Alan Metter obit

Alan Metter, Director of Rodney Dangerfield’s ‘Back to School,’ Dies at 77

Alan Metter, who directed several big-screen comedies, including 'Back to School,' starring Rodney Dangerfield, has died. He was 77. 

He was not on the list.

Alan Metter, who directed several big-screen comedies, including Back to School, starring Rodney Dangerfield, has died. He was 77.

Metter died June 7 of a heart attack in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, his son, assistant director Julian Max Metter, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Alan Metter, who started his career in advertising, also helmed Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985), starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt; Moving (1988), starring Richard Pryor and Randy Quaid; Working Tra$h (1990), starring George Carlin and Ben Stiller; and Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (1994), the seventh and final installment in the franchise.

Metter had directed the 1984 video Rodney Dangerfield: Rappin’ Rodney when he reteamed with the legendary stand-up comedian on Back to School. In the 1986 film, Dangerfield stars as Thornton Melon, a fun-loving millionaire and former diving champion who enrolls in college to help his son (Keith Gordon) make it through fictional Grand Lakes University.

In a 2015 interview, Metter said Orion Pictures was about ready to give up on the movie because of script problems before Caddyshack‘s Harold Ramis came on for a rewrite.

A version of the screenplay “had Rodney losing all his money in a divorce and going up to college and working in the student union and schlepping,” Metter said. “Harold said, ‘Make him rich; he’s funny when he’s tipping.'”

THR‘s review called Back to School “unabashedly light and lowbrow” and a “loony, carefully conceived comedy.” Made for $11 million, it grossed $109 million around the world.

Alan Dennis “Butch” Metter was born on Dec. 19, 1942, in Sharon, Massachusetts. He majored in philosophy at the University of Arizona, graduating in 1965 in what he called the middle of his class. “I made the upper class possible,” he said.

He landed a job as a copywriter at the advertising firm Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDM), where he began writing TV spots for such brands as Volkswagen, Jack in the Box and American Airlines.

One of the first projects he directed was a commercial for Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra, and he went on to work with the likes of Steve Martin, Don McLean and Olivia Newton-John. (He hired famed cinematographers Owen Roizman and Vilmos Zsigmond to shoot music videos featuring the Australian songstress.)

In 1983, Metter directed Martin’s one-hour NBC comedy special, The Winds of Whoopie.

After retiring, Metter moved from Los Angeles to Florida in 2009 and met the “love of his life,” Katherine O’Flynn Christian, his son said. They designed a summer home in Truro, Massachusetts, that graced the cover of New England Home magazine last year.

In addition to his son and Christian, survivors include daughter-in-law Kelsey; granddaughters Jasmine and Kaiya; grandchildren Rhys, Owen and Jack; and Christian’s children, Gillian and Simon.

“The movies I love the most pick you up in the fade in and drop you off at the fade out, and in between these two events you cross into the story and are totally absorbed by it,” he once said. “No bumps. That’s the game. No bumps. Smooth editing with nothing to jar you from the story, giving the audience nothing to think about but the story.”

 

Director

Olivia Newton-John: Video Gold I (2005)

Olivia Newton-John: Video Gold I

7.5

Video

Director (videos A Little More Love, Deeper Than The Night, Totally Hot)

2005

 

The Wonderful World of Disney (1997)

The Wonderful World of Disney

7.4

TV Series

Director

2000

1 episode

 

Passport to Paris (1999)

Passport to Paris

5.2

Video

Director

1999

 

Michael Galeota, Courtnee Draper, Theo Greenly, and Jermaine Williams in The Jersey (1999)

The Jersey

7.3

TV Series

Director

1999

1 episode

 

Billboard Dad (1998)

Billboard Dad

5.2

Video

Director

1998

 

Summertime Switch (1994)

Summertime Switch

5.9

TV Movie

Director

1994

 

G.W. Bailey, Gregg Berger, Leslie Easterbrook, George Gaynes, David Graf, Charlie Schlatter, and Michael Winslow in Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (1994)

Police Academy: Mission to Moscow

3.5

Director

1994

 

Working Tra$h (1990)

Working Tra$h

4.9

TV Movie

Director

1990

 

Randy Quaid in Cold Dog Soup (1990)

Cold Dog Soup

5.6

Director

1990

 

Richard Pryor in Moving (1988)

Moving

6.1

Director

1988

 

Back to School (1986)

Back to School

6.7

Director

1986

 

Hot Rock Videos: Volume 2

Video

Director (segment Rappin' Rodney)

1985

 

Helen Hunt, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Lee Montgomery in Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985)

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

5.9

Director (directed by)

1985

 

Rodney Dangerfield: Rappin' Rodney (1984)

Rodney Dangerfield: Rappin' Rodney

7.4

Music Video

Director

1984

 

The Winds of Whoopie

6.1

TV Movie

Director

1983

 

Olivia Newton-John and Michael Beck in Making Xanadu: The Musical Fantasy Movie (1980)

Making Xanadu: The Musical Fantasy Movie

6.4

TV Movie

Director

1980

 

Olivia Newton-John: Totally Hot (1979)

Olivia Newton-John: Totally Hot

Music Video

Director

1979

 

Olivia Newton-John: Deeper Than the Night (1978)

Olivia Newton-John: Deeper Than the Night

Music Video

Director

1978

 

Olivia Newton-John: A Little More Love (1978)

Olivia Newton-John: A Little More Love

5.8

Music Video

Director

1978

 

Writer

Steve Martin: A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978)

Steve Martin: A Wild and Crazy Guy

7.5

TV Special

Writer

1978

 

Producer

The Winds of Whoopie

6.1

TV Movie

producer

1983