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Could The Defenders Be Released on DVD? (1 Viewer)

Neil Brock

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Here is an excellent article about the show, and the impact it had upon the viewing public in the early 1960s. Unfortunately, the article contains no updates about the show's release onto DVD:http://www.avclub.com/article/ithe-defendersi-was-ithei-great-drama-of-the-60s-b-83042
Very good article. There are too many great episodes of this show to mention. Out of 132 shows, there are over 100 great ones. As I've said before, the first 20 or so, CBS was on their case to make the show more like Perry Mason but then once the ratings were good, they left the show alone and that's when it really took off. And unlike the heavy-handed, one-sided diatribes that mark all of the David Kelley shows, The Defenders really did try to look at both sides of the issues.While The Defenders was by far the greatest and most successful of the socially relevant dramas of the early sixties, it was not the only good one. East Side West Side, The Nurses, For The People, Mr. Novak and others were fine shows as well, none of which are very viewable these days. Although at least ESWS and Novak did have some cable exposure.
 

Dick

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Jeff# said:
The Defenders isn't too controversial, and those stories that went that route (abortion, euthanasia, race relations, etc) are among the more interesting I would think. One wonders why the Emmy-winning series was kept out of syndication for so many years. I could never find The Defenders on TV anywhere.I can't stand Perry Mason because I don't like Raymond Burr, but E.G. Marshall was a terrific actor. For 8 years in the 1970s and early 80s he was the original host of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and he only acted in the show twice (playing Scrooge in their version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol in one of them).
Plus, THE DEFENDERS sometimes lost their cases, which created some underlying suspense. PERRY MASON, I believe, only lost one case during his entire run. Essentially, you knew the outcome going in.
 

JoeDoakes

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The Defenders article concludes with this:

Take, for instance, a relentlessly downbeat season-two two-parter named “Madman,” which won the series its second writing Emmy. It’s the story of how a man’s rotten relationship with his mother colors the rest of his life, leading him to commit murder. At every turn, the Prestons are rebuffed in their attempts to win the man’s life back from the state, and the episodes conclude with a grim scene of the man being dragged to the electric chair after collapsing in tears when he sees his mother isn’t in the galley to watch him die. It’s dour, relentlessly sad, and a little bit remarkable. It’s the kind of episode that would have a hard time making it through network notes sessions in the present, but the combination of CBS head William Paley’s largesse, Brodkin’s clout, and Rose’s creative genius resulted in the heart-rending episode making it on the air in 1962, right in the middle of the period when television grew most ashamed of itself.

Really? Driven to murder because mother didn't love him? Good thing that the Defenders lost that case.
 

Vic Pardo

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I remember "The Defenders" being on when I was a kid but I don't recall if I ever actually watched an episode or not. It may have come on at my bedtime and I may only have ever seen the opening credits. My father watched it.

"Perry Mason," however, came on at an earlier time and I remember watching that regularly when I was quite young. When GODZILLA (1956) made its TV debut in September 1958, I was five years old and already knew Raymond Burr as "Perry Mason," which gave the Japanese movie a familiar element that no doubt drew a lot of people to it, something the American distributor couldn't have foreseen when he cast Burr in the role of the reporter (Steve Martin!) in the scenes shot in L.A. for the American release version of GODZILLA. Between the time the movie played theatrically in 1956 and the time it came on TV, Burr had, in the interim, become a household name in "Perry Mason."

I watched some episodes of "Perry Mason" on DVD earlier this year, the first time I'd seen the show in decades. What struck me was how concise the storytelling and direction were and how pointed the emotions were, so that even a child could get engrossed in it, even if some of the finer legal details went over his head. And Burr was, in many ways, the perfect actor for that. His Mason conveyed an unmistakable moral authority while displaying a keen sense of empathy with his clients, qualities a child might have wished for in his parents.

I'm guessing more than a few of the members here remember watching "Perry Mason" and other popular TV dramas on TV when they were young children. Is there any comparable TV drama in the last 20 years that children as young as five would watch? I remember my daughter watching "Melrose Place" when she was about nine or ten and I could hear some dialogue about sex, so I gave her my arched-eyebrow look and she quickly turned it off. I know she watched "Beverly Hills 90210" when she stayed with her mother, but I can't think offhand of anything comparable to "Perry Mason" that she might have watched as a child. I must ask her.
 

Neil Brock

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JoeDoakes said:
The Defenders article concludes with this: Take, for instance, a relentlessly downbeat season-two two-parter named “Madman,” which won the series its second writing Emmy. It’s the story of how a man’s rotten relationship with his mother colors the rest of his life, leading him to commit murder. At every turn, the Prestons are rebuffed in their attempts to win the man’s life back from the state, and the episodes conclude with a grim scene of the man being dragged to the electric chair after collapsing in tears when he sees his mother isn’t in the galley to watch him die. It’s dour, relentlessly sad, and a little bit remarkable. It’s the kind of episode that would have a hard time making it through network notes sessions in the present, but the combination of CBS head William Paley’s largesse, Brodkin’s clout, and Rose’s creative genius resulted in the heart-rending episode making it on the air in 1962, right in the middle of the period when television grew most ashamed of itself. Really? Driven to murder because mother didn't love him? Good thing that the Defenders lost that case.
That's really not an accurate description of the episode. The gist of the story was that the man was mentally ill and the argument was over whether or not it was right for the state to execute someone who wasn't responsible for his actions.
 

Wvtvguy

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I've never seen For the People, Mr Novak, East Side West Side, or the Nurses. Now I'm curious about those shows too!!!
 

Buck Benny

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Neil Brock said:
That's really not an accurate description of the episode. The gist of the story was that the man was mentally ill and the argument was over whether or not it was right for the state to execute someone who wasn't responsible for his actions.

JoeDoakes said:
The Defenders article concludes with this:


Take, for instance, a relentlessly downbeat season-two two-parter named “Madman,” which won the series its second writing Emmy. It’s the story of how a man’s rotten relationship with his mother colors the rest of his life, leading him to commit murder. At every turn, the Prestons are rebuffed in their attempts to win the man’s life back from the state, and the episodes conclude with a grim scene of the man being dragged to the electric chair after collapsing in tears when he sees his mother isn’t in the galley to watch him die. It’s dour, relentlessly sad, and a little bit remarkable. It’s the kind of episode that would have a hard time making it through network notes sessions in the present, but the combination of CBS head William Paley’s largesse, Brodkin’s clout, and Rose’s creative genius resulted in the heart-rending episode making it on the air in 1962, right in the middle of the period when television grew most ashamed of itself.


Really? Driven to murder because mother didn't love him? Good thing that the Defenders lost that case.


Judge for yourselves both parts have been posted to youtube. Here is the Defenders episode Madman part 1 and part 2. Would you like me to post more?
 

Buck Benny

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Here is an important, near forgotten piece of television and national history. Join Rober Reed, EG Marshall, James Earl Jones, Ivan Dixon, and Mark Leonard in perhaps one of the deepest looks into the non-violence movement ever depicted on television. This brilliantly written episode takes viewers black and white, young and old on a journey through the inner motivations and struggles of all sides of the non-violent movement, with characters that they can identify with no matter where they stand on the issues at hand.

The Defenders - The Non-Violent

This episode, more than any I have watched, shows just what a travesty it is that this show is not available in any format nor is it in any syndication package. This episode should be required viewing when studying the civil rights movement and non-violent protest.
 

Darby67

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I've got a good feeling ("individually" and "seasonally" speaking) about The Defenders in 2016 ;)

A very good, reasonable feeling...

Now if only I had the same good feeling about Universal, Fabulous Films, and Shout! Factory hammering out an agreement to do complete series Region 1 DVD releases of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, then my grail quest for classic television would be complete.
 
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Pathfiner

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Any clue for your 'good feeling' ?

please let us know....

But then surely as it's in black and white, would COST to restore and put onto modern format, would be out of time, feature deceased lead actor, and have only a 'limited appeal' to a small audience...would count against it ? (it seems to re other shows I love that are yet to see light of day...)

the fact it's a CLASSIC TV show full of great thought provoking and historically relevant episodes featuring many brilliant actors and the work of great writers, directors etc....

would appear to count for little when we can have modern inane rubbish, ghastly talent and reality shows etc out on DVD !
 

phenri

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I've got a good feeling ("seasonally" speaking) about The Defenders in 2016 ;)

A very good, reasonable feeling...

Not if only I had the same good feeling about Universal, Fabulous Films, and Shout! Factory hammering out an agreement to do complete series Region 1 DVD releases of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, then my grail quest for classic television would be complete.

I still haven't recovered from the disappointment of the cancellation of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour on Region 1 DVD.

The release of the Defenders would make me feel a little better, though.
 

Darby67

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Any clue for your 'good feeling' ?

please let us know....

But then surely as it's in black and white, would COST to restore and put onto modern format, would be out of time, feature deceased lead actor, and have only a 'limited appeal' to a small audience...would count against it ? (it seems to re other shows I love that are yet to see light of day...)

the fact it's a CLASSIC TV show full of great thought provoking and historically relevant episodes featuring many brilliant actors and the work of great writers, directors etc....

would appear to count for little when we can have modern inane rubbish, ghastly talent and reality shows etc out on DVD !

Jeff, I cannot reveal the source (and I'm not trying to play coy here) but suffice it say it has been a reliable one before. If it comes to fruition, the apparent licensee definitely makes sense (keep in mind that some distributors may not be completely out of the businesses that we assumed they were) and we would need to support the release in order to see more. :D
 
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Darby67

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I still haven't recovered from the disappointment of the cancellation of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour on Region 1 DVD.

The release of the Defenders would make me feel a little better, though.

Paul:

I haven't recovered from that disappointment either. The fate of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Region 1 releases in the hands of MCA/Universal is truly dire. With Alfred Hitchcock Presents, they released Season 1 on double-sided discs that had freezing and pixelation issues, Seasons 2 through 5 on single-sided discs, and Season 6 on MOD DVD-R, while Season 7 remains in limbo. They never released The Alfred Hitchcock Hour at all in Region 1. Fabulous Films released all 7 seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (both individually and as a complete series) on 10/25/15 and all 3 seasons of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (again both individually and as a complete series) on 1/11/16 in Region 2 (Madman Entertainment did similar releases in Region 4). Since Fabulous Films had previously released the complete series of Universal's Tales of the Gold Monkey in Region 2 on 11/16/09 and worked out an agreement for Shout! Factory to release the complete series in Region 1 on 6/8/10, I was really hoping that Shout! Factory would work out a similar agreement with Fabulous Films and Universal to release all seasons of the Alfred Hitchcock television shows in Region 1.
 

Neil Brock

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Too many episodes of AHH are based on published stories and require a level of clearances which Universal is either unwilling or unequipped to undertake for a licensed out product.
 

jim_falconer

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Jeff, I cannot reveal the source (and I'm not trying to play coy here) but suffice it say it has been a reliable one before. If it comes to fruition, the apparent licensee definitely makes sense (keep in mind that some distributors may not be completely out of the businesses that we assumed they were) and we would need to support the release in order to see more. :D

Man, I would be SOOOO happy if this comes to fruitation! Only seen a few episodes, but they have left such a huge impression on me
 

Darby67

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Too many episodes of AHH are based on published stories and require a level of clearances which Universal is either unwilling or unequipped to undertake for a licensed out product.

Neil:

Thanks again for the confirmation on why that deal feel through (I remember you mentioning it on another thread). It really is a shame that The Alfred Hitchcock Hour won't see see the light of day on DVD in Region 1. I can only hope that the clearances issue with the show can somehow be made financially feasible enough to warrant a licensing deal with a third party; not likely I know, but I have to retain some hope.

And the way Universal handled their Region 1 Alfred Hitchcock Presents releases was atrocious; who knows if we'll ever see Season 7 released.
 

LeoA

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How were they able to release them in Australia then if they were a rights nightmare that they were either unwilling or unable to tackle? Or are the releases I'm thinking of something different or unsanctioned by Universal?

I hope people keep their enthusiasm in check a bit with The Defenders, despite rumors that may or may not come to fruition that aren't even necessarily about this particular program.

Odds are stacked in favor of continued disappointment rather than a sudden change of course from CBS that allows it to finally see the light of day again. And even if they are considering it, it seems like we rarely see a promising sounding rumor translate into an actual DVD release in recent years.

It's fun to even be considering the possibility of a new B&W release or two from CBS though (And there's a hopefully remastered season 1 release of The Beverly Hillbillies right around the corner as well)...
 
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Darby67

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How were they able to release them in Australia then if they were a rights nightmare that they were either unwilling or unable to tackle? Or are the releases I'm thinking of something different or unsanctioned by Universal?

Leo:

Not only in Australia (by Madman Entertainment), but in Britain too (by Fabulous Films) were all 7 seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and all 3 seasons of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour released on DVD. While understand that that there are different laws that apply in different countries, I still find it strange that Universal cannot duplicate what they did in Regions 2 and 4 in Region 1.
 

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