Artie Forrest — he's the guy on the right in the above photo — was one of the busiest and nicest television directors in the business. Among the shows he directed (and sometimes produced) were Wonderama, The Mike Douglas Show, The Dick Cavett Show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, That's Incredible! and many annual Rose Bowl Parades and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades. He was especially facile at live shows — or programs where you had to get it in one take like game shows and telethons. He produced and directed many of Labor Day Jerry Lewis telethons.
I asked him once how he picked up his skills for live or one-take shows and he told me a half-hour of great stories about being Jackie Gleason's personal cameraman. He often had to "cover" Gleason (control the main camera on the guy) with no rehearsal on live shows. You had to be good to do that job…and yes, when you watch many of the classic Honeymooners episodes, you're looking at a shot taken by Artie Forrest.
He was a lovely man, beloved by everyone who ever worked with him. Sinatra loved him. Remember when Frank brought Dean Martin out to surprise Jerry Lewis on the telethon? Frank worked that out with Artie. And Jerry loved him and Jackie loved him and his crews loved him. I remember sitting with him in the control room of a TV show he was about to direct and Artie was telling me a great dirty joke.
Suddenly, he noticed that the crew wasn't doing the set-up as fast as they should have been doing it. He interrupted the dirty joke to get on the P.A. system to yell at them in very foul, furious language and they instantly sped up and finished as Artie finished telling me the dirty joke. And the crew loved him for what he'd said and felt very bad that he had to say it.
He was a very wonderful man who did his job very, very well. Artie died a few days ago at the age of 95. You can read more about him here.