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It's nice to know there are so many fans out there of Shores and his underrated work. I, too, consider Shores to be one of my favorites, and likely my top choice.
He also composed three original scores for POLICE WOMAN, two of which were mid-season 1 ("Smack" and "Target Black") which were so effective for the show that they tracked them constantly all the way thru the final half of that freshman season --- when the series was probably at its best.
His score for GUNSMOKE's "Tatum" episode I've always found quite poignant and nostalgic.
He could do grim, elegical and forlorn terribly well, and there are many moments in which his compositions would almost sound like sunshine thru water (for lack of a better description).
Funny that he was shown playing the piano in "The Gamble" episode of POLICE STORY. Never knew that was him.
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Posted: |
Jan 29, 2011 - 10:31 PM
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By: |
filmusicnow
(Member)
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Composer Richard Warren Shores was born May 9, 1917 and passed away April 12, 2001. Shores started in the 1950’s by doing musical arrangements for radio and live television.
He really came out in 1959 by scoring two private detective shows: the fourth season of “Richard Diamond, Private Detective” (starring David Janssen) and the sole season of “Johnny Midnight” (starring Edmond O’Brien) at Revue Studios, aka Universal television--still at Revue, he scored two episodes of “Checkmate” and one “Alfred Hitchcock Hour”: see episode "Ride the Nightmare". Then he wrote for a legion of western series: “Whispering Smith”, “Wagon Train”, “Tales of Wells Fargo”, “Laramie”, “The Virginian”, “Gunsmoke”, “Rawhide”, “Cimarron Strip”. Among other things, he participated in one “Twilight Zone” and gave the season 5 “Ceasar and Me”.
From 1966, his first outstanding work and collaboration was for producer Norman Felton series: the WWII series “Jericho” and the two twin espionage series “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.”. But his masterpiece work remained the high concept series (western+espionage+fantasy) “The Wild Wild West” for which he provided the theme of the nemesis Count Carlos Manzeppi (see “The Night of the Eccentrics”) and some fine fast-paced and action-packed music. In the meantime, he even did a commission for “Mannix”: see the season 2 “A View of Nowhere”. The common denominator in his spy series music (“The Wild Wild West” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”) was a strong sense of rhythm (percussions galore) with a sudden change of tempo leading to intense and urgent break beats. His season 3 score “The Night of the Firebrand” for “The Wild Wild West” was so fresh and inspired that it was heavily recycled during the final season 4.
After those great achievements, Shores finally fashioned scores for Jack Lord’s cop series “Hawaii 5-0” from season 1 to 7. In the late 1970’s, he executed the music for two memorable series: “The Quest” (a western series starring Tim Matheson and Kurt Russell) and “Hunter” (a spy series starring James Franciscus and Linda Evans). Shores asserted his admiration for one composer: Jerry Goldsmith.
Favourite Works:
JERICHO
“The Big Brass Contraband”
“Wall to Wall Kaput”
“One for the Mountain”
“Two for the Road”
“Four O’Clock Bomb to London”
THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
(season 4)
“The Summit Five Affair”
“The ‘J’ for Judas Affair”
“The Prince of Darkness Affair”
“The Seven Wonders of the World Affair”
THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E.
“The Prisoner of Zalamar Affair”
“The Montori Device Affair”
THE WILD WILD WEST
(season 1)
“The Night of the Burning Diamonds”
(season 2)
“The Night of the Eccentrics”
(season 3)
“The Night of the Firebrand”
(season 4)
“The Night of the Big Blackmail”
“The Night of the Sedgewick Curse”
“The Night of the Kraken”
MANNIX
(season 2)
"A View of Nowhere"
Article:
"Richard Shores Remembered" by Jon Burlingame
http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2004/020604.html?IsArchive=020604
Film Score Monthly released three superb volumes of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.":
Volume 1
http://www.screenarchives.com/fsm/detailCD.cfm?ID=245
Volume 2
http://www.screenarchives.com/fsm/detailCD.cfm?ID=280
Volume 3
http://www.screenarchives.com/fsm/detailCD.cfm?ID=320
Pictures:
Watch a photomontage of Richard Shores’ music credits for the four seasons of “The Wild Wild West”:
Revue Studios didn't become Universal Television until 1962; previously, it was the television arm of M.C.A., which acquired Universal's studio lot in 1958 so they could film episodes of their television series (which were filmed at Republic studios); however, M.C.A. didn't acquire the entire company until four years later.
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But PW is a little hard to watch with those awkward cliché costumes. I couldn't go through the first season. Maybe I should give it a second try.
But they weren't cliched, then...
That's how I feel about today's shows: ADD edits, every character on a cell phone, all characters under 30, the droning and obnoxious underscore, ten minutes less programming and ten minutes more commercials, rehashing stories that were done so much better forty years ago, overacting in the guise of "gritty realism", and nobody ever takes a drink or smokes a cigarette. Even more astonishing are the critics bowing down to this stuff like it came from heaven instead of some producer's rectum.
Could not have said it better myself.
No thanks, but I'll take Angie Dickinson in hot pants and platform shoes, thanks (and your POLICE WOMAN dvds if you don't want them).
Yes. That said, Season 1 is the best year of the show (they toned her down a bit too much later). But some great scores from Jerrold Immel, Gerald Fried, one from Bruce Broughton (not his best, really) and many more from Morty Stevens are yet to come.
Honestly, though, I wish they'd kept giving Shores new episodes to score for PW (he only writes one more orginal composition for them in Season 3, although is stuff is still heavily tracked) and he left Columbia in 1977,
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Hawaii Five-O's scores suffered in quality after Shores' last effort during S7 of that show, though at least the great Morton Stevens would still be there off and on until the ignominious end. For my money, Richard Shores is hands down the finest composer of 1960s and '70s TV.
Have an odd feeling we'd likely agree on most stuff, Mr Phelps.
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If you run across the episodes he scored for Anna and the King, I hope you'll give them your usual treatment Justin. 
Yavar
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He punched up a Barry cue in Robin and Marion and I think composed a cue or two as well.
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If you run across the episodes he scored for Anna and the King, I hope you'll give them your usual treatment Justin.
So I've started doing this myself, and there are actually some really excellent highlights among his Anna and the Kings scores. In the episode, "The Haunted Temple", there is a four and a half minute cue near the end that starts out as mysterious/exotic suspense, but then morphs into a very extended action sequence. Exciting stuff! In fact I've been inspired to do complete score breakdowns for all 13 Anna and the King episodes because I really liked the music I heard by other composers besides Goldsmith, so keep an eye out for those.
Yavar
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