Story of a Woman might not be lost. Universal released the film and it's been on television before (according to IMDb, it aired on NBC in 1972 and it's possibly run in syndication). Universal keeps their original masters and negatives in a Philadelphia vault so a Universal Vault Series is possible.
Trust me, I've tried everything....contacted Universal (no response), NBC (which last showed the movie in the early 80's, actually), the remaining cast members (Bibi Andersson, in particular), the director's grandson (since the director is long since dead), certain hardcore JW fans etc. No one has it, no one has seen it, no one knows where it is.
About KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATER: According to FSM guide (and Jeff?), JW did 16 episodes in the first season and 2 in the second season. Plus the themes for both seasons. That's a lot of material right there!
Perhaps throw in the music he did for other anthology shows:
* BOB HOPE PRESENTS CHRYSLER THEATER, where he did the theme, 3 first season episodes and 4 third season episodes.
* KRAFT MYSTERY THEATER (summer replacement show of KST), where he wrote a theme and 3 episode scores.
* KRAFT SUMMER MUSIC HALL, where he wrote....well, something, I think.
* ALCOA PREMIERE, where he provided the theme as well as all 22 first season episodes and 18 second season episodes.
* GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER, where he wrote 6 episodes throughout the run
* PLAYHOUSE 90, where he apparently wrote something, although the documentation is fishy.
So.....LOTS of anthology shows on his resume there.
I'm not sure if ANY of these ever got a video release. None of them have any soundtrack release either, although the theme from ALCOA was released on the THEMES TO REMEMBER LP.
No one has it, no one has seen it, no one knows where it is.
I've seen it and someone somewhere knows where it is. I do hope Universal releases it (it's a horrible movie but the music is awesome).
About KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATER: According to FSM guide (and Jeff?), JW did 16 episodes in the first season and 2 in the second season. Plus the themes for both seasons. That's a lot of material right there!
That's correct (if you count the "Paul Ryker" two-parter as one episode). Many of these scores are top notch and if some were able to release them, could easily prduce a 2CD set (or more if you include the Herrmann, Waxman and Rugolo scores).
* BOB HOPE PRESENTS CHRYSLER THEATER, where he did the theme, 3 first season episodes and 4 third season episodes.
He scored at least a couple episodes more than that. And if someone were going to release music from this show, they wouldn't want to leave out all of the great Herrmann, Schifrin, etc.
* KRAFT MYSTERY THEATER (summer replacement show of KST), where he wrote a theme and 3 episode scores.
Read my notes for Nightwatch. This was not a summer replacement for KST; it last aired the summer before KST premiered.
* KRAFT SUMMER MUSIC HALL, where he wrote....well, something, I think.
I still have no idea why this keeps cropping up on Williams filmographies.
* ALCOA PREMIERE, where he provided the theme as well as all 22 first season episodes and 18 second season episodes.
There were 28 first-season episodes and only one of the 29 second-season episodes contains music by another composer (but some of these may have been tracked scores).
* GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER, where he wrote 6 episodes throughout the run
May have been 7 or 8.
* PLAYHOUSE 90, where he apparently wrote something, although the documentation is fishy.
He said in an early interview he worked on this show, but there doesn't seem to be proof one way or the other.
Thanks for the corrections. I was just going by the old FSM guide, but more than a few errors have popped up in that since it was published in the late 90's.
I know you're the go-to guy for ancient Williams stuff, but I DO wonder how you ever came across STORIA. Unless you actually saw it when it last aired on tv in the early 80's.
Thanks for the corrections. I was just going by the old FSM guide, but more than a few errors have popped up in that since it was published in the late 90's.
I know you're the go-to guy for ancient Williams stuff, but I DO wonder how you ever came across STORIA. Unless you actually saw it when it last aired on tv in the early 80's.
A great deal of new information has come to light since that buyer's guide.
You mention Story of a Woman aired on NBC in the 1980s, but I don't know that that's correct. I saw it via a 1980s TBS telecast (with all the nudity snipped out).
Thanks for the corrections. I was just going by the old FSM guide, but more than a few errors have popped up in that since it was published in the late 90's.
I know you're the go-to guy for ancient Williams stuff, but I DO wonder how you ever came across STORIA. Unless you actually saw it when it last aired on tv in the early 80's.
A great deal of new information has come to light since that buyer's guide.
You mention Story of a Woman aired on NBC in the 1980s, but I don't know that that's correct. I saw it via a 1980s TBS telecast (with all the nudity snipped out).
Well, it aired on SOME TV channel in 1982, because that's where the guy who made the music clip currently available on youtube made his audio rip from (sadly, he didn't tape the film itself).
As for JW guides, someone should update the information and do a new one....especially for the older stuff. In your own time, Jeff..... (joke).
Well, it aired on SOME TV channel in 1982, because that's where the guy who made the music clip currently available on youtube made his audio rip from (sadly, he didn't tape the film itself).
It did air on NBC, but not during the 1980s. (It could have run on some NBC affiliate as late-night movie during the 1980s, but not on the network.)
NBC first aired it at 9:00 p.m. on January 24, 1972.
NBC repeated it on May 12, 1972 (at 8:30, following Sanford and Son).
It ran on January 4, 1973, on New York's WOR-TV Channel 9 (an independent station) as the Million Dollar Movie. WOR showed it again on July 10, 1974, November 5, 1979, and May 19, 1980. During this period it ran on other stations around the country and in Canada.
TBS showed it on June 11, 1986, at 3:50 p.m. EDT.
After that, it seems to have disappeared from television.
As for JW guides, someone should update the information and do a new one....especially for the older stuff. In your own time, Jeff..... (joke).
If the old FSM print mag were still around, I'm sure someone would have done that by now.
Another is BACHELOR FATHER (1957-1962). I remember stumbling over youtube clips of this show awhile back (I have no idea if it has a video release), and being surprised to see a young John Forsythe in the title role. I used to be a big fan of his Blake character on DYNASTY when I was a kid, and somehow always pictured him as an 'elderly' guy. Strange to see him as a young and dynamic lead. The FSM guide says he wrote a second season title theme, but I'm not sure that is entirely correct either. From the youtube videos I've seen, the 'old' theme was being used for the opening of several seasons, while Williams theme was used over the END credits at some point. I'm not sure his theme was ever used over the opening credits, but maybe Jeff can clarify.
Another sit-com is the unaired pilot WHO GOES THERE? (1965), which I did a thread on here:
Except for GILLIGAN, I don't think any of these have a video release. And none of them have soundtrack releases.
Granted, all of the music may not be that interesting. Usually just short snippets of 'comic' music, a bit of mickey-mousing there, a bit of 'dialogue music' there, some scene transition music there. But still....it's Williams, and it would be nice to have the best parts represented on disc.
Williams scored the second half of the second season and all of the third season. He also wrote a theme (the third of four themes for the series) that was used for the third season.
Williams scored the second half of the second season and all of the third season. He also wrote a theme (the third of four themes for the series) that was used for the third season.
Used for the opening credits as well, then? I have only heard it as an end credits theme. But I have no idea what season it was. It's a bit confusing.
Btw, funny to see those ads in the beginning, even with Forsythe himself condoning cigarettes (ads for smoking is illegal in Norway these days). But as in the US, we used to have those back in the day too, although mostly before feature films, not in TV.
It cannot really be called a sit-com, but the medical drama BEN CASEY (1961-1966) is somewhere in the same ballpark, perhaps. I had no idea Williams had worked on this untill just a few months ago. I don't know how many episodes he did either, but I don't think the show has been released on video (and of course, again there's no soundtrack).
THE ELEVENTH HOUR (1962-1964) is another medical drama which was recently released in FSM's TV box. This was also a new acquaintance to me, but Williams only did the pilot, right? I don't have the box, so I can't check the liner notes.
And that's it as far as everyday drama/sit-coms are concerned, unless there's something I've missed.
Well, if you stretch the definition even further, there's also CONVOY (1965) with a theme by Bernard Herrmann, a WW2 maritime drama, for which he apparently also wrote 2 episodes.
Moving on, you could make a broad crime/detective category as well.
We've already talked about CHECKMATE (1960-1962), which has been released on video and has the rerecording album.
There's also M SQUAD (1957-1960), which has to be one of the earliest TV shows Williams worked on. According to the FSM guide (feel free to make corrections, Jeff), he did the music for 8 episodes as early as 1958. This show has a DVD release, and there's also a soundtrack which features three Williams tracks (in addition to him playing piano on all of it). I haven't seen a single episode of this, but the album is pretty good and swingin'. Wouldn't mind seeing the rest of the Williams music released.
THE GHOSTBREAKER (1964) is another investigation-type show with a supernatural bent. I haven't seen it (nor do I know if it's available to see), but there was only the unsold pilot. Thankfully, FSM released the score.
Same thing happened with NIGHTWATCH (1965), another unsold pilot, which I haven't seen (but which FSM released recently).
So, did I miss any other crime/detective/investigation shows scored by JW? I don't count ONCE UPON A SAVAGE NIGHT/NIGHTMARE IN CHICAGO, as that originally came from KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATRE.
THE ELEVENTH HOUR (1962-1964) is another medical drama which was recently released in FSM's TV box. This was also a new acquaintance to me, but Williams only did the pilot, right? I don't have the box, so I can't check the liner notes.
THE ELEVENTH HOUR (1962-1964) is another medical drama which was recently released in FSM's TV box. This was also a new acquaintance to me, but Williams only did the pilot, right? I don't have the box, so I can't check the liner notes.
Thanks! So it was episode 6 of season 2 and not the pilot.
One paragraph struck me in particular:
Viewers tuning into NBC during the first week of November 1963 were treated to three original John Williams scores: “The Bronze Locust,” aired at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, November 6, followed by the Kraft Suspense Theater episode “Are There Any More Out There Like You?” at 10 p.m. on Thursday and an adaptation of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” Friday at 8:30 p.m. on Chrysler Theatre.
The last thing is fascinating. The same novel was also adapted into a film here in Norway (in 1970, if memory serves), featuring a score by one of our greatest composers in modern history, Arne Nordheim. Plus cinematography by the legendary Sven Nykvist. I have an excerpt from this score, and it's a pretty awesome avantgarde affair, a pioneering effort in synths and vocals.
I would love to compare Nordheim's interpretation to Williams' -- even though the style would obviously be very different.
Nope, not letting this thread go untill we've tried to chart everything -- and then some.
Let's move on to his western-themed shows.
The first show of this kind that he worked on seems to be WAGON TRAIN (1957-1965). According to the FSM guide again, he scored 6 episodes in total spread over several seasons. Three tracks of his are available on the soundtrack LP, but there's still quite a lot of his material that should see the light of day. This entire show also seems to be out on DVD.
Then there's WIDE COUNTRY (1962-1963), which is also out on DVD. To my knowledge, Williams only wrote the theme for this (available on the THEMES TO REMEMBER LP), but please correct me if he did some episode scores as well.
There was a shortlived TV series adaptation of THE COWBOYS (1972) for which Harry Sukman of BONANZA and SALEM'S LOT fame provided the score. He also adapted Williams' theme for the movie as the opening credits, but I haven't heard this myself, nor seen the show. Haven't sought it out since I have some serious issues with the morality of the film (see separate thread). I also don't think it has a video release of any kind. Would be curious to hear if the theme is very different in Sukman's arrangement, though.
Finally, there have been longstanding rumours that he also worked on THE VIRGINIAN (1962-1971), but I haven't found any validity to this.
Would be cool to see a Williams western box, perhaps also adding his feature film scores for THE COWBOYS, THE PLAINSMAN, THE MISSOURI BREAKS, THE MAN WHO LOVED CAT DANCING and THE RARE BREED.
Williams scored the pilot to WIDE COUNTRY, which aired as an episode of ALCOA PREMIERE. It's included on the WIDE COUNTRY DVD set. But he didn't have anything to do with the series other than the theme.
Williams' music appears frequently in the early seasons of THE VIRGINIAN, often as source music, but it's just music he wrote for the second season of WAGON TRAIN.
He also scored a few TALES OF WELLS FARGO episodes.
Damn, that's true....I forgot about TALES OF WELLS FARGO (1957-1962). This doesn't have a soundtrack release either, but I believe most -- if not all -- of the show is available on DVD.
And WIDE COUNTRY was originally an episode of ALCOA? The mind boggles. So it was a spin-off show, kinda. And then there's the use of his WAGON TRAIN music in VIRGINIAN. But I guess these crossovers were quite customary at the time.
Thor, your title "JW's TV Jungle", for some reason has me picturing the maestro in a loin cloth swinging from vine to vine... perhaps DOGPLANT can do his JW Photo Shop Magic on this?
We're nearing the end of the TV shows that I'm aware of now.
There's one curious entry on his resume that didn't really fit in with the other 'categories' above.
It's a show called WAYNE AND SHUSTER TAKE AN AFFECTIONATE LOOK AT...(1966), which was a documentary series in 6 episodes, highlighting the careers of 6 more or less famous US comedians. Wayne and Shuster was apparently also a comedian duo, although I had not heard of them before (due to my age and being non-American and stuff). Anyways, I've seen one of the episodes, the one highlighting W.C. Fields. Williams' score is in the vein of his sit-com scores above, with brief bursts of comic material. Not terribly exciting, but the project itself is kinda intriguing. He may have done some of the other episodes as well (there's one on the Marx brothers, for example), but I don't really know. I don't think the show is out on video, and there's certainly no soundtrack.
With that, I'm more or less empty. I feel like I've missed a few, though. Did he do any other TV shows back in the day?
Obviously, there are latter-day things like AMAZING STORIES, the NBC music, SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL and MASTERPIECE THEATRE -- all of which have seen some sort of release (whether on CD's or downloads or streaming).
