| The Trials of O'Brien | |
|---|---|
 Peter Falk and Joanna Barnes, 1965. | |
| Genre | Legal drama/comedy |
| Created by | Gene Wang |
| Developed by | Gene Wang |
| Starring | Peter Falk Elaine Stritch Joanna Barnes |
| Theme music composer | Sid Ramin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 22 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 48 mins. |
| Production companies | Filmways Mayo Productions, The O'Brien Company |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 18, 1965 (1965-09-18) – May 27, 1966 (1966-05-27) |
The Trials of O'Brien is a 1965television series starringPeter Falk as sordid,Shakespeare-quotinglawyer Daniel J. "Danny" O'Brien, and featuringElaine Stritch as hissecretary "Miss G", andJoanna Barnes as his ex-wife Katie.
The series ran for 22 episodes onCBS Television between September 18, 1965 and March 18, 1966.
Among its guest stars:Milton Berle,Robert Blake,David Carradine,Faye Dunaway,Britt Ekland,Tammy Grimes,Buddy Hackett,Gene Hackman,Frank Langella,Angela Lansbury,Cloris Leachman,Roger Moore,Rita Moreno,Pierre Olaf,Estelle Parsons,Joanna Pettet,Brock Peters,Tony Roberts, andMartin Sheen.
| Nº | Title | Directed by: | Written by: | Air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Over Defence Is Out" | Stuart Rosenberg | Richard Alan Simmons | September 18, 1965 (1965-09-18) | |
O'Brien represents a client who was charged with murder after being released from prison. Guest star:Vincent Gardenia | |||||
| 2 | "Bargain Day on the Street of Regret" | Bernard L. Kowalski | Irving Gaynor Neiman | September 25, 1965 (1965-09-25) | |
After winning a boxer in a dice game, O'Brien must defend him when he is charged in a fatal stabbing. Guest stars:Herschel Bernardi andRobert Blake. | |||||
| 3 | "Notes on a Spanish Prisoner" | Stuart Rosenberg | Harold Gast | October 2, 1965 (1965-10-02) | |
A bunco artist (Buddy Hackett) is defended by O'Brien after he is conned out of money by his girlfriend. | |||||
| 4 | "Never Bet on Anything That Talks" | Robert Gist | Robert van Scoyk | October 9, 1965 (1965-10-09) | |
O'Brien's English bookie is charged in the death of an accountant, but the person who can clear him is nowhere to be found. | |||||
| 5 | "What Can Go Wrong" | Lamont Johnson | Irving Gaynor Neiman | October 16, 1965 (1965-10-16) | |
After discovering that a man is dating his ex-wife (Joanna Barnes), O'Brien delightedly sets him up as a "pigeon" in order to trap a killer. Guest stars:Roger Moore andMichael Constantine. | |||||
| 6 | "Goodbye and Keep Cool" | James Sheldon | Gene Wang | October 23, 1965 (1965-10-23) | |
A woman (Cloris Leachman) is accused of murdering her husband, and retains O'Brien to defend her. Guest star:Robert Loggia. | |||||
| 7 | "A Gaggle of Girls" | Stuart Rosenberg | Robert J. Crean | October 30, 1965 (1965-10-30) | |
O'Brien is retained by aMother Superior in order to persuade the owner of an adjoining cafe to permit St. Anthony's Youth Center to use its garden. | |||||
| 8 | "The Trouble with Archie" | Bernard L. Kowalski | George Bellak | November 6, 1965 (1965-11-06) | |
O'Brien investigates the death of a partner in the Seventh Avenue Dress House where his ex-wife works. Guest stars:Lou Jacobi,Theodore Bikel,Simon Oakland andAlice Ghostley. | |||||
| 9 | "How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?" | Robert Gist | George Bellak | November 13, 1965 (1965-11-13) | |
A "heist artist" who is accused of fatally stabbing a dealer of rare violins is defended by O'Brien. Guest stars:Norman Fell,Dana Elcar,Kurt Kasznar,Frank Langella, and former boxerJake LaMotta. | |||||
| 10 | "Charlie's Got All the Luck" | Tom Gries | Heywood Peters | November 20, 1965 (1965-11-20) | |
While being bugged by his ex-wife to sign the lease on her luxurious apartment, O'Brien must defend a client involved in a fatal shooting that follows a fixed horse race. Guest stars:Martin Sheen,Tony Roberts, andPhilip Bosco. | |||||
| 11 | "Picture Me a Murder" | Lawrence Dobkin | George Bellak | November 27, 1965 (1965-11-27) | |
O'Brien represents a movie producer (Alan Alda) who was charged with resisting arrest while filming an "underground" movie. Guest stars:Claude Akins,Charles Grodin,Jessica Walter, andJoanna Pettet. | |||||
| 12 | "Dead End on Flugel Street" | Paul Bogart | Robert van Scoyk | December 3, 1965 (1965-12-03) | |
A burlesque comedian (Milton Berle) is involved in murder when his straight man is killed after making advances on the comedian's wife. | |||||
| 13 | "No Justice for the Judge" | Abner Biberman | David Ellis | December 10, 1965 (1965-12-10) | |
An eccentric judge (Burgess Meredith) engages O'Brien to represent him on charges of mental disability that could remove him from the bench. Guest stars:Robert Emhardt,Barnard Hughes, andKen Kercheval. | |||||
| 14 | "Leave It to Me" | Paul Bogart | Philip H. Reisman Jr. | December 17, 1965 (1965-12-17) | |
O'Brien tries to have a will declared invalid before three greedy heirs (Angela Lansbury,George Rose andThayer David) kill each other in a house that's booby-trapped from cellar to attic. | |||||
| 15 | "Alarums and Excursions" | Richard C. Sarafian | Robert J. Crean | January 7, 1966 (1966-01-07) | |
A foster father (John McGiver), who is content to keep collecting welfare checks, hires O'Brien to keep seven children with him after an adoption judge takes the youths away from him. | |||||
| 16 | "The 10-Foot, 6-Inch Pole" | Stuart Rosenberg | Don Mankiewicz | January 14, 1966 (1966-01-14) | |
O'Brien charges that an assistant district attorney (Murray Hamilton) failed to prosecute a broker (Albert Paulsen) in the death of an accountant. | |||||
| 17 | "A Horse Called Destiny" | Abner Biberman | Robert van Scoyk | January 21, 1966 (1966-01-21) | |
O'Brien represents a spiritualist in the murder of a wealthy client whose death he has predicted. | |||||
| 18 | "The Blue Steel Suite" | * | David Ellis | January 28, 1966 (1966-01-28) | |
Held as a hostage in a jail break, O'Brien is asked to take a prisoner's complaints to the public. | |||||
| 19 | "The Partridge Papers" | Lawrence Dobkin | George Bellak | February 4, 1966 (1966-02-04) | |
O'Brien is forced to operate out of a hospital, after suffering a broken leg in a hit-and-run accident. Writer James Partridge, who was with him at the time of the accident, thinks the "accident" was meant for him, based on his work for British Intelligence. | |||||
| 20 | "The Greatest Game: Part 1" | Abner Biberman | George Bellak | March 4, 1966 (1966-03-04) | |
A Balkan girl (Britt Eklund) steals the Viktor Emblem, a jewel-encrusted egg from a national shrine, and O'Brien is retained to negotiate for its return. | |||||
| 21 | "The Greatest Game: Part 2" | Abner Biberman | George Bellak | March 11, 1966 (1966-03-11) | |
O'Brien's negotiations for the Viktor Emblem get more complicated when the person holding it has his life threatened. NOTE: This two part episode was recut into "Too Many Thieves," a 1967 theatrical release. | |||||
| 22 | "The Only Game in Town" | * | Robert van Scoyk | March 18, 1966 (1966-03-18) | |
Taking the bench as an interim judge on the New York Supreme Court, O'Brien deals with the case of a seaman (Alejandro Rey) accused of murdering a co-worker with a longshoreman's hook.Gene Hackman plays the prosecutor in the case. | |||||
* Unknown
