mind. Well, the whole family just heard that.”
    Phil then observed, “I guess the Bluetooth works.”
    Their young son asks, “Why did you have oil?”
    “Because we were making french fries,” explains dad.
    The mom offers some concluding parental advice: “Why don’t you guys just pop in a DVD?”
    Spiller observed that integrating a brand into a show represents a delicate balance. “You don’t want viewers to feel somehow compromised, and yet you want the client to feel its product or service got the right kind of exposure. It’s a challenge but I like exploring areas where the lines are a bit blurry.”
    Via Lookout, Spiller has several possible projects pending, including spots and branded content endeavors.
    “For me, it’s all about the opportunity to tell stories,” he related. “It’s an interesting time in the advertising world. While there’s concern over time shifting, viewing habits, the Internet, skipping commercials, there are also unprecedented opportunities to create entertainment and storytelling.
    “Longer form branded pieces,” he continued, “are drawing huge numbers on the Internet. Entertaining commercials are not being skipped, but celebrated and shared virally.”
    The director also welcomes the collaborative nature of commercials. “I like working in television series where producers and writers have a lot of input. I’m a strong collaborator. And my experiences in commercials with agency art directors and writers, and the client have been an exciting mix for me. There’s great input, feedback and an exchange of ideas that can help to make the work better.”

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