During his time on Earth, Orson Welles was known for a lot of things. Citizen Kane, prolific filmmaker, a creative auteur, radio personality, and theatre actor are just some of the monikers he's been graced with. But one thing people didn't know was that Orson Welles once dipped his toes into the talk show pool. Filmed in front of a live audience in 1978 and 1979, the Orson Welles-directed talk show pilot was a weird and unique take on how a variety or talk show could look like. There was a very meta and Orson Welles-esque opening monologue before Burt Reynolds is introduced as the guest. Instead of a standard light-hearted interview from Welles, Reynolds was subjected to a scripted Q & A from the audience, resulting in something more akin to an awkward episode of Inside the Actors Studio. The rest of the pilot was filled with pre-taped appearances from the Muppets (for some reason), an actual interview with Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and a series of magic tricks from a magician (again for some odd reason), all accentuated by Welles' eccentric baritone drawl. Whilst the pilot was never officially broadcast or released, this little piece TV oddity is available on Youtube thanks to some anonymous person with deep connections. Understandably, Welles later said that the reason he only did the talk show was for money. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlpAE2Sf3QU
My life story is nothing special. I haven't cured ebola, I'm nowhere near stopping terrorism, and I'm still working on that climate change problem.
Instead, all I've done so far is put a few hundred words together in an attempt to make people laugh.
You can follow me at @Fry_ying_pan but don't be offended if I don't tweet back. It's usually because I've spent too long trying to think up a witty response that the reply window has closed.
