The Trials of O'Brien (1965–1966) User Reviews (18)

"Terrific...jus' terrific."

[dugsdale · 8/10 · 6 July 2013]

This was one of my "must-watch" TV shows in the early 60s, along with The Defenders, Route 66, and the vanished summer replacement Diagnosis: Unknown. I'm going to pretty much echo everything said here already; I have a couple of prized DVDs of several TOOB episodes I got from an outfit called Robert's Hard to Find Videos, and the shows pretty much hold up all these years later. (Of course I'm easy to please, what with Falk's charismatic performances plus the fun of seeing regular working New York actors who later became screen icons or quasi-icons, like Martin Sheen, Herschel Bernardi, Alan Alda, Philip Bosco and Elaine Stritch.)

Some of the plot contrivances absolutely strain credulity, possibly due to the pace of production and turnaround; an hour is a lot of time for a writer to fill, and sometimes it shows. But the acting is uniformly superb, the NY locations are memorable, Falk is a pleasure, Joanna Barnes is a dream, Ms. Stritch is a hoot, and it's all just great fun. (A word on the DVDs: most of the episodes seem to have been shot directly off a TV screen by a 16mm camera, and copied many times since, and the quality isn't exactly archival--glarey video and occasionally "underwater"-sounding audio. But everything's there, and the quality's perfectly acceptable for us TOOB diehards, and really--where else ya gonna go to find these episodes?) The overall experience is still, as O'Brien says, "Terrific…jus' terrific."

A rumpled lawyer

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 27 February 2017]

Before he was a rumpled LAPD detective, Peter Falk played a rumpled New York City defense attorney experiencing how the other half of the criminal justice system worked. For one season only Peter Falk starred in The Trials Of O'Brien.

He may have been a bit rumpled around the edges and wore suits he might have slept in to court, but Daniel J. O'Brien was pretty quick witted and thought fast on his feet. It wasn't gradual insinuation the way Lt.Columbo moves in on a suspect.

O'Brien had his problems with an ex-wife and was always late with the alimony check. But somehow Joanna Barnes was patient. It kind of reminded me of that classic William Powell/Jean Arthur film The Ex- Mrs. Bradford. Great friends, but can't live together.

Sad that The Trials Of O'Brien could not find an audience. Hopefully someone will package and market that one season of shows with some great guest stars in their salad days.

Why isn't this on DVD?? Far superior TV series to Columbo

[media-dtv · 9/10 · 23 January 2021]

I loved this great TV series. Peter Falk in his prime. Funny and serious little film noir drama-comedy-mysteries. A popular show and critics liked it too. Beautifully shot in black & white.

But the real mystery is, why isn't this on DVD? This series is far superior to most TV shows released on DVD.

Just gores to show you studio execs don't know have any idea they're doing!

Ahead of its time and a glimpse of things to come

[marilynreece · 8 February 2006]

This series was way ahead of its time, with a main character who was a divorced, cynical, slightly seedy lawyer, and was very rumpled -- a Columbo prototype. Peter Falk's charm was evident, and David Burns added a vaudeville touch. The plots were clever, although not memorable after forty years. But I thought it was terribly sophisticated at the time, and, yes, I can still hum the theme music. Even the cast was ahead of its time. In its one year, the guest cast featured the up-and-coming Frank Langella, Cloris Leachman, Faye Dunaway, Estelle Parsons, Britt Ekland, David Carradine, Gene Hackman, Martin Sheen, Alan Alda, Charles Grodin, Tony Roberts, and Brock Peters; and it was a veritable who's who of familiar faces like Vincent Gardenia, Murray Hamilton, Will Geer, Tammy Grimes, Norman Fell, Jack Albertson, Philip Bosco, Barnard Hughes, Angela Lansbury, Tony Musante, and Al Freeman Jr., among many others. Even the playwright Marc Connelly! I've never caught any reruns, but I would love to see some episodes again to see if it was as good as I thought it was. Doesn't anyone else remember The Trials of O'Brien?

A great TV Series

[ckaikini · 10/10 · 4 December 2006]

I enjoyed this Series very much back in the Sixties and used to stay up late just to watch it. Peter Falk has always been one of my favourite actors and was excellent in this series and I enjoyed the comedy in it - especially the frequent references to "the Great McGonagle". I always thought and hoped it would achieve a higher profile and was very disappointed when it just "disappeared" from the TV schedules and I've never seen it since. However, Peter Falk went on to achieve more success with "Columbo". I also enjoyed the performance of Joanna Cassidy, who I think was the actress who played the former wife of Peter Falk's character in "Trials". There was good chemistry between them. I would love to watch it again but don't know where to look for it!

Maybe the granddaddy of all nontraditional heroes

[bpatrick-8 · 10/10 · 1 February 2011]

I remember watching this show with my dad on Friday nights at 10; I actually preferred this show to the more successful "Man From U.N.C.L.E." running on NBC at the same time. Even at age 11, I found the show amusing, especially O'Brien's repeated efforts to stall ex-wife Katie (Joanna Barnes, on whom I've had a crush ever since) in her demands for her alimony checks. I think one problem with this show is that the public's image of a lawyer in those days was straight-arrow Perry Mason; had "O'Brien" come along when "Columbo" did, I think it would have been a major hit, since by the '70s the public was willing to embrace heroes who didn't seem to fit the mold, like Kojak, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, and--of course--Columbo.

There are two important differences between Peter Falk's two famous characters: O'Brien does spruce himself up when he's in court (of course, when he's in his office the jacket comes off, the tie is loosened, and the shirtsleeves rolled up); also, we know Columbo is happily married (maybe for old times' sake Joanna Barnes could have shown up once as Columbo's wife, but some viewers might remember she was O'Brien's ex-wife and not buy into the idea).

The writing was also about two levels above most of what passed for prime time in the 1965-66 season. And I've read that Peter Falk actually liked doing this show better than he did "Columbo," supposedly because of fewer money hassles with "O'Brien"'s studio, Filmways, than with "Columbo"'s, Universal.

I'd love to see this show again on DVD.

Man! I really wish this was out on video! Vote for it here

[David_Porta · 10/10 · 7 December 2008]

.

Vote for it here - tvshowsondvd.com/shows/Trials-OBrien/4368

Middle-aged, saddled with alimony, and a gambling habit. This is a lawyer show?

It was a lawyer show, but a far cry from The Defenders or Perry Mason, which were the successful lawyer shows that preceded it. Where there's a market for 1, there's a market for 2 or 3 or 4...but with a twist to distinguish each one. Where Perry Mason was a whodunit, The Defenders gave us a weekly sermon on some hifalutin liberal social issue. But O'Brien? He was just trying to keep the wolf from his door. On CBS. The Tiffany Network.

I was 11 years old when this was on, so my bedtime was no longer 7pm. Now it was 9pm. This was an hour show that aired at 8:30. But I would have been more inclined to watch The Rifleman or Ensign Pulver or Burke's Law or The Man from U.N.C.L.E., anyway. Or The Outer limits, or Space Family Robinson, or Batman.

But this was what Mom and Dad wanted to watch. Mom was a fan of Peter Falk's, and she would always tell us he had a glass eye. Dad, after the war in the late '40s, lived in Greenwich Village studying art at the Art Students League, and he used to hang out in the White horse Tavern tossing the bull with the other young turks, his drinking buddies, of whom Peter Falk was one.

For me, as a boy, it, Trials of O'Brien, was what was on TV. And sometimes I was allowed to stay up and watch.

So, from an 11-year old's perspective...

This show had a really hilarious opening sequence every week, in which the protagonist, a New York City street lawyer who likes hanging out with his cronies (and gambling) is in a floating crap game that gets raided by the police, and you see the cops rushing in, and all the miscreants, of which our lawyer protagonist is one, dispersing and fleeing the authorities. Very funny stuff! Opening sequence. Every week.

Also funny was that this was no Brooks Brothers -wearing, respectable, successful-wealthy attorney like the lawyers on The Defenders and Perry Mason were. This was a street lawyer who was always behind on his alimony payments, and his ex-wife would be pestering him to fork over. So, when he WOULD get a case, he didn't get to hold on to the paycheck for very long.

That's it. That was the character. This was a show about a working-class guy who had passed the bar exam. His main connection to Columbo would be the seedy appearance. But Columbo was a straight arrow family man dedicated public servant. O'Brien is closer to Joe Pesci's character in My Cousin Vinnie, but older, and more inclined to hanging out with his cronies than a girlfriend. But, like Cousin Vinnie, this was a legal mystery show cloaked in comedy. And, like Cousin Vinnie, O'Brien was loaded with New York City atmosphere.

And what a boat-load of talent from week to week!

DIRECTORS. Richard Donner. Abner Biberman.

GUEST CAST - ACTRESS. Faye Dunaway. Jessica Walter. Estelle Parsons. Cloris Leachman. Tammy Grimes. Barbara Barrie. Joanna Pettet. Britt Ekland. Zohra Lampert. Alice Ghostley. Sheila MacRae. Angela Lansbury. Rita Moreno.

GUEST CAST - ACTOR. Gene Hackman. Frank Langella. Martin Sheen. Alan Alda. Charles Grodin. David Carradine. Robert Blake. Roger Moore. Robert Loggia. Tony Musante. Nehemiah Persoff. Lou Jacobi. Norman Fell. Harold J. Stone. Alejandro Rey. Barnard Hughes. Philip Bosco. Vincent Gardenia. Kenneth Mars. Reni Santoni ("Poppy" on Seinfeld). David Doyle. Dana Elcar. Michael Constantine. Conrad Bain. Thayer David. Simon Oakland. Tony Roberts. Frank Converse. Claude Akins. Theodore Bikel. Brock Peters. Jack Albertson. Will Geer. Pat Hingle. Buddy Hackett. Mischa Auer. Milton Berle. Burgess Meredith.

...to name a few.

.

Great Show

[brainjots · 10/10 · 26 February 2023]

I found out about this show in an unusual way. I caddied for Peter Falk at Alpine Country Club in New Jersey while he was shooting this show. Mr. Falk was in It's a Mad, Mad World which also featured Dick Shawn, a scratch golfer member of Alpine. Looking at the cast I see quite a few Mad Mad actors appearing in Trials of O'Brien. Anyhow, I started watching the show and really enjoyed it and was upset when it didn't have a second season because I liked the show and especially liked to caddy for Mr. Falk. I didn't see him after the show was cancelled. Some network like TVLAND should pick up this show because the cast lineup is fantastic and old New York never gets old.

Tom McBride.

New York actors made this show work

[prrqfmc · 10/10 · 17 July 2022]

I was 11 in 1965 when my sister and I glommed onto this show. It was filmed at the Filmways studios in Manhattan at 246 East 127th Street originally built for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1920s. The New York location enabled the show to get actors who kept their game up with theater work more frequent in New York than in Hollywood I suspect. Not stars, no; nevertheless, actors who had theater work available to hone their craft. It was shot (by Boris Kaufman?) in black and white which was also more theatrical or dramatic. The louche atmosphere and characters were irresistible to children who wanted something a bit naughty.

Great TV Series

[SamuelJohnson · 16 February 2004]

It's been a long time ago, but I know this was a critical success. When it was canceled, it caused a "save this show" letter-writing campaign, to no avail. It was about a rather deadbeat, but smart lawyer, fending off bill collectors and while taking on even more deadbeat clients. Falk did his usual great job and I think some of this character spilled over to Columbo. I would love to see if any of the 13 was it? episodes still exist. I would buy them all!

One of the Great Lost Shows

[rickhoover · 13 June 2003]

I recall nothing else about this wonderful show except that the writing was SO good even as a teenager I could tell it was special. The only actor who registered with me was the superb Peter Falk. Now that I see that Joanna Barnes and Elaine Stritch were regulars it gives me even more desire to see those old shows again. I remember I was a fan of the show from the very first episode and was sorry no one else was noticing it.

Great TV series

[garylee6b · 25 November 2004]

I remember liking "The Trials of O'Brien" a lot. It wasn't like any other cop show or lawyer show of that time... an unusual mix of the comically absurd and serious drama. Unlike Perry Mason who always stayed within the law (even when it appeared that he hadn't for most of the episode), O'Brien was known to have "bent the truth a little" to make sure his client got a "fair go".

The 90 min (?) O'Brien TV movie, "Too Many Thieves", sometimes appears on the Showtime channel (in America). This movie is an edited version of the two part story "the Greatest Game"...but it really isn't typical of the rest of the series...eg. the Ex-Mrs O'Brien makes only a very brief appearance in it and I can't remember seeing "the Great MacGonigal" at all. Instead the movie is about a jewel heist and O'Brien trying to stop the baddies killing the heroine (Britt Eklund).

Like other fans, I hope the other episodes in this short-lived series will some day be shown again on TV.

Wow! This one really goes back!

[EW-3 · 23 March 2004]

I have little detailed recollection of this show - I was only 8 or 9 when it aired - but I remember liking it a lot. I remember one episode that opened with O'Brien having a casket/corpse brought into a courtroom (cannot recall why), much to the annoyance of the judge. It must have been a well-written series, as that would explain why I liked it so much. And Falk, of course, was great. He HAD to have borrowed from this to create the "Columbo" character. I also very much recall the jazzy opening theme! Pity we don't see shows like this aired on TV Land or some other cable venue. Why not?

Great Show, Finished last

[joesanchez58 · 22 January 2003]

Peter Falk portrayed a maverick defense attorney with great zest. Elaine Stritch was his secretary, Joanna Barnes his ex wife with whom he was on very good terms, and the scene stealer was David Burns as the Great Mc Gonigle ( name borrowed from a WC Fields flick ). I can't recall any specific episodes except the show was set in New York City, the script ahead of its time, the acting superior, the stories always believable and interesting, and the theme music was outstanding. Burns/Mc Gonigle was Falk/O'Brien's leg man. He wore an old overcoat and seemed to be chained to bulging leather briefcase, the old fashioned type with the metal three position latch across the top. O'Brien would need some piece of information and invariable Mc Gonigle would reach into some deep recess of his bag and whip out the perfect document. I remember Falk/O'Brien one time remarking as if in wonder, "Don't ever lose that bag." That year Trials of O Brien finished dead last in the Prime time Nielson ratings ( something like 67th out of 67 shows). But to me it was one of the best things ever on TV, which is probably why I have watched perhaps two weekly series of any kind since ( the other being The Wonder Years).

Peter Falk gives one of the 1960's great series performances

[Cheyenne-Bodie · 28 October 2006]

Peter Falk won an Emmy for "The Price of Tomatoes", an episode of "The Dick Powell Show" written by Richard Alan Simmons. Inger Stevens, Falk's co-star, was also nominated for an Emmy. In reference to Simmons, Falk said "the man is a mountain." Falk and Simmons continued their partnership with "Trials of O'Brien", and Simmons proved Falk was right.

Falk was superb in the role of Daniel J. O'Brien, a disheveled, odd-ball, humorous attorney, who happened to be very effective. The hour-long series was a comedy/drama/murder mystery. There was no trenchant analysis of social issues as in "The Defenders". Indeed, minimal time was spent in court. The series attempted to capture the sparkle of old movies like "The Thin Man". At the end of most episodes, Falk would gather all the suspects and determine the killer. The consistently high quality of the writing was amazing.

This show was all Falk, but the supporting regulars were also extraordinary. Joanna Barnes was his ex-wife, Ilka Chase was his ex-mother-in-law, David Burns was his investigator, and Elaine Stritch was his secretary. Sexy, sophisticated, smart Joanna Barnes was at her very best here, but she wasn't used anywhere near enough. She could have been a break-out star if she had been given more screen time.

The show was set in and filmed in New York, which almost seemed to be a requirement for quality drama series in the 60's. Many of the guest stars had stunning work ahead of them: Alan Alda, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Roger Moore, Robert Blake, Angela Lansbury, David Carradine, Martin Sheen, Frank Langella and Jessica Walter, to name a few.

"O'Brien" was on Saturday nights after Perry Mason, another detective-lawyer. The line producer was Jon Epstein ("Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law", "Rich Man, Poor Man").

Richard Alan Simmons later produced a season of the 1970's Columbo, and Jon Epstein produced some Columbo episodes in the early 1990's shortly before his death. A Columbo episode is dedicated to Epstein's memory.

TV Guide critic Cleveland Amory said the best series performance of 1965-66 was given by Patrick McGoohan ("Secret Agent"), but Amory gave honorable mention to Ben Gazzara ("Run For Your Life") and Peter Falk ("Trials of O'Brien"). None of those three actors was nominated for an Emmy that season. Amory said some of the later episodes of "O'Brien" were truly magnificent.

"Trials of O'Brien" may have been a business failure, but Peter Falk and executive producer Richard Alan Simmons achieved greatness with this show.

Sketchy memories at best

[asmo-4 · 22 August 2004]

Although I remember thoroughly enjoying the show at age 15-16, I was aware that it was more adult than most TV fare. I seem to remember only individual incidents rather than plot lines. For example, O'Brien seemed to be having an affair with his ex-wife and them being in a panic when he has lost the key to his apartment and she picks the lock with a hairpin. Always having been a Peter Falk fan I would watch anything he was in, and realized early in life that he was somewhat unconventional. Another memory of the show is of O'Brien driving around in his old convertible with a briefcase of important papers that he has just thrown on the back seat. Would love to see some of the episodes as an adult.

Anyone out there actually seen this show??

[big_bellied_geezer · 21 August 2002]

Any show that starred Peter Falk and Elaine Stritch can't be all that bad! I've heard the theme music on a old Ray Martin LP from the mid 60's and the music sounds great. If anyone remembers this show, please share your memories about the show! I'm very suprised that nobody has written about it considering the enduring popularity of it's stars.

The show that replaced Slattery's People

[coop-16 · 24 June 2011]

After CBS killed that wonderful show, Slattery's People, they replaced it with a very different high quality show, The Trials of O'Brien. Peter Falk played O'Brien, an flamboyant Shakespeare quoting defense attorney with a fondness for playing the pony's and a knack for solving crimes. Elaine Strich played his secretary, and the shows featured a cornucopia of great guest stars. Like Slattery's People , it was a rating flop that was well-liked by the critics and a handful of intelligent fans. Like Slattery's People, it molders in the CBS vaults, remembered only by a handful of aficionados. Amazingly, Peter Falk thinks it was better than Columbo. Unfortunately, we will probably never know.

Wh, oh why, doesn't CBS turn copies of all its old shows over to UCLA or the Paley center, let alone release them on DVD?