Howard Zieff

While still a very young man, Los Angeles Art Center alumnus Howard Zieff became a leading figure of the TV commercial world. It was a 21-year-old Zieff who directed the 1964 Alka-Seltzer commercial that popularized the song "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)." Better still, it was Zieff who called the shots on the deathless "spicy meatball" ad for (again) Alka-Seltzer. So dynamic a talent could not be confined to the one-minute form forever, and in 1973 Zieff made his feature-film bow with the comedy Slither. While this and a follow up, the fine comedy Hearts of the West, did little business at the box office, Zieff was luckier with his subsequent star-vehicle hits House Calls (1978), The Main Event (1979), and Private Benjamin (1981). Howard Zieff's most personal project, and one of his best, was the serio-comic 1991 sleeper My Girl. - Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide