Abby Singer


Abner E. "Abby" Singer was an American production manager and assistant director in film between the 1950s and the 1980s. His name has become synonymous in Hollywood with the second-to-last shot of a production day; this shot is known throughout the industry as the "Abby Singer".
According to Burt Bluestein of the Directors Guild of America, "It all began when Abby was a 1st AD and people on the crew would ask him how many shots were left to do before lunch. Abby would answer, 'We'll do this and one more.' At the end of the day, when they asked what was to be done before the wrap, Abby would say, 'This and one more, then we're out of here.'"
Singer himself explained that he had a very specific reason for calling out the second to last shot; "In television, we would make maybe five or six moves during the day — going from one set to another, or from one stage to another. Or we'd move from the back lot to a stage. I would say, 'Fellas, we'll do this and one more and then we're moving.' This would give the crew a chance to begin wrapping up their equipment or to call transportation for gurneys, so they'd be ready to get out quickly... I did it really to save time for the director. If we did it during the day, I could save 10 to 15 minutes each time we had to move. I could give the director another hour a day of shooting."
While the second-to-last shot of the day is called the "Abby Singer," the final shot of the production day is referred to as a "Martini Shot," referring to a well-earned cocktail at the end of a hard day.
Abby Singer died of cancer on March 13, 2014, in California at the age of 96.

Selected filmography

As assistant director

  • Death of a Salesman
  • Income Tax Sappy
  • Shot in the Frontier
  • The Jack Benny Show
  • 7th Cavalry
  • The Guns of Fort Petticoat
  • M Squad TV Series
  • Hellcats of the Navy
  • The Guns of Fort Petticoat
  • 7th Cavalry
  • He Laughed Last
  • Over-Exposed
  • A Lawless Street
  • Gypped in the Penthouse
  • Cannibal Attack
  • Shot in the Frontier
  • Massacre Canyon
  • ''Income Tax Sappy''

    As production manager

  • Columbo: Sex and the Married Detective
  • Columbo: Murder, Smoke and Shadows
  • Columbo: Columbo Goes to the Guillotine
  • Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
  • Remington Steele TV series
  • * "Signed, Steeled & Delivered" TV Episode
  • * "Your Steele the One for Me" TV Episode
  • * "Sting of Steele" TV Episode
  • * "Steele's Gold" TV Episode
  • * "Vintage Steele" TV Episode
  • * "Steele in the News" TV Episode
  • * "Steele Among the Living" TV Episode
  • The Bob Newhart Show
  • WKRP in Cincinnati
  • Hill Street Blues
  • St. Elsewhere
  • A Little Sex
  • First, You Cry
  • Something for Joey
  • The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  • "Rhoda" TV Series
  • The Doris Day Show TV Series
  • The Meanest Men in the West
  • Out of Sight
  • Gunsmoke TV Series