TV Omnibus
Volume  One (1962–1976)

Johnny Williams · Leonard Rosenman · Don Ellis · Dave Grusin · John Parker · Jerry Fielding · George Duning · Gil Mellé · Lalo Schifrin · Billy Goldenberg

This 5CD set from Film Score Monthly presents scores from a variety of TV movies and weekly television series by an all-star lineup of composers. The booklet accompanying the release includes extensive notes on the shows and their scores—by TV-music authority Jon Burlingame—as well as complete track listings and eye-popping graphics from FSM art director Joe Sikoryak that will immediately take you back to the days when your television had a dial and rabbit ears.

Just as the program listings in the black-and-white inner pages of the old TV Guide supplemented the glossy outer pages, with their full-color photos and in-depth articles, these online notes provide further information about the specific screen action corresponding to each track. Please use the menu at right to navigate between the various pages. The online notes found here are also available as a PDF file for more convenient printing.

Disc One

The first CD of the collection opens with a 1963 televsion score by the now-legendary John Williams, for an episode of the Dr. Kildare spinoff The Eleventh Hour; also included are Harry Sukman’s Eleventh Hour theme and a newly discovered stereo version of “Three Stars Will Shine Tonight” (the vocal version of Jerry Goldsmith’s Kildare theme) as sung by Richard Chamberlain.

Disc one continues with Leonard Rosenman’s score for the TV movie The Phantom of Hollywood (1974), which starred Jack Cassidy as a deranged actor terrorizing a movie studio’s backlot. The first CD concludes with music by Don Ellis for The Deadly Tower, a 1975 docudrama starring Kurt Russell as a deranged Texas college student who murdered or injured dozens of innocent passersby on August 1, 1966.

Disc Two

The second disc presents Dave Grusin’s music for the 1972–1973 espionage series Assignment: Vienna, including two episode scores as well as a healthy selection of library music recorded for the show (most of which is heard here for the first time in its entirety).

Disc Three

The third CD continues with music for Assignment: Vienna, presenting two episode scores by John Parker. The disc conlcudes with Jerry Fielding’s score for the comedic 1973 telefilm Shirts/Skins, about a group of six basketball-playing New York professionals who engage in a contest to locate two basketballs hidden in plain site somewhere in Manhattan. As a bonus, FSM includes Fielding’s brief score for a half-hour TV pilot based on the movie.

Disc Four

The fourth disc is devoted to Then Came Bronson, starring Michael Parks as an ex-reporter travelling the countryside on his motorcycle. This release includes George Duning’s score for the 1969 TV movie as well as two episode scores by Gil Mellé.

Disc Five

The last CD kicks off with Lalo Schifrin’s music for the telefilm Earth II (1971), a pilot for a proposed series about the inhabitants of a space station in Earth orbit. The disc (and the 5CD set) concludes with Billy Goldenberg’s music for the 1976 TV movie High Risk, another pilot for a proposed series, this one about a team of circus performers-turned-thieves who carry out Mission: Impossible-style heists with tacit cooperation from the U.S. government.