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Convoy (John Williams)


Thor

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Of all John Williams' TV work, this remains the most obscure.

 

Which has always been a great mystery to me, because it has all the elements going for it. It was a 1965 drama set to a naval convoy during WW2. Not sure if it was a sit-com or a drama, but there's some great potential right there. The theme was written by none other than Bernard Herrmann, and Franz Waxman scored one of the episodes. John Williams also scored two out of the 13 that were produced and aired before it was cancelled. According to Wikipedia, it was one of the last shows to be screened in black/white (since it used existing footage from the war), hence deemed more or less irrelevant.

 

Online information on the show is very limited; a few photos, some entries here and there. That's it. The only live footage I could find was a brief promo video that I've pasted in below.

 

I'd really like to get some more information on this (and what episodes Williams scored), if anyone has any!

 

 

ccabb5995b9a3bda1846fbc6445a3c41.jpg

 

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15 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

I have used all my "online searching talent"  :P to find any episode, but i didn't find anything yet. :(

 

 

Yeah, I've been doing that for YEARS now, but for this particular TV series, I tend to come up more or less empty. Utterly bizarre.

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Yeah, I think I remember bumping into that page awhile back. If you have the money to shell for it, be my guest. As I'm no longer in a funded research situation, I need to get most of my info for free. :(

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I thought it might have been a comedy from the laugh track on the promo, and I'm almost certain the narrator is comedy actor Don Adams, star of Get Smart which also was first aired in 1965. But yeah, it seems it was a drama. Interesting episode description on the show's Wikipedia page

 

Here's Don Adams in Get Smart if you're not familiar with the show. I'd forgotten what a great theme it had!
 

 

 

 

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  • 4 years later...

Whoa, that's amazing. Very few still images and barely any video existed of this before. So thanks a lot for that, Charlie!

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I can hear some classic Williams touches even in the first few minutes.  The director of this episode is Richard Sarafian, who would choose Williams (eventually!) for The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.

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Of course its not the only show in B&W from 65-66. Lost in Space was All B&W in that season.

There is tons of WWII navel footage in color. Wonder if it was still classified? 

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  • 1 year later...

Did we ever find out for sure exactly how many episodes of this short-lived series Williams scored? Two? Three? Seems like a prime candidate for album release now that Revue (Universal TV) has apparently become accessible...


Yavar

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9 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Did we ever find out for sure exactly how many episodes of this short-lived series Williams scored? Two? Three? Seems like a prime candidate for album release now that Revue (Universal TV) has apparently become accessible...


Yavar

 

It's hard to know for sure, but the number of "two" that I mentioned in the TV podcast comes from two sources -- first the FSM Buyer's Guide from the 90s, and second a TV website resource from many years ago that I sadly can no longer find. It included composer credits for SOME episodes, but not all. Two Williams episodes were credited there (unfortunately, I've forgotten the name of the other one beyond "Lady on the Rock"), and it's also where I found a credit to Franz Waxman.

 

I'm hoping the other one is "Flight from Norway", just because, you know....Norway. :)

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9 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

In that case, try NONE BUT THE BRAVE, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, SCHINDLER'S LIST, 1941, MIDWAY, MONSIGNOR, EMPIRE OF THE SUN, and THE BOOK THIEF.

I dont know if i feel offended by the suggestion…

 

i’m curious for MORE Williams’ WWII. Because of course i own and like all the scores you mentioned….

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8 hours ago, Luke Skywalker said:

I don't know if i feel offended by the suggestion…

 

 

I hope you don't, as no offence was meant, nor should be inferred.

OTOH, I have absolutely no control over how you interpret posts.

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