Michael Schultz



Michael Schultz (born November 10, 1938) is a director and producer who directed Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies, the first of four TV movies made for The Family Channel based on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, along with the "Russia, March 1909" segment of Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father (later re-edited as Travels with Father), the "Tangiers, July 1909" segment of My First Adventure, the "Morocco, September 1917" segment of Tales of Innocence, and the "Princeton, June 1919" segment of Winds of Change.

Schultz was impressed by the amount of preproduction work George Lucas arranged and how its benefits were reflected in the ultimate quality visible onscreen:


 * Lucas would hire the production designer and a location scout and have them work for a year on a TV one-hour or two-hour movie, find four or five perfect locations, design the artwork that had to be painted around the location to transport the audience into the story, and then bring the director in and give the director five options of, "Okay, this is what we found that fits the graphic design. What do you like?" So, it was money that seemed maybe extravagant to a certain kind of mentality, but was brilliantly thought-out and very effective in the finished product.

Beyond his contributions to The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Schultz has been a prolific director for film, television, and theatre over the course of several decades. As a film director, he is perhaps best known for cult classics such as Cooley High, Car Wash, and Krush Groove, with other feature film credits including Together for Days, Honeybaby, Honeybaby, Greased Lightning, Which Way Is Up?, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Scavenger Hunt, Carbon Copy (with Warren Munson), The Last Dragon (with Ernie Reyes Jr.), Disorderlies, Livin' Large! (with Shilla Benning and Julia Campbell), and Woman Thou Art Loosed.

Among Schultz's extensive television credits are the TV movies Change at 125th Street, Benny's Place, The Jerk, Too, Timestalkers (with Lane Leavitt), The Spirit, Tarzan in Manhattan, Jury Duty: The Comedy (with Joshua Rifkind), Hammer, Slammer, & Slade (with Sam Menning), Day-O (with Richard K. Olsen, Hamilton Perkins, and Selena Vidya), Shock Treatment (with Corey Carrier), Killers in the House (with Andrew Divoff), and LA Law: The Movie; along with episodes of mutiple series such as Starsky and Hutch, The Practice, Charmed, Ally McBeal (starring Jane Krakowski, with Anne Heche appearing in one of his episodes), Everwood (also with Anne Heche in one episode), Jack & Bobby, Brothers & Sisters (with Denis O'Hare appearing in one of his episodes), Chuck, Arrow, black•ish, New Girl, and Black Lightning.

The numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway productions directed by Schultz include Song of the Lusitanian Bogey, Kongi's Harvest, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, Operation Sidewinder, The Dream on Monkey Mountain, What the Wine-Sellers Buy, and Mule Bone.

Schultz is not related to fellow director Carl Schultz.