

The Trials of O'Brien
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
18-09-196548mO'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
25-09-196548mO'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
02-10-196548mEva 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
09-10-196548mO'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
16-10-196548mAfter 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
23-10-196548mA woman (Cloris Leachman) is accused of murdering her husband, and retains O'Brien to defend her. Guest star: Robert Loggia.

7.A Gaggle of Girls
30-10-196548mO'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
06-11-196548mO'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?
13-11-196548mA "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
20-11-196548mWhile 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
27-11-196548mO'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
03-12-196548mA 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
10-12-196548mAn 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
17-12-196548mO'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
07-01-196648mA 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
14-01-196648mAccountant 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
21-01-196648mO'Brien represents a spiritualist in the murder of a wealthy client whose death he has predicted.
- Ep 18
18.The Blue Steel Suite
28-01-196648mProtesting 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
04-02-196648mJames 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)
11-03-196648mO'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
18-03-196648mTaking 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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