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Barry Shear began directing live TV shows when the medium was still in its swaddling clothes. Shear confined himself to the 21-inch arena until 1968, when he directed his first theatrical feature, the entertaining if vastly overrated speculative melodrama Wild in the Street. He functioned as both producer and director on two of his four big-screen efforts, The Todd Killings (1971) and Across 110th Street (1972). After The Deadly Trackers, Shear returned to his forte, television. Working primarily for Universal Studios, Barry Shear turned out individual episodes of such weekly series as Night Gallery and Name of the Game; he also directed many a feature-length TV pilot, some of which were spun off into series (Strike Force, The San Pedro Bums etc.), but most of which (Jarrett, Keefer) never progressed past the first installment.