The Orson Welles Show

[Tony]

I have an opportunity to get a copy of this- can anyone tell me if it is worth getting?

[Terry]

Yes, very much so, but it's more a minor work, I think, rather like Filming Othello.

The interview with Burt Reynolds is very long and focuses much more on Reynolds than Welles - the audience were asking questions and most of them were not about anything Welles had done. The interview with Jim Henson and Frank Oz is okay. There's a montage with the Muppets which is strange rather than funny. And there's a couple magic tricks with Angie Dickinson, one of which was reused in the Munich restoration of the Magic Show.

I didn't think the show was as successful as it might have been, but I enjoyed it and consider it worth owning. I think chronologically it was Welles' last completed project.

[Wellesnet]

Thanks to Marc Thorner for alerting us to this find.
Like Marc says, enjoy it before it is taken down!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmhK3CW_mPo

[tonyw]

I gained a copy of this several years ago. To be fair to the entire concept, Orson was hosting a talk show so the emphasis whould be on what the guests had to say. Here, Orson is operating in the same professional manner as Johnny Carson and Michael Parkinson who added a bitchy footnote to the later televised version of his Welles interview on BBC 1.

[Wellesnet]

That Time Orson Welles Had an Insane Variety Show
http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/o ... -1970s.php

[tonyw]

Rgat footnote was bitchy! Despite his reverential attitude to performers such as Cagney and Tati, "Parky" can be that way. Although I'm not a fna of Meg ryan his attitude towards her was inexcusable and deserved her reaction.

[RayKelly]

In the late 1970s, Orson Welles shot a pilot for his own talk show series with Burt Reynolds, the Muppets and Angie Dickinson as guests. It went unsold. Now, his Estate has secured the rights in hopes of making it available.
https://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-show-pilot/

[Roger Ryan]

Unless Welles changed his editing methods (or gave someone else the reins), it's hard to imagine he could effectively turn out weekly episodes. Perhaps presenting The Orson Welles Show as a special twice or three times a year would have suited his approach better.

[Le Chiffre]

I agree with that, Roger: two or three times a year, or even once a year would have been nice. The segment on TOWS that I find most striking is the Muppets segment, the Muppets and Sesame Street being one of the main pillars that held up PBS. What a shame Welles couldn't have formed some kind of partnership with PBS, for maybe one two-hour special each year. Think of what we might have had. A completed ORSON'S BAG, for example, which has some comedy that is somewhat Pythonesque; Monty Python also being one of the most popular things on PBS.

THE ORSON WELLES SHOW is one of the strangest things Welles ever did - someone on Facebook described it as a "meta talk show" - but it has it's moments, and might have worked on Public television. I don't know if he ever talked to them or not, but with his admiration for Jim Henson's Muppets, you would thing he might have been interested in that kind of partnership.

Glad to hear the Estate has secured the rights to the pilot. As Terry said, it's a minor work, but still Welles, so it deserves to be seen in good quality.

[RayKelly]

Unless Welles changed his editing methods (or gave someone else the reins), it's hard to imagine he could effectively turn out weekly episodes. Perhaps presenting The Orson Welles Show as a special twice or three times a year would have suited his approach better.

He definitely would need an experienced show runner and to step away from the editing room if he hoped to turn out five episodes a week!

The segment on TOWS that I find most striking is the Muppets segment, the Muppets and Sesame Street being one of the main pillars that held up PBS. What a shame Welles couldn't have formed some kind of partnership with PBS, for maybe one two-hour special each year. Think of what we might have had. A completed ORSON'S BAG, for example, which has some comedy that is somewhat Pythonesque; Monty Python also being one of the most popular things on PBS.

A partnership with PBS for a few specials a year would have been incredible. You're right, I can see where this talk show and Orson's Bag would have fit in nicely.

Glad to hear the Estate has secured the rights to the pilot.

I was in contract with David Reeder a few hours ago and talks are continuing on other Welles projects.

[Le Chiffre]

A partnership with PBS for a few specials a year would have been incredible. You're right, I can see where this talk show and Orson's Bag would have fit in nicely.

THE MAGIC SHOW might have fit in too. Maybe Welles would have even done something with DON QUIXOTE. I've also heard a few Wellesnetters who have seen THE DEEP footage say it looked like a TV movie. Well, there you go. F FOR FAKE might have gotten more attention if it had been shown on PBS. All this in addition to all the talk show interviews Welles probably would have done. Lots of possibilities gone. Oh well.

[JMcBride]

I wrote an article for Film Comment in 1978, "All's Welles," that is
largely about my experiences watching Welles shoot a day's work
on THE ORSON WELLES SHOW and being a member of
the studio audience along with various pals of mine. His shooting methods were
fascinatingly idiosyncratic, and he made a lot of intriguing
remarks to the studio audience while shooting the material. I also covered various other projects
and was somewhat overly optimistic about when THE OTHER SIDE
OF THE WIND might come out. I have seen Stefan Drossler's restoration
of THE DEEP twice, and though he did his best with what exists, it
is not a very good film, which undoubtedly is why Welles
didn't complete it (although Jeanne Moreau evidently did not
want to do her dubbing, that was more of an excuse for its incompletion;
other parts of the soundtrack need a lot of work too). Laurence Harvey,
whose death was another (even more false) excuse for the film not coming out, is superb as the psychopathic villain,
but the rest of the cast is, shall we say, spotty. The film is handheld and
inferior in its staging to a film by a Welles acolyte it fairly closely resembles, Polanski's KNIFE
IN THE WATER. And parts of THE DEEP are missing (one major action scene was
planned but not shot). Stefan had to work from a workprint,
since the negative has gone lost. Willy Kurant's cinematography is often
striking in both b&w and color in the existing footage. Nevertheless,
I wish we could have THE DEEP out in some homevideo format for
scholars, even if it would not play for general audiences in its somewhat
ragged state. Oja Kodar reportedly has prevented its release. I am glad
THE ORSON WELLES SHOW may make its way to homevideo in a good print.
It is an odd but enjoyable bit of Wellesiana. The hours of additional
Burt Reynolds outtakes are also good. I interviewed Reynolds once, and he
was a smart and witty guy. Drossler has all the footage from all the cameras, I believe.

[JMcBride]

Speaking of Meg Ryan, Gary Graver told me he shot
a TV commercial starring her. It was scheduled
to shoot on a Saturday for eight hours. Her fee was --
get this -- $3 million. As the day went on, they
realized they needed some extra time, and they
asked her to stay a bit later, and she declined.

[atcolomb]

I think the pilot would make a great extra on a Criterion release when they put out another film of his.

[Le Chiffre]

Yeah, like FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH or PORTRAIT OF GINA. Put 'em all on one disc and call it "Orson Welles's Three Unsold Pilots."

The hours of additional Burt Reynolds outtakes are also good.

Hours?! I'd be interested in seeing at least some of that, and other outtakes from the project, just to get some more glimpses of Welles at work.

My favorite thing with Meg Ryan in it is the Michael Parkinson interview.