# Betty Thomas

Betty Thomas (born Betty Lucille Nienhauser; July 27, 1947) is an American director and actress. She is known for her role as Sergeant Lucy Bates on the television series Hill Street Blues.

## Early life

Thomas was born Betty Lucille Nienhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1947 to Nancy (née Brown) and William H. Nienhauser Sr. She graduated from Willoughby South High School, Willoughby, Ohio, in 1965. After high school Thomas attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Upon graduating Thomas worked as an artist and taught high school before becoming a part of The Second City, the premiere venue for improvisational theater in Chicago.

### Second City

Thomas came to her entertainment career by a circuitous route. While working as an artist and school teacher, she became a waitress at The Second City to earn extra cash for a trip abroad. While waiting on tables, Thomas was encouraged to try out for the troupe, and subsequently joined the company.
She was praised for her brassy and outspoken performances, and became the first woman to direct one of their MainStage theatre productions. Thomas also worked with several up and coming Second City alumni, most notably Bill Murray. When The Second City opened a Los Angeles branch, Thomas moved west. She later reunited with some of the Second City cast members when she appeared as special guest star in a 1983 episode of SCTV.

## Career
### Acting career

Upon her arrival in Los Angeles, Thomas received many bit parts in low-budget films like Chesty Anderson, USN (1976), the Robert Zemeckis film Used Cars (1980) as well as sketch comedy films like Tunnel Vision (1975), and Loose Shoes (1980), the latter of which featured Second City classmate Bill Murray.
While Thomas had been building her career in comedy, her breakthrough role as an actress came when she was cast in the role of police officer (later Sergeant) Lucy Bates on the TV series Hill Street Blues (1981–87). Over the course of the series her character goes from inexperienced rookie to confident sergeant. She received seven Emmy nominations for best supporting actress, and took home the award for the 1984–85 season.

### Directing career

After having lied to a Variety reporter about planning on directing a Hooperman episode, she was given a real opportunity by the show's executive producer, and from there her directing career began. After making several other acting appearances, Thomas began directing episodes of Hooperman in addition to the premiere episodes of Doogie Howser, M.D. in 1989. She went on to direct episodes of Arresting Behavior and several episodes of the HBO series Dream On, the latter of which earned her an Emmy for best director. Thomas is nicknamed "The Midnight Queen" because of her preference for nighttime shoots.
In 1992 Thomas took the next step in her directing career with her feature debut Only You. A slight, playful romantic comedy, Only You was a departure from Thomas's experience on Hill Street Blues or her subsequent television directing. Wayne Rice, the film's producer and screenwriter, said that Thomas was chosen to direct due in part to the film's plot in which a man is on a hapless quest to find the perfect woman. He felt it would be considered inherently sexist without a female director.
Three years following the release of Only You, Thomas directed The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), a postmodern satirical vision of the 1970s television series The Brady Bunch. The Brady Bunch Movie was a box office hit with domestic ticket sales of $46,576,136, nearly quadrupling its $12 million budget and making it at the time one of the highest-grossing films directed by a woman.
She followed The Brady Bunch Movie with other successes, including Private Parts (1997), Dr. Dolittle (1998), 28 Days (2000), and John Tucker Must Die (2006). In 2009 Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel became the first female-directed picture to gross more than $200 million and made her the most successful woman director up to that time at the box office. In 2012, Thomas directed a low-budget online series called Audrey for the WIGS YouTube channel. In 1998, her Tall Trees productions company was signed to a first look deal with Columbia Pictures.
In 2001, Thomas won the Dorothy Arzner Directors Award of the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards, presented by the Los Angeles chapter of the Women in Film Organization..
In 2021, Thomas received the Directors Guild of America Robert B. Aldrich Award.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1992 | Only You | Director | |
| 1995 | The Brady Bunch Movie | Director | |
| 1997 | Private Parts | Director | |
| 1998 | Dr. Dolittle | Director | |
| 1998 | Can't Hardly Wait | Producer | |
| 2000 | 28 Days | Director | |
| 2000 | Charlie's Angels | Executive Producer | |
| 2001 | Silicon Follies | Executive Producer | TV movie |
| 2002 | I Spy | Producer, Director | |
| 2004 | Surviving Christmas | Producer | |
| 2005 | Guess Who | Executive Producer | |
| 2006 | John Tucker Must Die | Director | |
| 2009 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel | Director | |

### Television

TV series
| Year | Title | Notes |
| 1989 | Hooperman | Episodes: "Goodnight, Sweet Hooperman", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Morning and Night", "In the Still of My Pants" |
| 1989 | Doogie Howser, M.D. | Episodes: "Doogie The Red-Nosed Reindeer", "The Ice Queen Cometh" |
| 1990 | Mancuso, FBI | Episodes: "Night of the Living Shred", "Shiva Me Timbers", "Murder of Pearl" |
| 1990 | Parenthood | Episodes: "Thanksgiving with a T that Rhymes with B that Stands for Basketball", "I Never Invested for My Father" |
| 1990–1996 | Dream On | 18 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (1993) |
| 1991 | Sons and Daughters | Episode: "The Thing" |
| 1991 | Midnight Caller | Episode: "Her Dirty Little Secret" |
| 1991 | Shannon's Deal | Episode: "Matrimony" |
| 1992 | On the Air | Episode #1.6 |
| 2006 | The Loop | Pilot episode |
| 2015 | Grace and Frankie | Episode: "The Fall" |
TV movies
| Year | Title | Notes |
| 2007 | Dash 4 Cash | |
| 2006 | That Guy | |
| 2003 | Senor White | |
| 2001 | Silicon Follies | |
| 1996 | The Late Shift | Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Specials |
| 1994 | Couples | |
| 1994 | My Breast | |

### Acting roles

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1976 | Tunnel Vision | Bridgit Bert Richards | |
| 1976 | Jackson County Jail | Waitress | |
| 1976 | The Last Affair | | |
| 1976 | Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy | Party Guest #1 | |
| 1977 | Dog and Cat | Waitress | |
| 1978 | C.P.O. Sharkey | Seaman Daley | |
| 1978 | Outside Chance | Katherine | |
| 1980 | Used Cars | Bunny | |
| 1980 | Loose Shoes | Biker Chic #1 | |
| 1981 | The Nashville Grab | Maxine Pearce | |
| 1982 | Twilight Theater | | |
| 1982 | Homework | Reddogs Secretary | |
| 1983 | When Your Lover Leaves | Maude | |
| 1985 | ABC Afterschool Specials | Dr. Mary Lewis | |
| 1987 | Prison for Children | Angela Brannon | |
| 1981–1987 | Hill Street Blues | Sgt. Lucy Bates | |
| 1989 | The Tracey Ullman Show | Miss Belts, Gym Teacher | Segment titled "Francesca: A Physical Education" |
| 1989 | Troop Beverly Hills | Velda Plendor | |
| 2018 | Kidding | Herself | Episode: "Green Means Go" |