The Goldsmith Odyssey

In this episode, we take a look at two half-hour TV rarities from the late 1950s. First up, your humble hosts Jens, Yavar, and Clark (aka "Goldsmith's Bad Boys") head into cutesy family sitcom territory with "Lips That Touch Lipstick", a Goldsmith-scored episode of the short-lived series Peck's Bad Girl . Afterwards, they explore something a bit more dramatic: the una...

In this episode, we jump ahead to early 1960 to examine another installment of the 90-minute CBS anthology series Playhouse 90 : famed playright Horton Foote’s adaptation of William Faulkner’s short story "Tomorrow." Your humble hosts Jens, Yavar, and Clark discuss the teleplay’s strengths and weaknesses abridging Faulkner for the small screen, and its economical but subtly effective, po...

In this episode, we take a look at "A Marriage of Strangers," an installment of the 90-minute CBS anthology series Playhouse 90 . Your humble hosts Jens, Yavar, and Clark discuss the unique nature of this series, the teleplay's struggle to create a persuasively authentic portrait of a marriage, the challenges of writing music for live television, and – of course – the tender Jerry G...

In this episode, we turn to the small screen for a look at the classic TV legal drama Perry Mason . Your humble hosts Jens, Yavar, and Clark explore two episodes scored by Jerry Goldsmith: the jewelry-themed mystery "The Case of the Blushing Pearls" (featuring an Asian-inspired score built around a gorgeous central melody) and the convention-breaking "The Case of Paul Drake's D...

In this episode, we take a look at another Goldsmith-scored western: the 1959 Fred MacMurray vehicle Face of a Fugitive . Your humble hosts Jens, Yavar, and Clark discuss the simple pleasures of this conventional yet competent film, and explore some of the highlights of Goldsmith's melodic, entertaining score (including a flexible central motif, a memorably melancholy secondary theme, a delic...

In this episode, your humble hosts Jens, Yavar, and Clark take a look at the second feature film scoring assignment of Jerry Goldsmith's career: the lean, gritty 1959 noir City of Fear . We discuss the way this paranoia-filled film reflects the anxieties of its era, and examine the ways it falls short despite its striking premise. Additionally, we dive into Jerry Goldsmith's intense, jag...

In our first regular-format episode, we invite you to join us for an exploration of the 1957 western Black Patch , starring George Montgomery, Leo Gordon, Diane Brewster, Tom Pittman, and Sebastian Cabot. Your humble hosts Jens, Yavar, and Clark discuss the ways in which this low-budget western succeeds and struggles in its efforts to buck formula. Black Patch also bears the important distinction...

In this introductory episode, your humble hosts Jens, Yavar and Clark offer thoughts on why we chose Goldsmith as a subject and what we're hoping to accomplish over the course of this series. Additionally, we dig into some of Goldsmith's most notable early radio and television work: the poetry-themed radio program 1489 Words (an episode of the anthology series The CBS Radio Workshop ), G...