“Hal said, ‘if you want to direct, you’ve got to get out—find writers, get your own material, start your own projects,’” Cadiff recalls.

Cadiff says he decided to team up with his Harvard mentor, Rubins, who had been working with other writers and musicians on Broadway.

They co-authored Brownstone, which won the Richard Rogers Award for Best Musical in 1984.

Named for the lyricist from the Rogers and Hammerstein duo, this prestigious award also came with a $100,000 prize, which Cadiff used to produce the show.

Before making the jump into television, Cadiff directed Three Guys Naked From the Waist Down, an off-Broadway hit.

He says the show’s success gave him the name he needed to make the transition into television.

“When I went to L. A., they knew I could direct,” Cadiff says. “I just had to learn the cameras.”

Cadiff is best known as Home Improvement’s regular director and producer.

Cadiff ran the show, which garnered 34 Emmy nominations in its eight-year run, for more than four seasons.

His current project, “My Wife and Kids,” airs Wednesdays on ABC and stars Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell-Martin.

Homecoming

Cadiff attended Belmont Hill High School before coming to Harvard and, though he has lived in Los Angeles for many years, he says he still considers the East Coast home.

“If I could be in Boston, I’d be in Boston,” he says. “But if you want to do television, you have to be in L.A.”