The Trials of O'Brien
The Trials of O'Brien
TV ShowEnded

The Trials of O'Brien

6.8 / 10
1965
1 season
22 episodes
DramaComedy

The Trials of O'Brien is a 1965 television series starring Peter Falk as a sordid Shakespeare-quoting lawyer and featuring Elaine Stritch as his secretary and Joanna Barnes as his ex-wife. The series ran for only 22 episodes. Among its guest stars: Milton Berle, Robert Blake, David Carradine, Faye Dunaway, Britt Ekland, Tammy Grimes, Buddy Hackett, Gene Hackman, Frank Langella, Angela Lansbury, Cloris Leachman, Roger Moore, Rita Moreno, Estelle Parsons, Joanna Pettet, Brock Peters, Tony Roberts and Martin Sheen. Falk often said that he actually liked this financially unsuccessful series much better than his later smash-hit Columbo.

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Cast

Seasons

  • Ep 1

    1.Over Defense is Out

    18-09-196548m

    O'Brien represents a client who was charged with murder after being released from prison. Guest star: Vincent Gardenia

  • Ep 2

    2.Bargain Day on the Street of Regret

    25-09-196548m

    O'Brien wins the contract of boxer Joe Rooney (Robert Blake) in a dice game, but the pugnacious Rooney is in jail for stealing money from his former manager. Guest Stars include H...

  • Ep 3

    3.Notes on a Spanish Prisoner

    02-10-196548m

    Eva Grimaldi (Mary Tahmin) cons the con: she borrows $2500 from her boyfriend Ollie Maxwell (Buddy Hackett) to ransom her millionaire father, who is being held prisoner in Latin A...

  • Ep 4

    4.Never Bet on Anything That Talks

    09-10-196548m

    O'Brien's English bookie is charged in the death of an accountant, but the person who can clear him is nowhere to be found.

  • Ep 5

    5.What Can Go Wrong

    16-10-196548m

    After discovering that a man is dating his ex-wife (Joanna Barnes), O'Brien delightedly sets him up as a "pigeon" in order to trap a killer. Guest stars: Roger Moore and Michael Co...

  • Ep 6

    6.Goodbye and Keep Cool

    23-10-196548m

    A woman (Cloris Leachman) is accused of murdering her husband, and retains O'Brien to defend her. Guest star: Robert Loggia.

  • A Gaggle of Girls

    7.A Gaggle of Girls

    30-10-196548m

    O'Brien is retained by a Mother Superior in order to persuade the owner of an adjoining cafe to permit St. Anthony's Youth Center to use its garden.

  • Ep 8

    8.The Trouble with Archie

    06-11-196548m

    O'Brien investigates the death of a partner in the Seventh Avenue Dress House where his ex-wife works. Guest stars: Lou Jacobi, Theodore Bikel, Simon Oakland and Alice Ghostley.

  • Ep 9

    9.How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?

    13-11-196548m

    A "heist artist" who is accused of fatally stabbing a dealer of rare violins is defended by O'Brien. Guest stars: Norman Fell, Dana Elcar, Kurt Kasznar, Frank Langella, and former...

  • Ep 10

    10.Charlie Has All the Luck

    20-11-196548m

    While being bugged by his ex-wife to sign the lease on her luxurious apartment, O'Brien must defend a client involved in a fatal shooting that follows a fixed horse race. Guest sta...

  • Ep 11

    11.Picture Me a Murder

    27-11-196548m

    O'Brien represents a movie producer (Alan Alda) who was charged with resisting arrest while filming an "underground" movie. Guest stars: Claude Akins, Charles Grodin, Jessica Walte...

  • Ep 12

    12.Dead End on Flugel Street

    03-12-196548m

    A burlesque comedian (Milton Berle) is involved in murder when his straight man is killed after making advances on the comedian's wife.

  • Ep 13

    13.No Justice for the Judge

    10-12-196548m

    An eccentric judge (Burgess Meredith) engages O'Brien to represent him on charges of mental disability that could remove him from the bench. Guest stars: Robert Emhardt, Barnard Hu...

  • Ep 14

    14.Leave It to Me

    17-12-196548m

    O'Brien tries to have a will declared invalid before three greedy heirs (Angela Lansbury, George Rose and Thayer David) kill each other in a house that's booby-trapped from cellar...

  • Ep 15

    15.Alarums and Excursions

    07-01-196648m

    A foster father (John McGiver), who is content to keep collecting welfare checks, hires O'Brien to keep seven children with him after an adoption judge takes the youths away from h...

  • Ep 16

    16.The 10-Foot, 6-Inch Pole

    14-01-196648m

    Accountant Jerry Quinlan was an apparent suicide, until it is discovered that he had questions and suspicions about his company's books which he was about to report.

  • Ep 17

    17.A Horse Called Destiny

    21-01-196648m

    O'Brien represents a spiritualist in the murder of a wealthy client whose death he has predicted.

  • Ep 18

    18.The Blue Steel Suite

    28-01-196648m

    Protesting their living conditions, the prisoners of the state prison's isolation cell block have taken 3 hostages whom they will only release if O'Brien will make a public present...

  • Ep 19

    19.The Partridge Papers

    04-02-196648m

    James Partridge, who once worked for British Intelligence, believes he was the target of a hit and run driver who was responsible for landing O'Brien in the hospital with a broken...

  • Ep 20

    20.The Greatest Game (1)

    04-03-196648m

    ""WANTED - Macedonian Art Objects, 17th Century, Contact:Daniel J O'Brien"" With this ad in a Manhatten peoper, O'Brien begins an international hunt for the Viktor Emblem, a ""je...

  • Ep 21

    21.The Greatest Game (2)

    11-03-196648m

    O'Brien's negotiations for the Viktor Emblem get more complicated when the person holding it has his life threatened.

  • Ep 22

    22.The Only Game in Town

    18-03-196648m

    Taking the bench as an interim judge on the New York Supreme Court, O'Brien deals with the case of a seaman (Alejandro Rey) accused of murdering a co-worker with a longshoreman's h...

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