Mark Corwin (June 13, 1948 - July 25, 2013) was a director on various shows beginning in the 1970s.
Corwin, a native of Los Angeles, began his career as a stage manager before becoming associate director on several NBC game shows, including The Hollywood Squares (circa 1978). He is also known to have worked on High Rollers (1978-80), Card Sharks (1978-81), Password Plus (1979-82), Super Password (1984-89), Monopoly (1990), and Jeopardy! (both the Fleming and Trebek versions).
Wheel of Fortune[]
"Mark Corwin is not only a fine director, but universally beloved."
Mark appears to have joined the show as an associate director (to Dick Carson) in the summer of 1980, with the earliest known episode crediting him being the August 13, 1980 show. After filling in for Dick Carson a few times, he became the show's main director from May 24, 1999 until shortly into taping for Season 31. Corwin directed just 12 episodes of Season 31: the weeks of September 30 and October 14, 2013, plus the "sixth show" tapings aired November 5 and 7.
Corwin is known to have appeared on-camera at least twice: in the booth during the credits of the ceremonial 4,000th nighttime show (November 10, 2003), and again on November 17, 2011 when Pat gave the above quote after the puzzle TELEVISION DIRECTOR.
Mark shared one Daytime Emmy for Wheel (Most Outstanding Game Show, 2011) and was nominated for three others (Outstanding Directing in a Game/Audience Participation Show in 2003, Most Outstanding Game Show in 2010 and 2012).
Death[]
Corwin died at the age of 65 due to cancer.[1] He is survived by his wife Robin (whom he met while they were both working on Wheel) and two children (Chloe and Michael). On September 4, Wheel edited a short tribute to him into that day's repeat, replacing the original end segment of the May 29 show.