TONIGHT WITH ORSON WELLES - Information about a TV series

[Unkleque]

Does anyone have any information - off or one list - about the TV project TONIGHT WITH ORSON WELLES (not to be confused with the talk show plots)?

It seems to be x2 50 min programs, shot on 16mm (?), of Welles reading from favourite literary works in what was probably his Los Angeles home in the mid to late 1970s; a mixture of the format for Filming Othello and the Moby Dick readings. The credits indicate that the programs were introduced by Rod Sterling (although he does not appear in the versions I have seen) and was produced for the old AVCO Broadcasting Company.

This work does not appear in any flexography I've located and I suspect was a pilot for syndication or non-theatrical sales. I am especially interested to know if it has been preserved anywhere in US institutional archives.

Thanks

[Unkleque]

...a slight correction to my post; haste caused me to reverse the title slightly it is actually ORSON WELLES TONIGHT. If that helps anyone.

thanks

[Vidamonte]

Hi,
Is Ring lardner's "The Golden Honeymoon" one of the stories?
Munich Filmmuseum showed this(though incomplete)and it says in their book"The Unknown Orson Welles" that this is the only surviving element, what was supposed to be series of short stories. It was shot in 1970 on 16mm film at his house in Hollywood. Also in the chronology section of the book "This Is Orson Welles", there is a mention: With Gary Graver, Welles starts to shoot six half-hour videos for Sears, Roebuck, including recitations of The Happy Prince, stories by G.K. Chesterton and P.G Wodehouse. Date was Aug 31 1970
Any help?

[Unkleque]

This is probably it. The date and the sense of Gary Graver's involvement seems right, although in the material I've seen I don't think one of the stories were Lardner. But there could have been more than the two epi. I've seen.

I couldn't see anything in the listings I have of the Locarno event, which had a lot of Munch imput, but I note a reference to "pure storyteller in front of a camera in THE GOLDEN HONEYMOON (1971), based on a story by Ring Lardner" in the notes for the Film Forum Unseen Welles program, which came from Munch.

I will follow this up. Thanks

[Spiny Norman]

Welles starts to shoot six half-hour videos for Sears, Roebuck, including recitations of The Happy Prince, stories by G.K. Chesterton and P.G Wodehouse. Date was Aug 31 1970

Someone else said the other day that this (An Evening With Orson Welles) was meant for "cartrivision", an early home video system that didn't make it.

Welles and Wodehouse. I hope that it one day turns up, it would be fun to see that. Either the 16mm film or perhaps a cartrivision cassette might still exist somewhere??