Mel Swope is a television and stage director who directed the 1964 pilot The Land of Tinkerdee. A San Francisco native, Swope attended San Jose State College with Jerry Juhl, and directed and helped adapt Juhl's local TV puppet series Sylvie and Pup in 1958.
Swope's television career began at ABC-TV, where he directed The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show. He later served as producer, executive producer, and director for many television movies and series such as The Partridge Family, Police Story, Fame, and Miami Vice. In 1999, he retired from television and later directed local musical theatre productions, including adaptions of West Side Story, A Chorus Line, and Cabaret.