The Trials of O'Brien

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).

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."

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.

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!

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.