Every season of Omnibus ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best seasons of Omnibus!

The Trial of Anne Boleyn

Mr. Lincoln: Part 1

The Twelve Pound Look

Mr. Lincoln: Part 2

The program has five segments: (1) "The Trial of Ben Jonson" (play), (2) "Jean Sibelius" (celebration of the composer's 87th birthday), (3) "The Dagger" (showing of a 1952 film ballet short), (4) "Rowland Emett" (the cartoonist displays some of his ingenious whimsical inventions), and (5) "Slow motion and High-Speed Photography" (feature).

The Trial of Ben Jonson

Mr. Lincoln: Part 3

The program has three segments: (1) "The Trial of Mr. Pickwick" (Dickens-based story), (2) "Agnes DeMille's 'Rodeo' " (dance episode from the ballet), and (3) "Palle Alone in the World" (showing of a 1949 Swedish fantasy film).

The Trial of Mr. Pickwick

The program has five segments: (1) "My Brother Henry" (J.M. Barrie story), (2) "Walt Disney's 'Peter Pan' " (film preview), (3) "Pictures at an Exhibition" (dance interpretation of Moussorgsky's suite for orchestra), (4) (Leopold Stokowski conducts Christmas carol singers), and (5) "William Faulkner" (interview with the prize-winning novelist).

My Brother Henry

Man in the Cool

Mr. Lincoln: Part 4

The program has five segments: (1) "Vive!" (story), (2) "The Servant with Two Masters" (play), (3) "Raymond Loewy" (the industrial designer discusses examples of his work), (4) "Barn Dance" (ingenious use of time-lapse photography and film editing to produce dance effects), and (5) "The Haircut" (comedy feature).

Vive!

While the Tide was Rising

Die Fledermaus

Mr. Lincoln: Part 5

The program has six segments: (1) "The Oyster and the Pearl" (TV play), (2) "Wheat Germ" (time-lapse photography feature), (3) "Rospigliosi Cup" (exhibition of the famous decorative ornament made in gold and enamel, displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), (4) "Under the Bridges of Paris" (showing of a 1952 French ballet presentation), (5) "La Boheme Preview" (interview with cast members in rehearsal for the next edition's scheduled production), and (6) "Radar" (feature on equipment and supplies).

The Oyster and the Pearl

La Boheme

The Happy Journey

A Lodging for the Night

The Last Night of Don Juan

Three Maidens and the Devil

Lord Byron's Love Letter

Grandma Moses

Toy Symphone with Stokowski

Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

A Tale of Two Cities

Arms and the Man

The Figgerin' of Aunt Wilma

This Little Kitty Stayed Cool

The program has five segments: (1) "Glory in the Flower" (story based on William Inge play), (2) "The Little Kitty Stayed Cool" (James Thurber short story), (3) "The Little Fugitive" (interview with the 8-year-old star of the prizewinning film), (4) "Excerpts from Oklahoma" (selections from Rodgers and Hammerstein's record-breaking musical), and (5) "Struggle for Survival" (showing of 1944 Swedish wildlife film).

Glory in the Flower

The Battler

King Lear is a 1953 live television adaptation of the Shakespeare play with stage direction by Peter Brook and starring Orson Welles. It was aired on CBS as part of the U.S. television series Omnibus, and preserved on kinescope.

A heavily abridged version of the play, this production condensed the play by eliminating the Edgar-Edmund subplot.

Welles returned to America to star in this presentation. He was guarded by IRS agents, prohibited to leave his hotel room when not at the studio, prevented from making any purchases, and the entire sum he earned went to his tax bill. Welles returned to England after the broadcast.

The cast included Micheál Mac Liammóir and the British actor Alan Badel. It was hosted by Alistair Cooke.

King Lear

The Golden Dress

Billy the Kid

The Raspberry Queen

Toine

Television adaptation of Jack Benny's 1945 feature film of the same name. Jack plays an angel name Athanael, who's been sent to destroy the Earth by playing his trumpet.

The Horn Blows at Midnight

Capital of the World

The Nature of the Beast

Mom and Leo

The Sojourner

Nobody's Fool

The Remarkable Case of Mr. Buhl

The Duchess and the Smugs

The program has five segments: (1) "Nothing So Monstrous" (dramatized adaptation of a John Steinbeck story), (2) "E=MC2" (celebration of the 15th anniversary of splitting the first uranium atom with the Columbia University cyclotron), (3) "The Hunter" (showing of a Swedish film on nature and wildlife), (4) "Signs" ( interview with an animated sign maker), and (5) "The Garage" (a look at bus maintenance and repair).

Nothing So Monstrous

Sleeping Beauty in the Woods

The Confidential Clerk

A Time Out of War

Hilde and the Turnpike

The House

Three Sketches

Tell Me If It Hurts

The Apollo of Bellac

The program has four segments: (1) "Treadmill to Oblivion" (play telling the story of Fred Allen's radio career), (2) "Percussion" (a demonstration of musical percussion instruments), (3) "Around the World" (an airplane trip around the world in 18 minutes), and (4) "Dance to Freedom" (two escaped Hungarian dancers from East Berlin perform a ballet number).

Treadmill to Oblivion

The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife

The program has three segments: (1) "Young Man in Politics" (sub-titled "A Clean, Fresh Breeze") ( a coming-of-age play), (2) "Toby and the Tall Corn" (play), and (3) (featuring art objects from the Whitney Museum of American Art).

Young Man in Politics

The program has four segments: (1) "My Several Worlds" (discussion of Pearl S. Buck's autobiography), (2) "Brewsie and Willie" (dramatization of a Gertrude Stein short story), (3) "Wrestling, Honest and Otherwise" (demonstration of professional wrestling), and (4) "From Arvida" (a look at the aluminum industry in a Quebec settlement).

Brewsie and Willie

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

Antigone

The program has four segments: (1) "The Virtuous Island" (a Jean Giraudoux comedy-drama), (2) "The French Horn" (short history and lesson on the French horn), (3) "Wild Musk Oxen" (featuring capture of a live musk-ox), and (4) "Orson Bean" (comedy monologue on Christmas gift wrapping).

The Virtuous Island

A Maine Lobsterman

The program has four segments: (1) "The Contrast" (1787 comedy of manners), (2) (presentation of the historical background to this comedy), (3) "The Figurehead" (showing of a 1953 short puppet film about unrequited love), and (4) "Balloons" (featuring the history of hot-air ballooning).

The Contrast

The program has four segments: (1) "The Second Shepherds' Play" (performance of the famous medieval mystery play), (2) "Vienna Choir Boys" (carols by the Vienna Boys Choir), (3) "Children's Books" (readings of children's stories), and (4) "A House of Cards" (short drama revolving around greetings cards).

The Second Shepherds' Play

The Merry Widow

The program has four segments: (1) "The Trial of St. Joan" (based on George Bernard Shaw's play), (2) "Balance" (an architect illustrates the history of architecture), (3) "The Chick" (film short on the incubation of a chicken's egg), and (4) "Kitimat" (short feature on hydroelectric power facilities for the aluminum smelting industry in British Columbia).

The Trial of St. Joan

The program has four segments: (1) "The Adams Family" (the first in a series of biographies of President John Adams' family), (2) "Grand Central" (looking at the operation of New York's Grand Central Station), (3) (skin-divers battle with a shark), and (4) "Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships" (feature on the international leader exchange program established in honor of the US. President).

The Adams Family

The program has three segments: (1) "H.M.S. Pinafore" (six songs from Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas), (2) "The Yukawa Story" (the story of the family of Hideki Yukawa, the winner of the 1949 Nobel Prize in physics), and (3) "Jury Duty" (cameras follow Allen Funt and his 'Candid Camera' team).

H.M.S. Pinafore (I)

The program has four segments: (1) "John Quincy Adams" (the second in a series of Adams Family biographies), (2) "Yehudi Menuhin and the Little Orchestra Society of New York" (the celebrated violinist gives a lesson on the violin), (3) "Hunting Underwater" (a film on scuba-diving), and (4) "Quality Control" (short feature).

John Quincy Adams

The program has three segments: (1) "Hamlet" (performance of excerpts from Shakespeare's play), (2) "Swordsmanship" (featuring the history of fencing and a demonstration), and (3) "Power to Fly" (the pilot's story of his recent flight which broke the world altitude record).

Hamlet

The program has two segments: (1) "Mr. Lincoln" (feature film on the young Abraham Lincoln made from previous Omnibus episodes), and (2) "The Story of Valentines" (short feature on the history of valentines).

Mr. Lincoln

A governess, sent to a country house to look after two young children, becomes convinced that they are being menaced by an evil spirit.

The Turn of the Screw

The program has four segments: (1) "The New World" (J.M. Barrie story), (2) "The First 'R' " (a look at reading difficulties and new methods of remedying them), (3) "The Sea of Winslow Homer" (the celebrated artist's paintings are used to illustrate the changing look of the sea), and (4) "Rear Admiral Donald B. MacMillan" (short feature on the well-known Arctic explorer).

The New World

The program has three segments: (1) "The Lives of Henry Adams and Charles Francis Adams Jr." (the third in a series of Adams Family biographies, dealing with the life of Charles Francis Adams Jr.), (2) "Command Post" (a look at how radar installations would react to an air attack on the United States), and (3) "The Brain" (a feature on the human brain).

The Life and Times of Henry Adams and Charles Francis Adams, Jr.

The program has two segments: (1) "The Mighty Casey" (staging of William Schuman's opera based on Thayer's famous poem about the legendary baseball player), and (2) "All about Diamonds" (feature).

The Mighty Casey

The program has three segments: (1) "A Different Drummer" (staging of a play by Eugene McKinney), (2) "The Heart" (feature on the human body's main organ), and (3) "Boyhoods - Joseph N. Welch" (exploring the childhood and youth of the celebrated lawyer who served as chief counsel to the U.S. Army in the Army-McCarthy hearings).

A Different Drummer

The program has four segments: (1) "Henry Adams" (the fourth in a series of Adams Family biographies), (2) "Balance II" (an architect looks at modern architecture), (3) "The Window Cleaner" (short feature), and (4) "Vernal Equinox" (an astronomer explains the sun's crossing of the plane of the celestial equator).

Henry Adams

The program has four segments: (1) "The Four Flags of the Confederacy" (documentary on the national flags used by the Confederate States in the American Civil War), (2) "Minor League Baseball" (sporting feature), (3) "The Back of Beyond" (showing of excerpts from a 1954 Australian film following a mailman as he delivers mail to remote areas in the Australian outback), and (4) "Subscription TV" (feature).

The Four Flags of the Confederacy

The program has only one segment: "Iliad"(dramatization of Homer's epic account of the tenth year of the Trojan War).

Iliad

The program has five segments: (1) "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (Harriet Beecher Stowe story), (2) "Dances from India" (performance of Indian classical dance), (3) "Change Ringing" (demonstration of patterns of bell-ringing), (4) "The Most Beautiful Easter Eggs in the World" (short feature), and (5) "Committee for Economic Development" (short feature).

Uncle Tom's Cabin

The program has only one segment: "The Birth of Modern Times" (a live program tracing the revival of the arts, literature, music and learning during the Renaissance period).

The Birth of Modern Times

The program has two segments: (1) "The Jazz World" (Leonard Bernstein discusses jazz and conducts a jazz number), and (2) "Famous America Boyhoods" (William Saroyan recreates scenes of his boyhood).

The Jazz World

The program has five segments: (1) "The Adams House" (a follow-up to the series of Adams Family biographies), (2) "Television Magic" (featuring new television techniques), (3) "Bow Bells" (showing of a 1954 film in which a Cockney looks at life in the East End of London), (4) "Survival in the Bush" (showing of a 1954 film about survival in the wilds of Canada), and (5) "Animals in Motion" (short feature on animal locomotion).

The Adams House

The program has three segments: (1) "Toby and the Tall Corn" (repeat showing of play broadcast in Season 3), (2) "Antonio and His Spanish Ballet Company" (Spanish ballet dancing), and (3) "Excursion House" (looking at the housing boom in America).

Toby and the Tall Corn

The program has three segments: "American Boyhoods: Captain John M. Ellicott" (Captain Ellicott remembers events during his boyhood), (2) (comic monologue), and (3) (scenes from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance").

American Boyhoods, Captain John M. Ellicott

The program has only one segment: "She Stoops to Conquer" (adaptation of Oliver Goldsmith's comedy of manners).

She Stoops to Conquer

The Art of Conducting.

The Royal Game

The program has four segments: (1) "The Royal Game" (adaptation of play), (2) "Jack Be Normal" (play), (3) "The Old Woman" (animated rendition of folk song), and (4) "Mother, I Would Marry" (animated rendition of folk song).

Salome

Messiah

The program has two segments: "The Best Year in the History of the Whole World" (humorous Saroyan play), and (2) (Japanese dancing and drama with the Azuma Kabuki dancers).

The Best Year in the History of the Whole World

The program has only one segment: "Dear Brutus" (adaptation of play by J.M. Barrie).

Dear Brutus

The program has three segments: (1) "The Great Forgery" (the story of how four Americans swindled the Bank of England of $100,000 through forged letters of credit), (2) "The Great Adventure 1" (showing of Part 1 of a 1953 Swedish film about nature and wildlife), and (3) (short tribute to Benjamin Franklin).

The Great Forgery

The program has four segments: (1) "The Yugoslav National Folk Ballet" (a Macedonian troupe perform Yugoslav folk dancing), (2) "The Great Adventure 2" (showing of Part 2 of a 1953 Swedish film about nature and wildlife), (3) "Other Channels" (a look at advertising on foreign television channels), and (4) "Skiing, Anyone?" (feature on skis and skiing).

Episode 15

The program has two segments: (1) "Minds over Manners" (three dramatic sketches showing changes in American manners and customs of 100 years ago, 50 years ago and the present day), and (2) "Sugar Ray Robinson Visits Stillman's Gym" (a championship boxer gives a demonstration).

Minds over Manners

The program has two segments: (1) "One Nation" (the first of a three-part series examining the United States constitution), and (2) "Songs by Frances Archer and Beverly Gile" (performance of English folk songs).

One Nation

The program has only one segment: "Mr. Lincoln" (repeat showing of a feature film from Season 3 on the young Abraham Lincoln, made from previous Omnibus episodes).

Mr Lincoln

The program has only one segment: "One Nation Indivisible" (the second of a three-part series examining the United States constitution).

One Nation Indivisible

The program has three segments: (1) "The Art of Ballet" (dancers show the evolution of ballet), (2) "The Boyhood of William Shakespeare" (sketch on the Bard's childhood), and (3) (program of music on the portable organ).

The Art of Ballet

The program has two segments: (1) "With Liberty and Justice for All" (the third of a three-part series examining the United States constitution), and (2) "James Thurber, Man and Boy" (interview with the celebrated author and humorist).

With Liberty and Justice for All

The program has three segments: (1) "The Better Half" (adaptation of Noel Coward play), (2) "The Museum That Jack Built" (exploration of the ideal science museum), and (3) "Something about the Sky" (visual essay on the sky and clouds).

The Better Half

Omnibus is an American, commercially sponsored, educational television series.

The Best Seasons of Omnibus

The Best Seasons of Omnibus

Season 1

Season 3

Season 7

Season 4

Season 2

Season 5

Season 6

Season 8