Back in this posting, I got to musing about what old TV show I would most like to see released on DVD.
So I guess my choice would be The Defenders, no relation to the current program of that name. Aired on CBS from 1961-1965, it was a courtroom drama starring E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed as a father-son lawyer team that handled important, polemic cases. Unlike the concurrent Perry Mason (which also aired on CBS), the accused was not always proven innocent and the stories were not whodunnits. Often, they had to do with the morality of our laws and the legality of our morals. A few years ago, someone sent me a VHS tape of four episodes and I thought they held up quite well…and every one of them gave me a lot to think about. Every bit of controversy in them was still controversial, though often not in the same way as in the sixties. So that's my vote: The Defenders. Will someone get on that, please?
More than half a decade later, someone finally has. The good folks at Shout Factory have issued Season One of The Defenders — 32 episodes plus an episode of Studio One that was kind of like (but not exactly) a pilot for the series. There are also interviews with folks who worked on the show and it's all on eight DVDs for — at this moment — $33.28. That's like a buck an episode for what I think is the best courtroom drama ever made for television.
I should probably also mention that the cast lists for some of these are stunning: Jack Klugman, Ossie Davis, Richard Thomas, Frank Gorshin, Robert Duvall, Robert Loggia, Julie Newmar, Martin Sheen and many others, plus someone in their casting department really, really liked hiring William Shatner. And has there ever been a better actor on a TV series than E.G. Marshall?
I haven't watched them all yet but the video and audio range from excellent to passable. A few of these look like all they could find was old 16mm prints…but there's something about the show that makes it feel more credible and real that way. They're in black-and-white, of course.
You can purchase a copy here. We highly recommend this and really, really want to see the three other seasons get released.