Here's an odd bit of TV history — the pilot for a talk show starring Orson Welles. It was filmed in the late seventies…and it was filmed (not taped) apparently with one camera like a movie, with Welles directing in addition to starring. (A pseudonym is credited at the end.)
The guests are Burt Reynolds, Angie Dickinson and the Muppets, with special interviews of Jim Henson and Frank Oz. The show has an odd, staged feel to it and the person who posted it to YouTube says the audience questions were scripted and that the audience members were directed (presumably by Welles) on how to ask them. They probably did multiple takes of many of the things people said during the show and there seems to have been a lot of editing and sweetening. My guess is that one of the reasons the show didn't get picked up is that someone was afraid it couldn't be done once a week or on a reasonable budget. The slow, ponderous pacing probably scared them off, too.
I'd be curious to know where they intended to sell this. With commercials, it would have been a ninety-minute show, presumably for syndication. If you were a local station, where would you have put it? During the day? At night? Local stations usually put once-a-week shows on the weekend…but where on the weekend?
In some ways, it's a pretty good show. Burt Reynolds answers some probing questions. The interview with Henson and Oz is interesting. But the whole thing just has the feeling of being shot on another planet or something. Take a look…
