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I enjoyed this Series very much back in the Sixties and used to stay up late just to watch it. Peter Falk has always been one of my favourite actors and was excellent in this series and I enjoyed the comedy in it - especially the frequent references to "the Great McGonagle". I always thought and hoped it would achieve a higher profile and was very disappointed when it just "disappeared" from the TV schedules and I've never seen it since. However, Peter Falk went on to achieve more success with "Columbo". I also enjoyed the performance of Joanna Cassidy, who I think was the actress who played the former wife of Peter Falk's character in "Trials". There was good chemistry between them. I would love to watch it again but don't know where to look for it!

I remember watching this show with my dad on Friday nights at 10; I actually preferred this show to the more successful "Man From U.N.C.L.E." running on NBC at the same time. Even at age 11, I found the show amusing, especially O'Brien's repeated efforts to stall ex-wife Katie (Joanna Barnes, on whom I've had a crush ever since) in her demands for her alimony checks. I think one problem with this show is that the public's image of a lawyer in those days was straight-arrow Perry Mason; had "O'Brien" come along when "Columbo" did, I think it would have been a major hit, since by the '70s the public was willing to embrace heroes who didn't seem to fit the mold, like Kojak, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, and--of course--Columbo.

There are two important differences between Peter Falk's two famous characters: O'Brien does spruce himself up when he's in court (of course, when he's in his office the jacket comes off, the tie is loosened, and the shirtsleeves rolled up); also, we know Columbo is happily married (maybe for old times' sake Joanna Barnes could have shown up once as Columbo's wife, but some viewers might remember she was O'Brien's ex-wife and not buy into the idea).

The writing was also about two levels above most of what passed for prime time in the 1965-66 season. And I've read that Peter Falk actually liked doing this show better than he did "Columbo," supposedly because of fewer money hassles with "O'Brien"'s studio, Filmways, than with "Columbo"'s, Universal.

I'd love to see this show again on DVD.

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Vote for it here - tvshowsondvd.com/shows/Trials-OBrien/4368

Middle-aged, saddled with alimony, and a gambling habit. This is a lawyer show?

It was a lawyer show, but a far cry from The Defenders or Perry Mason, which were the successful lawyer shows that preceded it. Where there's a market for 1, there's a market for 2 or 3 or 4...but with a twist to distinguish each one. Where Perry Mason was a whodunit, The Defenders gave us a weekly sermon on some hifalutin liberal social issue. But O'Brien? He was just trying to keep the wolf from his door. On CBS. The Tiffany Network.

I was 11 years old when this was on, so my bedtime was no longer 7pm. Now it was 9pm. This was an hour show that aired at 8:30. But I would have been more inclined to watch The Rifleman or Ensign Pulver or Burke's Law or The Man from U.N.C.L.E., anyway. Or The Outer limits, or Space Family Robinson, or Batman.

But this was what Mom and Dad wanted to watch. Mom was a fan of Peter Falk's, and she would always tell us he had a glass eye. Dad, after the war in the late '40s, lived in Greenwich Village studying art at the Art Students League, and he used to hang out in the White horse Tavern tossing the bull with the other young turks, his drinking buddies, of whom Peter Falk was one.

For me, as a boy, it, Trials of O'Brien, was what was on TV. And sometimes I was allowed to stay up and watch.

So, from an 11-year old's perspective...

This show had a really hilarious opening sequence every week, in which the protagonist, a New York City street lawyer who likes hanging out with his cronies (and gambling) is in a floating crap game that gets raided by the police, and you see the cops rushing in, and all the miscreants, of which our lawyer protagonist is one, dispersing and fleeing the authorities. Very funny stuff! Opening sequence. Every week.

Also funny was that this was no Brooks Brothers -wearing, respectable, successful-wealthy attorney like the lawyers on The Defenders and Perry Mason were. This was a street lawyer who was always behind on his alimony payments, and his ex-wife would be pestering him to fork over. So, when he WOULD get a case, he didn't get to hold on to the paycheck for very long.

That's it. That was the character. This was a show about a working-class guy who had passed the bar exam. His main connection to Columbo would be the seedy appearance. But Columbo was a straight arrow family man dedicated public servant. O'Brien is closer to Joe Pesci's character in My Cousin Vinnie, but older, and more inclined to hanging out with his cronies than a girlfriend. But, like Cousin Vinnie, this was a legal mystery show cloaked in comedy. And, like Cousin Vinnie, O'Brien was loaded with New York City atmosphere.

And what a boat-load of talent from week to week!

DIRECTORS. Richard Donner. Abner Biberman.

GUEST CAST - ACTRESS. Faye Dunaway. Jessica Walter. Estelle Parsons. Cloris Leachman. Tammy Grimes. Barbara Barrie. Joanna Pettet. Britt Ekland. Zohra Lampert. Alice Ghostley. Sheila MacRae. Angela Lansbury. Rita Moreno.

GUEST CAST - ACTOR. Gene Hackman. Frank Langella. Martin Sheen. Alan Alda. Charles Grodin. David Carradine. Robert Blake. Roger Moore. Robert Loggia. Tony Musante. Nehemiah Persoff. Lou Jacobi. Norman Fell. Harold J. Stone. Alejandro Rey. Barnard Hughes. Philip Bosco. Vincent Gardenia. Kenneth Mars. Reni Santoni ("Poppy" on Seinfeld). David Doyle. Dana Elcar. Michael Constantine. Conrad Bain. Thayer David. Simon Oakland. Tony Roberts. Frank Converse. Claude Akins. Theodore Bikel. Brock Peters. Jack Albertson. Will Geer. Pat Hingle. Buddy Hackett. Mischa Auer. Milton Berle. Burgess Meredith.

...to name a few.

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I found out about this show in an unusual way. I caddied for Peter Falk at Alpine Country Club in New Jersey while he was shooting this show. Mr. Falk was in It's a Mad, Mad World which also featured Dick Shawn, a scratch golfer member of Alpine. Looking at the cast I see quite a few Mad Mad actors appearing in Trials of O'Brien. Anyhow, I started watching the show and really enjoyed it and was upset when it didn't have a second season because I liked the show and especially liked to caddy for Mr. Falk. I didn't see him after the show was cancelled. Some network like TVLAND should pick up this show because the cast lineup is fantastic and old New York never gets old.

Tom McBride.

I was 11 in 1965 when my sister and I glommed onto this show. It was filmed at the Filmways studios in Manhattan at 246 East 127th Street originally built for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1920s. The New York ___location enabled the show to get actors who kept their game up with theater work more frequent in New York than in Hollywood I suspect. Not stars, no; nevertheless, actors who had theater work available to hone their craft. It was shot (by Boris Kaufman?) in black and white which was also more theatrical or dramatic. The louche atmosphere and characters were irresistible to children who wanted something a bit naughty.