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.
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. 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 reunited with her
Troop Beverly Hills costar
Shelley Long when she 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. 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==