Starting as associate producer of Hill Street Blues (1981), he graduated to directing his first episode in Season 2. He almost got fired after one day. Boss Steven Bochco went ballistic when he realized that Anspaugh had only shot what he thought was a perfect single master, neglecting to capture enough coverage.
If I hadn't cut my teeth on that kind of TV [Hill Street Blues (1981)], I would've never been able to do Le grand défi (1986). No textbook can teach you the stuff I learned on my feet. I'd come to work every day with a detailed game plan, but never executed it--everything went to hell in a handbasket in two hours. It was a crash course in learning how to think on the fly.
