There's the music he wrote for ABC, from which the 'Liberty Fanfare' is culled (available on several compilations). I don't know what else he wrote for them.
Then there's the 'Evening at Pops' theme which was used for the broadcast for the TV concerts. This theme has never been commercially available.
The three Olympic themes are often associated with the events themselves, but in a way they also constitute TV music, as they were used for the networks' broadcast.
Same with the fanfare he wrote for Michael Dukakis. It was, in a way, for the man himself, but also for the media coverage of the Atlanta Democratic convention in 1988. I haven't heard this myself (and believe me, I've looked!), but I've heard a MIDI reduction. Should get a recording and release.
Finally, there are two items that often appear on his TV list - FLASHING SPIKES and BIG G.
The former is, in fact, a 1962 episode of ALCOA (directed by John Ford). I have that on a boot, but I've never seen it. I don't know where BIG G comes from, but I assume it's the same story -- some sort of episode score that is being confused as its own show.
Oh yeah, and then there's the (really bad) documentary short A TIMELESS CALL (2008), directed by Spielberg. I guess that qualifies as TV music too. It's available for viewing online. The music is good, though. Wish it got a release.
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).
well, i counted 18, NOT counting the ryker 2 parts as 1 episode. is there another one?
1x01 - The Case Against Paul Ryker-Part 1 1x02 - The Case Against Paul Ryker-Part 2 1x03 - The End of the World, Baby 1x04 - A Hero For Our Times 1x05 - Are There Any More Out There Like You 1x06 - One Step Down 1x07 - The Machine that Played God 1x08 - The Long Lost Life Of Edward Smiley 1x09 - The Hunt 1x11 - The Deep End 1x14 - Leviathan Five 1x16 - The Actions Of The Tiger 1x18 - The Threatening Eye 1x20 - Knight's Gambit 1x21 - Once upon a Savage night 1x27 - The Robrioz Ring 2x01 - The World I want 2x15 - Four Into Zero
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?
My pleasure, Zooba!
Ha Ha. Thanks dogplant. That's great. This is just before he stripped down to his loin and then later redressed to accept his Salad Bowl Award and then skipped over to Yo-Yo Ma's to give him a little trim.
This one died away, so I assume that means we've covered everything in relation to Williams' TV work. I really wanted to create the ultimate JW TV database, where each show was listed, you click on it and get the name of all episodes (including cast, synopsis, air date etc.), but right now I don't have enough information to do that. I think I would need to live in LA or something, to get access to the proper sources. Jeff Eldridge, there's a job for you!
In the meantime, let's assemble the information in this thread for a better overview:
GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER (1953-1962) --- Season ?: 7-8 episodes
PLAYHOUSE 90 (1956-1960) --- ???
M SQUAD (1957-1960) --- Season 2: 8 episodes
BACHELOR FATHER (1957-1962) --- Theme (Season 3) --- Season 2: 8 episodes --- Season 3: 36 episodes
TALES OF WELLS FARGO (1957-1962) --- ???
WAGON TRAIN (1957-1965) --- Season ?: 6 episodes
KRAFT MYSTERY THEATER (1958) --- ???
MARKHAM (1959-1960) --- Season 1: 1 episode
CHECKMATE (1960-1962) --- Theme --- Season 1: 36 episodes --- Season 2: 34 episodes
ALCOA PREMIERE THEATER (1961-1963) --- Theme --- Season 1: 28 episodes --- Season 2: 28 episodes
WIDE COUNTRY (1962-1963) --- Theme --- Season 1: Pilot (part of ALCOA PREMIERE)
THE ELEVENTH HOUR (1962-1964) --- Season 2: 1 episode
THE VIRGINAN (1962-1971) --- ??? (tracked music from WAGON TRAIN?)
KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATER (1963-1965) --- Theme (Season 1 and 2) --- Season 1: 16 episodes --- Season 2: 2 episodes
BOB HOPE PRESENTS THE CHRYSLER THEATER (1963-1967) --- Theme --- Season 1: 3 episodes(?) --- Season 3: 4 episodes (?)
THE GHOSTBREAKER (1964) --- Pilot (unsold)
GILLIGAN'S ISLAND (1964-1967) --- Pilot (unaired) --- Season ?: ?? episodes
LOST IN SPACE (1964-1968) --- Theme (Season 1 and 2) --- Season 1: 4 episodes
CONVOY (1965) --- Season 1: 2 episodes
NIGHTWATCH (1965) --- Pilot (unsold)
WHO GOES THERE? (1965) --- Pilot (unsold)
BEN CASEY (1965) --- Season 4: 1 episode
WAYNE AND SHUSTER TAKE AN AFFECTIONATE LOOK AT... (1966) --- Season 1: 5 episodes (?)
THE TIME TUNNEL (1966-1967) --- Theme --- Season 1: 1 episode
THE TAMMY GRIMES SHOW (1966) --- Theme --- Season 1: 10 episodes
LAND OF THE GIANTS (1968-1970) --- Theme --- Season 1: 1 episode
THE COWBOYS (1972) --- Theme (adaptation)
NBC NEWS (1985) --- Various themes and bumpers
AMAZING STORIES (1985-1987) --- Theme --- Season 1: 2 episodes
ABC (1986) --- "The Liberty Fanfare" (and more?)
EVENING AT POPS (1970-2005) --- Theme (1980-something?)
OLYMPIC THEMES FOR TV BROADCAST (1984-2002) --- 1984: "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" --- 1988: "Olympic Spirit" --- 1996: "Summon the Heroes" --- 2002: "Call of the Champions"
MICHAEL DUKAKIS - NBC ATLANTA CONVENTION COVERAGE (1988) --- "Fanfare for Michael Dukakis"
MASTERPIECE THEATER (2000) --- Theme
NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL (2006) ---Theme
I have omitted the TV films for now, but would have to add them eventually.
although imdb lists williams as the composer for just the theme in the specific episode.
I would advise you not to trust IMDb. It contains tons of misinformation about Williams.
Not just Williams, but other composers too, including omitting an episode of "Wagon Train" from the show's second season that was scored by Hugo Friedhofer. It mentions the main title by the composer in EVERY episode of various series (totally unnecessary!).
well, none other than imdb which lists him among the composers..
As someone said earlier in this thread: "I would advise you not to trust IMDb. It contains tons of misinformation about Williams."
yes, I know. I didn't mention imdb as a source of confirmation, I just mentioned it as the only place where someone can find the reference to Williams in conjuction with the series.
By the way, i just got hold of a complete episode of the series, and it has only credits for theme music (Johnny Green) and music supervision (Irving Friedman - maybe someone knows if he has worked ever with Williams?) So, even if we had the complete series in video, I don't think we could find any more information, since probably the score composer for each episode isn't mentioned in the credits.
I have checked 20 episodes of Empire but don't have the other 12. They do contain scoring credits.
Johnny Green is credited with the pilot episode as well as with the theme on all subsequent episodes. (He gets a "Music by Johnny Green" credit on a couple later episodes, but it's unclear of he composed new music for these.)
Leith Stevens gets an "additional music" credit on one episode and a scoring credit on another. Hugo Friedhofer gets an "additional music" for one episode, while Van Alexander, Richard Markowitz and William Loose each get one scoring credit. (Again, this is only among the 20 episodes I've checked.)
The link you provide for Gunslinger refers to the catalog of the CBS Collection at UCLA. Williams did arrange and conduct a recording of Tiomkin's Gunslinger theme, so it's possible that the documents at UCLA merely include Williams' arrangement, rather than any original music. (No one I know has checked the actual file.)
I should also mention the items that still lack confirmation:
MARKHAM (1959) GUNSLINGER (1961) BIG G (1962) -- this has been on JW's resume for AGES, but no one knows what it is.
I think there’s a big chance he actually scored the MARKHAM episode “Woman of Arles” or some of his music from another series (M SQUAD?) was tracked in this episode (not likely since it seems the first episodes have all newly composed original scores). Williams worked a lot at that time for music supervisor Stanley Wilson / Revue Studios (shows like TALES OF WELLS FARGO, M SQUAD, WAGON TRAIN, BACHELOR FATHER) so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he was ask to score an episode of this series. The last ten years a lot of obscure tv-titles have been confirmed so why not this one?
