Joseph Lawrence Scanlan (August 16, 1929 – December 18, 2020) was an American television director who early in his career was the primary director (1,665 of 1,710 episodes) of the NBC-TV soap opera Somerset (1970–76). He went on to direct individual episodes of numerous TV shows, TV movies, and one feature film. His last credit was a 2002 episode of Flatland. ()