Episodes
1. Over Defense is Out
September 18, 1965
48 min
O'Brien represents a client who was charged with murder after being released from prison. Guest star: Vincent Gardenia
Guest Stars:
Ilka Chase, Dolph Sweet
2. Bargain Day on the Street of Regret
September 25, 1965
48 min
O'Brien wins the contract of boxer Joe Rooney (Robert Blake) in a dice game, but the pugnacious Rooney is in jail for stealing money from his former manager. Guest Stars include Hershel Bernardi (star of series ""Arnie"", a Broadway ""Fiddler"", and much more), Tony Musante (""Toma"") and Albert Dekker (""Dr.Cyclops"", ""Experiment Perilous"", probably one of his last roles before his strange auto-erotic death) and the lovely, talented Judi West (""Fortune Cookie""), in her television debut, as Joe's girlfriend.
Guest Stars:
Ilka Chase, Dolph Sweet, Edgar Stehli
3. Notes on a Spanish Prisoner
October 2, 1965
48 min
Eva Grimaldi (Mary Tahmin) cons the con: she borrows $2500 from her boyfriend Ollie Maxwell (Buddy Hackett) to ransom her millionaire father, who is being held prisoner in Latin America.
Guest Stars:
Dolph Sweet
4. Never Bet on Anything That Talks
October 9, 1965
48 min
O'Brien's English bookie is charged in the death of an accountant, but the person who can clear him is nowhere to be found.
Guest Stars:
Dolph Sweet
5. What Can Go Wrong
October 16, 1965
48 min
After discovering that a man is dating his ex-wife (Joanna Barnes), O'Brien delightedly sets him up as a "pigeon" in order to trap a killer. Guest stars: Roger Moore and Michael Constantine.
Guest Stars:
Ilka Chase, Dolph Sweet
6. Goodbye and Keep Cool
October 23, 1965
48 min
A woman (Cloris Leachman) is accused of murdering her husband, and retains O'Brien to defend her. Guest star: Robert Loggia.
7. A Gaggle of Girls
October 30, 1965
48 min
O'Brien is retained by a Mother Superior in order to persuade the owner of an adjoining cafe to permit St. Anthony's Youth Center to use its garden.
Guest Stars:
Tammy Grimes, David Doyle, Reni Santoni, Dolph Sweet, Noëlle Adam
8. The Trouble with Archie
November 6, 1965
48 min
O'Brien investigates the death of a partner in the Seventh Avenue Dress House where his ex-wife works. Guest stars: Lou Jacobi, Theodore Bikel, Simon Oakland and Alice Ghostley.
Guest Stars:
Alice Ghostley
9. How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?
November 13, 1965
48 min
A "heist artist" who is accused of fatally stabbing a dealer of rare violins is defended by O'Brien. Guest stars: Norman Fell, Dana Elcar, Kurt Kasznar, Frank Langella, and former boxer Jake LaMotta.
Guest Stars:
Edgar Stehli
10. Charlie Has All the Luck
November 20, 1965
48 min
While being bugged by his ex-wife to sign the lease on her luxurious apartment, O'Brien must defend a client involved in a fatal shooting that follows a fixed horse race. Guest stars: Martin Sheen, Tony Roberts, and Philip Bosco.
Guest Stars:
Dolph Sweet, Edgar Stehli
11. Picture Me a Murder
November 27, 1965
48 min
O'Brien represents a movie producer (Alan Alda) who was charged with resisting arrest while filming an "underground" movie. Guest stars: Claude Akins, Charles Grodin, Jessica Walter, and Joanna Pettet.
12. Dead End on Flugel Street
December 3, 1965
48 min
A burlesque comedian (Milton Berle) is involved in murder when his straight man is killed after making advances on the comedian's wife.
Guest Stars:
Conrad Bain
13. No Justice for the Judge
December 10, 1965
48 min
An eccentric judge (Burgess Meredith) engages O'Brien to represent him on charges of mental disability that could remove him from the bench. Guest stars: Robert Emhardt, Barnard Hughes, and Ken Kercheval.
Guest Stars:
Barnard Hughes
14. Leave It to Me
December 17, 1965
48 min
O'Brien tries to have a will declared invalid before three greedy heirs (Angela Lansbury, George Rose and Thayer David) kill each other in a house that's booby-trapped from cellar to attic.
15. Alarums and Excursions
January 7, 1966
48 min
A foster father (John McGiver), who is content to keep collecting welfare checks, hires O'Brien to keep seven children with him after an adoption judge takes the youths away from him.
Guest Stars:
Estelle Parsons, Marc Connelly, Nan Martin
16. The 10-Foot, 6-Inch Pole
January 14, 1966
48 min
Accountant Jerry Quinlan was an apparent suicide, until it is discovered that he had questions and suspicions about his company's books which he was about to report.
17. A Horse Called Destiny
January 21, 1966
48 min
O'Brien represents a spiritualist in the murder of a wealthy client whose death he has predicted.
Guest Stars:
Barnard Hughes, Ethel Griffies
18. The Blue Steel Suite
January 28, 1966
48 min
Protesting their living conditions, the prisoners of the state prison's isolation cell block have taken 3 hostages whom they will only release if O'Brien will make a public presentation of their case.
19. The Partridge Papers
February 4, 1966
48 min
James Partridge, who once worked for British Intelligence, believes he was the target of a hit and run driver who was responsible for landing O'Brien in the hospital with a broken leg. This episode was the dramatic television debut of singer Sheila MacRae (wife of Gorden MacRae, and TV wife of Jackie Gleason in his ""Amecrican Scene"" magazine Honeymooners period)
20. The Greatest Game (1)
March 4, 1966
48 min
""WANTED - Macedonian Art Objects, 17th Century, Contact:Daniel J O'Brien"" With this ad in a Manhatten peoper, O'Brien begins an international hunt for the Viktor Emblem, a ""jewel encrusted treasure of a Balkan Country"", which has been stolen from a shrine, and is being offered by 4 thieves for $500,000, with a fee for O'Brien to handle the negotiations. Altho this two part episode was broadcast in B&W, in 1966, it was edited into a tv-movie in color, ""Too Many Thieves"" (thanks- Classic TV Archive for that tidbit) It also marked the US tv debut of Britt Ecklund, then the wife of Peter Sellers (and later Rod ""the Mod"" Stewart) Ludwig Donath was know for his Broadway performances in the musicals ""She Loves Me"" and ""A Family Affair""
Guest Stars:
George Coulouris, Ilka Chase, Dolph Sweet
21. The Greatest Game (2)
March 11, 1966
48 min
O'Brien's negotiations for the Viktor Emblem get more complicated when the person holding it has his life threatened.
Guest Stars:
George Coulouris
22. The Only Game in Town
March 18, 1966
48 min
Taking the bench as an interim judge on the New York Supreme Court, O'Brien deals with the case of a seaman (Alejandro Rey) accused of murdering a co-worker with a longshoreman's hook. Gene Hackman plays the prosecutor in the case.
Guest Stars:
Gene Hackman, Will Geer, Brock Peters, Alejandro Rey, Robert Walker Jr.