Rollin Augustus "Rod" Daniel III (August 4, 1942 – April 16, 2016) was an American television and film director, active from the late 1970s to the early 2000s.

After returning to his native Tennessee from the Vietnam War, he chose to enter the advertising business, where he directed several commercials before moving to Los Angeles.

and Newhart, until he eventually grew restless with television following the failure of a sitcom he had worked on and chose to make the leap into feature films.

[2] Rod Daniel attended high school at Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, Tennessee (near Nashville) and graduated in 1960.

[4] He was a student at Davidson College for two years, but then transferred to Vanderbilt University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1964.

Daniel said that although there was an expectation for him to be like his father, who had also attended Vanderbilt, he chose instead to enter the advertising business after returning to Nashville following his service in the Vietnam War as a lieutenant of the United States Army.

He directed commercials for companies including Hallmark Cards and Procter & Gamble before heading to Los Angeles about one year later.

Wilson had a new show in development, called WKRP in Cincinnati, and invited Daniel to watch the taping of the pilot.

He directed several episodes of The Duck Factory, starring Jim Carrey, but the series was unsuccessful, and Daniel decided to switch to films.

[9] Critical reception was mostly negative,[10] but the film grossed $78 million worldwide and spawned two direct-to-video sequels, K-911 and K-9: P.I., both of which featured Belushi reprising his role.

[11][12][13] Next, Daniel directed The Super, released in 1991, which starred Joe Pesci as a wealthy superintendent forced to live in one of his own poorly-maintained buildings.

[17] Janet Maslin was more positive and wrote that Daniel's direction was "snappy and broad" and that he offered many opportunities for Pesci to "show off his talents for physical clowning".

[20][21][22] After Beethoven's 2nd, Daniel signed on as director for military comedy McHale's Navy, based on the television series of the same name; he was eventually replaced by Bryan Spicer.

[23][24] He returned to directing television in the 1990s, including episodes of shows like Caroline in the City, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Suddenly Susan.

[1] After the film aired, Daniel retired from the business, noting to the Tribune that he anticipated to do much more work but found himself receiving very few offers.

Lucas spoke warmly of his childhood, believing that Daniel's ability to channel his feelings and issues about his own father in Teen Wolf had helped him.

[5] After Daniel's retirement from the industry, he moved back to a rural home in Franklin, Tennessee for a few years, but found himself longing for city living.

To get his images, he often took time off to ride his Harley-Davidson motorcycle through the rural southwest U.S. for weeks, capturing scenes of forgotten towns and empty buildings.