By Robert Goldrich, The Road To Emmy Series, Part 12

LOS ANGELES --

While the primetime Emmy nominations were announced just last week, they already represent a win-win situation for Gary Baum, ASC. Not only was he nominated twice–on the strength of episodes of How I Met Your Father (Hulu) and Frasier (Paramount+)–for Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series, but Baum also found it gratifying that the Emmy category in which he earned this dual success has been resurrected. Last year it fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized following the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. At that point, a reduced number of such multi-camera programs were vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. (It turns out that this single slot was filled in 2023 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father).

Baum noted, however, that a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers yielded enough entries this time around to bring the Multi-Camera Series category back into the mix. And making the final nominations cut were a pair from Baum–for the season one finale of Frasier, “Reindeer Games,” directed by Kelsey Grammer; and the “Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane” episode of How I Met Your Father, directed by Pamela Fryman.

This brings Baum’s career tally of primetime Emmy nods to 15. He is a three-time winner–for Mike & Molly in 2015, the revival of Will & Grace in 2018, and the pilot for How I Met Your Father in 2022.

The three episodes of How I Met Your Father which garnered Baum nominations in 2022, ‘23 and ‘24 were all directed by series EP Pamela Fryman. The DP noted that he has a shorthand with Fryman whom he worked with on Call Your Mother, which was prior to How I Met Your Father. And they are slated to continue that collaborative relationship next month on Happy’s Place for NBC.

In that How I Met Your Father wasn’t renewed for a third season, it turned out that the “Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane” episode was the show’s finale. Baum cited the inherent challenge of the series–an array of flashbacks and flash-forwards in what amounts to a co-mingling of parallel scripts. He credited Fryman with being a master of this hybrid, having helped to create it dating back to her tenure as director/EP on How I Met Your Mother. In less capable hands, he continued, a show like How I Met Your Father–so complicated in terms of how it’s produced and its story development–could turn to chaos. Instead, assessed Baum, Fryman handles the twists and turns adroitly, maintaining a calm set, proceeding on a logical and sensible path to give stability to what otherwise had the potential to be a volatile format.

“I have a lot of respect for how she [Fryman] works with the crew, the actors and showrunners,” related Baum. “She has a calming effect on the whole production.” Baum added that the support he felt and received from Fryman, cast and crew has been integral to the success of How I Met Your Father, enabling him to attain the delicate balance of bringing a single-camera cinematography feel to a multi-camera format series.

Throughout his run on How I Met Your Father, Baum deployed the Sony F55 digital camera, which he described as being “Panavised” to accommodate customized 11:1 Primo Panavision zoom lenses.

Frazier
The Sony F55 was also the camera of choice for Baum on season one of the new Frasier, again in tandem with the Primo Panavision zoom lenses. However, the DP noted that the second season of Frasier will see a change in camera to the Sony VENICE.

Baum served as a camera operator on a couple of episodes of the original Frasier. Fast forward to today and Baum shot the full flight of season one episodes for the new Frasier. He was brought into the rebooted series by executive producer Suzy Mamann-Greenberg whom he teamed with earlier on such shows as How I Met Your Father and Man with a Plan.

A prime challenge of the new Frasier, observed Baum, was having the show maintain its comedic edge, to keep it looking similar to its previous incarnation but within a modern framework. The original Frasier was back in the day shot on 35mm film. Baum had to make sure that today’s digital alternatives could still retain the filmic feel of yesteryear while breathing contemporary life into the show.

Baum found his experience on the original Will & Grace and then years later the return of that lauded series as serving him in good stead relative to doing justice to a new rendition of Frasier. Baum shared that the Will & Grace revival taught him that “you can’t rely so much on what you did. You have to respect and embrace the past but you have to look into the future because this is where it’s all going.” He felt a definite “correlation point” between the new renditions of Will & Grace and Frasier.

The original Will & Grace–which ended its first run in 2006–loomed large in Baum’s career, marking his advance from camera operator to full-fledged DP when the now late Tony Askins, ASC retired. Askins had recommended that Baum succeed him as the series DP. And then executive producer/director James Burrows and series creators Dave Kohan and Max Mutchnick gave Baum that pivotal opportunity.

The new Frasier reunited Baum with Burrows who directed the show’s first two episodes. This continued a collaborative bond between the director and cinematographer. Seven of Baum’s 15 Emmy nominations over the years have come for episodic work he lensed for Burrows, including the Emmy-winning “Gay Olde Christmas” for Will & Grace. In addition to Mike & Molly, Will & Grace, How I Met Your Mother and Frasier, other shows in the nominations mix for Baum over the years have included Superior Donuts, Garry Unmarried, The Millers and 2 Broke Girls.

(This is the 12th installment of SHOOT’s weekly 16-part The Road To Emmy Series of feature stories. Creative Arts Emmy winners will be covered on September 7 and 8, and primetime Emmy ceremony winners will be reported on come September 15.)

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