New Podcast Series: The Complete John Williams Television Music Walkthrough

[Thor 8,078]

This has taken me a whole year to prepare and produce, decades if you count the research and accumulation of material. But I thought it was the appropriate time to create now, as a tribute to my favourite film composer in his 90th birthday year.

 

A complete walkthrough of all of his television music (with the available material and data that we currently have), presented as a podcast series over multiple parts. I hope you tune in and follow it. I will start working on Part 2 soon.

 

http://celluloidtunes.no/celluloid-tunes-73-the-complete-john-williams-television-music-walkthrough-part-1-24th-international-edition/

 

 

[TownerFan 4,998]

Very happy to see this! Can't wait to check this out. Bravo, Thor.

[Hook85 16]

Awesome!

 

(Love your accent. It´s like listening to an episode of norsemen :-) )

[Jay 38,742]

Thor's back?

[GerateWohl 4,914]

@Thor That's really a great feature about a side of Williams, that probably has had too little attention on this forum so far. Probably because there is so little published on CD so far.

Entertaining and informative.

Thank you for that.

[MrJosh 895]

@Thor I'm so excited to listen to this. Thank you for creating it and sharing your accumulation of knowledge on these early shows. I'm excited to dive in later today!

[Disco Stu 15,501]

I've tried to investigate this music myself a bit over the years, watching what I could find on Youtube for Bachelor Father, Checkmate, Wagon Train, etc. but I'm looking forward to listening to someone else do the work for me!

[Once 661]

I'm really looking forward to listening to this!!!

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,453]

Listening to it right now and it's great. Thank you for this @Thor and glad to see you back here!

[bigjimwilson 268]

Really super excited to listen to this Thor. Well done. And thanks for putting the time and effort into the research and production. Hopefully we can discuss it in depth over a beer(s) one day soon

[MrJosh 895]

This was really awesome to listen to @Thor. Very informative, well presented and I appreciate the organized way you went through the different TV series' and the fun and interesting details you provided. 

 

My favorite music clips are:

General Electric Theatre: S10E03 10 Days in the Sun - really playful and fun!

 

Bachelor Father: I really enjoy the main title theme!

 

Wagon Train: "Jumpin' Jack Rabbit" track from the OST is really fun and something about the melody makes me think of the main theme from Bachelor Flat.

 

 

Other thoughts:

Really cool bit of info that Williams may actually appear in an episode of Playhouse 90 as a pianist. I'd love to see that if the the episode ever surfaces. 

 

With 45 episodes scored for Bachelor Father plus the theme for Season 3, man I'd love to hear all of that stuff. I have a soft spot for the lighter TV music of these older eras. 

 

Thanks again for sharing the information and putting it together so nicely, I am excited for Part II!

[Tom 4,943]

Excellent, excellent podcast.  I am amazed at how good these early pieces are.  They mostly have a straight hollywood sound but with little touches that will develop into Williams's signature sound.  Crazy to think how fast these things needed to be written with no expectation that they would be remembered beyond one night.  

 

That jazz piece midway through--damn.  

[Thor 8,078]

I appreciate the feedback very much, guys! Thank you, it's inspiring in terms of the coming work. My computer is wonky and will be sent for repair the next few weeks, but I'll write the script for Part 2 in the meantime and hopefully it will be out shortly after I get the computer back. There's so much great, unreleased Williams TV stuff ahead to share; things that I've kinda kept to myself all these years, but that should really be out there for everyone to enjoy.

[SilverTrumpet 642]

Saw the podcast pop up in one of my feeds, nice to know it's you I'll be listening to. Looking forward to this very much! 

[stravinsky 211]

Hello Thor did you find out a thing more about the obscure TV Pilot/Movie that I mentioned a few months ago? I sent an image of an article from Variety reporting thwt Williams would score it. 

[Thor 8,078]

3 hours ago, stravinsky said:

Hello Thor did you find out a thing more about the obscure TV Pilot/Movie that I mentioned a few months ago? I sent an image of an article from Variety reporting thwt Williams would score it. 

 

You mean the CBS Playhouse thing? No, haven't been able to find it yet.

[stravinsky 211]

Ok

[Thor 8,078]

Part 2 out now! Sorry for the long wait, but as I said earlier, these take VERY long to produce.

 

http://celluloidtunes.no/celluloid-tunes-75-the-complete-john-williams-television-music-walkthrough-part-2-25th-international-edition/

 

 

[Thor 8,078]

I don't like to "bump" my own threads, but since I spent such an insane amount of time on this thing, I'm curious if people found any favourite cues in this episode? Any favourite cues from ALCOA, for example?

[Jurassic Shark 12,773]

Haven't had the time to listen yet, but I will!

[Jay 38,742]

57 minutes ago, Thor said:

I don't like to "bump" my own threads

 

There's nothing wrong with that, especially for something like this! Don't feel bad at all. More people should check this out. 

[Bryant Burnette 681]

There's some great stuff featured in this podcast.  Great work, Thor!  And here's hoping for a big box set of the scores someday.

[Poor_Man_S_HirschFeld 16]

Bravo Thor, I'm enjoying this series a lot. In spite of calling myself a JW fan, I was largely unfamiliar with his early TV work, so thank you for introducing me to it.

It's pretty amazing to notice how much of Williams' inventiveness, taste and flair was already there from the very beginning.

Just a note: I use Castbox as a podcatcher on my smartphone and while I was able to add 'Celluloid Tunes', it now looks like the rss feed has no longer been updated after episode 73 (first installment of your walk-through). I had to listen your latest two-parter using the browser.

[Thor 8,078]

2 hours ago, Poor_Man_S_HirschFeld said:

Bravo Thor, I'm enjoying this series a lot. In spite of calling myself a JW fan, I was largely unfamiliar with his early TV work, so thank you for introducing me to it.

It's pretty amazing to notice how much of Williams' inventiveness, taste and flair was already there from the very beginning.

Just a note: I use Castbox as a podcatcher on my smartphone and while I was able to add 'Celluloid Tunes', nut it looks like the rss feed has no longer been updated after episode 73 (first installment of your walk-through). I had to listen your latest two-parter using the browser.

 

Thanks for the comment, Hirscheld!

 

I'll consult the webmaster about the RSS issue.

[GerateWohl 4,914]

Hi Thor,

just listened to the second episode and it really a pleasure. The samples were great. I hope your podcast inspires someone with access to the original material to publish it.

[GerateWohl 4,914]

By the way, I think, your work here is really important. I guess, noone else in the world does such an acurate research in Williams' TV work in the 50s and 60s.

[Thor 8,078]

Much appreciated, Geratewohl. Someone like Jeff Eldridge knows far more than I about this subject, but he’s kinda protective of information, I’ve found. Also, we’ve been waiting for a long time now for him to finish his website with the tv entries, so I wanted to go ahead with this project. 

 

Looking forward to sharing the next episode with you, which will include everything Williams wrote for Kraft Suspense Theater, among other things. Spent many weeks during the summer ripping audio from these, and there’s some high quality music in it.

[MrJosh 895]

Thank you so much @Thor for putting so much work into Part II of this series. 

 

It was a true holiday treat for me to sit down and listen through this past weekend. 

 

Like you, an Alcoa Premiere box set would be a holy grail. Aside from wanting the music, I'd love to see all the episodes too because it sounds like some really interesting stories, and some great Fred Astaire material too. I wonder if any efforts have been made to locate and release the series itself on DVD/ BD. 

 

I've always really enjoyed the Checkmate album. I suspected it was probably a re-recording/ compilation made specifically for the OST, thanks for confirming that. I'm glad this series is release so I can eventually watch it and check out the music as it is in the actual episodes. 

 

Also really interesting to learn that only 5 of the OST tracks are based on material from the show and the rest are new compositions for the album! (Maybe that was in the liner notes...if so, I completely forgot about that fact)

 

I had been confused about Flashing Spikes and didn't take the time to figure it out, so now I know it's part of Alcoa and not something stand-alone. 

 

My favorite of the musical clips are S02E02 Guests in the House (awesome!), S02E05 Mr. Luficer (such a cool slithering part in the low woodwinds), S02E08 Whatever Happened to Ms. Illinois (really cool melody), S02E13 Blues for a Hanging (really like the clarinet solo jazzy piece in the 2nd clip), and that lovely clip from S02E23 Jenny Ray.

 

Thanks again for your hard work and I look forward to Part III. 

[Thor 8,078]

Great comments, Josh, thanks. Like you, I dream of an ALCOA box. In fact, it's on my top 3 of unreleased Williamses, along with his symphony and STORIA DI UNA DONNA.

 

What did you think of the "Moment of Innocence" cue that I lauded in the episode?

[Poor_Man_S_HirschFeld 16]

Thor, will the last episode of your walkthrough touch upon Williams' later ventures in television music, like Amazing Stories or the theme for Kenobi?

[Thor 8,078]

7 minutes ago, Poor_Man_S_HirschFeld said:

Thor, will the last episode of your walkthrough touch upon Williams' later ventures in television music, like Amazing Stories or the theme for Kenobi?

 

Yes, all the way. Although the fun bit is these early parts that few others have heard.

[Steve 608]

Nice podcasts, Thor. Thank you for your work!

I found an interesting quote about his TV work in an old newspaper article from the time when Williams started with the Pops:

 

"I composed for at least 200 hour-and-a-half segments of TV anthologies like Playhouse 90 and Crysler Theater from 1958-1964. "

 

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19800429&id=cgYgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kGQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1255,5148843

[Yavar Moradi 2,859]

Whoa, I wonder if he did more Playhouse 90s in 1958 (Goldsmith took over as primary composer for it the following year) than the single one IMDb lists…

 

Yavar

[Trumpeteer 302]

I am so glad you finally were able to get around to doing this, Thor. I was finally able to listen to part one and there is a lot of great music that I had not heard in my research for my own podcast. I hope you're able to uncover more hidden gems!

[Jurassic Shark 12,773]

Looking forward to listening to the second episode! How many episodes will it be in total, @Thor?

[Thor 8,078]

Don't know yet. As many as it takes.

[SilverTrumpet 642]

Finally got to catch up this morning. Keep it up! I love the format, style, your speaking voice. It's just wonderful all around. Looking forward to part 3.

[Thor 8,078]

Part 3 out now!

 

We continue our highly ambitious journey through John Williams‘ television music jungle. In this episode, we cover medical dramas Ben Casey, The Eleventh Hour and Breaking Point, as well as an episode-by-episode walkthrough of Williams’ work for the cornerstone series Kraft Suspense Theatre.

 

http://celluloidtunes.no/celluloid-tunes-78-the-complete-john-williams-television-music-walkthrough-part-3-27th-international-edition/

 

 

[Thor 8,078]

For those of you have listened to the latest episode, I'd love to hear what some of your favourite cues are, if any.

[GerateWohl 4,914]

I am Not done yet. But I will definitely give feedback.

[Yavar Moradi 2,859]

4 hours ago, Thor said:

For those of you have listened to the latest episode, I'd love to hear what some of your favourite cues are, if any.

 

I haven't listened to the latest yet, but I can belatedly answer this question for Part 2, in regards to your fine overview of Alcoa Premiere:

Season 1: that classic Williams fugue from "The Fortress", and that badass action cue from "Moment of Decision" (I wonder if Williams himself performed the super cool solo piano alternating with the strings in that, just a year after he performed as soloist in some similarly complex music for Jerry Goldsmith's Studs Lonigan a year or so earlier)

Season 2: dramatic long-lined theme from "The Glass Palace", soulful strings and solo trumpet-heavy theme with a film noir vibe for the seafaring story "Blow High, Blow Clear", and the cool xylophone-led action for "Of Struggle and Flight". ("Jenny Ray" is lovely too, I agree.)

 

I will reiterate again that I would love it if you went similarly in depth for Williams's compositions for Checkmate in a future episode, particularly since you noted that half of the soundtrack album's music was composed specifically for that album and wasn't even based on show material! With so many episodes there must be a ton of highlights along the lines of his Alcoa output (if perhaps a bit less diverse), and I would love it if you felt like exploring those rather than just playing a couple soundtrack album cuts I know and love already.

 

Yavar

[Thor 8,078]

Absolutely! If time and energy allow, I will make that webpage that delves further into CHECKMATE (and other things) in more detail.

[MrJosh 895]

Yeah, the Checkmate album is awesome, I return to listen to it pretty frequently and it's just so much fun, I'd definitely be interested in any cool finds from the episode cues. 

 

I'm excited to delve into part 3, @Thor though I may have to listen to it in a few chunk as my next few days are extra busy. I will report back though with my favorite things!

 

On 29/12/2022 at 10:19 AM, Thor said:

Great comments, Josh, thanks. Like you, I dream of an ALCOA box. In fact, it's on my top 3 of unreleased Williamses, along with his symphony and STORIA DI UNA DONNA.

 

What did you think of the "Moment of Innocence" cue that I lauded in the episode?

sorry, I totally missed this when you posted it in December. That cue is really very lovely, I am going back to listen to it again now actually. 

[GerateWohl 4,914]

So, at last I managed to listen to the whole episode. I guess I will need to repeat it at some point in the future, because it was really long (about one and a half hour?) There were really a few highlights. I had to fight myself a little bit through the medical series, which I didn't find that exciting. Luckily you kept that part short. Interesting it was in any case!

 

Before I forget it. You mentioned that the train heist theme reminded you of something. What came to my mind was this little snippet from the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back:

 

Maybe it was this, but I don't know.

 

I liked that episode with the Herrmann eske strings and the one Altman episode which reminded a little bit of Images, I think, you compared it with Goldsmith's Planet of the Apes.

What I find so impressive, what a souverain musical voice Williams had already at these times. And funny, that the composers also composed all these source cues. Today probably no composer would take care about the background music of a party in the TV show.

So much for now. Later more.

Keep up the great work. This is brillant!

[Thor 8,078]

51 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Before I forget it. You mentioned that the train heist theme reminded you of something. What came to my mind was this little snippet from the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back:

 

That could be it, well spotted! And thanks for the comments.

[Thor 8,078]

Part 4 out now!

Here’s yet another installment of our complete John Williams television music walkthrough. We’re still in his fruitful 60s period, and in this episode we cover Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, Gilligan’s Island, Inside the Movie Kingdom, The Ghostbreaker and Lost in Space. As usual, a lot of this music is not available to hear anywhere else.

http://celluloidtunes.no/celluloid-tunes-79-the-complete-john-williams-television-music-walkthrough-part-4-28th-international-edition/ 

 

 

[Gurkensalat 346]

Thanks a lot for this podcasts which are very interesting. The first episode even motivated me to buy Jumping Jack Rabbits from Wagon Train on iTunes! 

It would be nice, though, to be able to listen to the podcast on Apple podcasts since I mostly do it during biking using my Apple Watch. This embedded thing does not work there and is in general less user-friendly. Others may appreciate it if it would be available on a few of the other main podcast services out there, too. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,773]

I can't see the problem. Just open the website on your phone and press play.

[Thor 8,078]

Thanks for the comments, Gurkensalat!

 

I've wanted to offer the podcast on more traditional platforms (like Apple or Spotify) since the beginning in 2013, but unfortunately, there are rights issues involved, especially when I use full musical clips from soundtrack recordings rather than brief, 30-second snippets that would pass as free 'quotes'. So although I sometimes label it a podcast, it is technically a webcast that is only available as streaming, not as downloadable content. Since I don't have the money to pay for rights, and since I want to play full clips, that's how it turned out. Maybe some day, I'll make revised editions where I cut down all the clips to quote size, hence making them eligible for traditional podcast platforms. We'll see!

[Gurkensalat 346]

5 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I can't see the problem. Just open the website on your phone and press play.

 

I prefer not to have the phone with me. I generally do not like using a smartphone and accept it only grudgingly as a basis station for the Watch. It is just an iPhone SE from 2016 which has been handed down from my son to my daughter and now to me, since the front camera got milky, the main button does not work any more and the battery is weak.  I know that I am a rare case, but I am just happier with my iPad plus Watch.