OW 70s/80s TV links of interest

[Harvey Chartrand]

Does anyone know where I can find a good, detailed episode guide of ORSON WELLES' GREAT MYSTERIES anthology series, filmed in the early seventies? Did Welles direct an episode under an assumed name?

[Harvey Chartrand]

Found it.
Being a Welles completist, I am reproducing the episode guide below.
Anyone expecting a TV equivalent of Mercury Theatre on the Air was disappointed by this pedestrian series, filmed on videotape and hosted by a bored-looking Welles in his F for Fake garb of billowing cape and sloping hat. Great Mysteries lasted but one season (26 episodes). Welles didn't direct any episodes.
_

Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries
Episode Guide

A Terribly Strange Bed starring Edward Albert and Rupert Davies; story by Wilkie Collins; directed by Alan Cooke
An Affair of Honour starring Harry Andrews, Michael Gambon and Jeremy Clyde; script by Carey Harrison; story by F. Britten Austin; directed by Alan Bromly
Death of an Old-Fashioned Girl starring Francesca Annis, Carol Lynley and John Le Mesurier; story by Stanley Ellin
Money to Burn starring Victor Buono and Olga Georges-Picot; story by Margery Allingham
Battle of Wits starring Ian Bannen; script by Roger Marshall; directed by James Ferman
Farewell to the Faulkners starring Keith Baxter; directed by Peter Sykes
The Ingenious Reporter starring Geoffrey Bayldon, Ronald Radd and David Birney; script by Carey Harrison
Ice Storm starring Robert Beatty, Thorley Walters and Claire Bloom; script by N.J. Crisp
Trial for Murder starring Ian Holm; story by Charles Dickens
For Sale – Silence starring Jack Cassidy
The Dinner Party starring Joan Collins; script by Julian Bond
The Monkey’s Paw starring Cyril Cusack, Patrick Magee and Michael Kitchen; script by David Ambrose; story by W.W. Jacobs; directed by Alan Gibson
La Grande Bretèche starring Peter Cushing and Susannah York; story by Honoré de Balzac
The Inspiration of Mr. Budd starring Hugh Griffith; story by Dorothy L. Sayers; directed by Peter Sasdy
In the Confessional starring Jose Ferrer and Milo O’Shea; story by Alice Scanlan Reach
Captain Rogers starring Donald Pleasence and Willoughby Goddard; script by Harry Green; story by W.W. Jacobs
Where There Is a Will starring Richard Johnson; directed by Mark Cullingham
A Time to Remember starring Charles Gray and Patrick Macnee
Under Suspicion starring Kenneth Haigh and Janice Rule
Come into My Parlor starring Anne Jackson and Dana Wynter; story by Alice Scanlan Reach
The Power of Fear starring Shirley Knight and Don Murray; script by N.J. Crisp; story by Lawrence Treat
The Leather Funnel starring Christopher Lee, Simon Ward and Jane Seymour; story by Arthur Conan Doyle
A Point of Law starring Alec McCowen; story by W. Somerset Maugham
Compliments of the Season starring Eli Wallach; story by O. Henry; directed by Philip Saville
Unseen Alibi starring Dean Stockwell; story by Bruce Graeme
The Furnished Room starring Clarence Williams III and Irene Worth; story by O. Henry

[Le Chiffre]

That's a pretty impressive list of actors - too bad the series wasn't better. With little involvement from Welles beyond hosting, it sounds like the TV equivalent of The Black Museum. There was another mystery series for TV that Welles was going to host in the early 80s, called Scene of the Crime. I saw the pilot on VHS. Not very memorable, I'm afraid. Also, in the lost opportunity dept.: Burt Reynolds says that, the day before Welles died, there was an agreement reached with Spielberg to let him direct an episode of Amazing Stories. I wonder what story he would have chosen.

The early 70s show that I'm longing to see again is Welles hosting The Kopykats, with Rich Little, Frank Gorshin, George Kirby and other impressionists. One of the funniest TV series I've ever seen. Does anyone know of any bootleg copies floating around out there?

[Skylark]

Here is a comic book that is very good film noir - Yuletide greetings (and a goose liver) to one and all!

[url]http://skylark-.blogspot.com/search/label/Film%20Directors[/url]

[Wellesnet]

Glenn Gordon Caron on Orson Welles' appearance on "Moonlighting" ... very touching
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJs3VSVFYCk

[Wellesnet]

The late, great Robin Williams, from Mork & Mindy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdz4dCMGbbw

Orson:
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2011 ... /Orson.jpg

*

As John Houseman, whom he studied with at Juliard (from an SCTV skit):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuxBUxTwAXI

He has many quotes reminiscent of the wit of Oscar Wilde or Mark Twain:
"Politicians are like diapers; they should be changed often; and for the same reason..."

[Wellesnet]

Nice piece in The New Yorker, "Suicide: A Crime of Loneliness"
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultur ... loneliness

(Williams) played an alien so well because he was an alien in his own mind, permanently auditioning to be one of us. Suicide is a crime of loneliness, and adulated people can be frighteningly alone. Intelligence does not help in these circumstances; brilliance is almost always profoundly isolating.

"We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Love and friendship are the nearest things we can find to create the illusion that we are not totally alone." - Orson Welles, "Someone To Love"

[tonyw]

Like Orson, he faced a changing world where projects appropriate to his genius were in short supply. As he once said, the good projects were low paid and his financial commitments prevented him from undertaking many. Thus he faced a return to television and its constraints as well as a sequel to MRS DOUBTFIRE probably for box-office reasons. Unlike Orson, he was in the arly stages of a debilitating disease and like former Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch could probably not cope with it in addition to all his problems. His demise is sad and like Orson we can only speculate how things could have been much different.

[Wellesnet]

First time a complete episode of this early 70's series has surfaced online. Hopefully the one hosted by Orson Welles will appear soon too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSxOCQQjltg

[Terry]

Our friend the professional prestidigitator was limited to narration on this special, which is fine as it is to vomit.

https://youtu.be/BJdzemwFc6A?t=2560