Beth McCarthy-Miller

TV director Beth McCarthy-Miller was certainly no stranger to stress. She was the director of NBC's fast-paced weekly live sketch comedy burlesque "Saturday Night Live" (NBC 1975- ) for eleven years. In 2001, she directed the Super Bowl XXXV Halftime Show. She helmed the MTV Video Music Awards for years, and worked hand-in-hand with Kurt Cobain on the famed Nirvana episode of MTV's "Unplugged" (1993). When it came to television at full fever pitch, the kind of challenging and complex production projects that keep most directors up at night, McCarthy-Miller was at her best -- consistent, fearless, and unflappable.