one of "those guys" who kind of, well, created TV as we know it

The hat in the air.

The curling wave.

The tunnel full of doors slamming shut.

Three of the most iconic title sequences in television history. One of the most classic original (and lowest budget) horror movies ever made. And a pantload of episodes of a whole lot of shows over the last 30 years.

The common link between Hawaii Five-O, Mary Tyler Moore, Get Smart, Carnival of Souls, Baywatch, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Police Squad!, Falcon Crest, the Six Million Dollar Man, SWAT, Rockford Files, Mannix, and Mission:Impossible is a pretty much unknown Iranian-American director and cinematographer named Reza Badiyi. (Interview here.) I only tweaked to his name recently watching Carnival of Souls, and saw that unusual and yet somehow familiar name. A quick Google and I knew why it was familiar; he was credited with "title visualization" on the Mary Tyler Moore show.

According to Mary Tyler Moore herself (and IMDB), he's the one who came up with her throwing her hat in the air. That's the icon of the show – the moment that captures her original goofy delight in being free in the big city. It's the one credit shot that never changed through the run of the show.

And it seems Badiyi shot the wave curl for the Hawaii Five-O credits, and designed the credits. You watch that minute-long bit of film and the energy and excitement is palpable; it gave the show something the actual episodes didn't really have.

I mean, those two things alone should get him into some sort of Hall of Fame.

And then the directing career, which goes on for over 40 years and is so broad and varied that I think it means that we've all seen at least one show he's directed – he's directed more prime-time US TV than anyone else.

But Badiyi's work on Carnival of Souls as assistant director to me gives his career a whole other meaning. Carnival of Souls was made on a miniscule budget in middle America by a bunch of people who never again made another movie. And it's deeply, originally creepy – not aggressively scary like Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later, just relentless.

I love the fact that one of "those guys" snuck up on us and had a low-key but pervasive influence on our culture.