The Defenders Season 2, 3, 4 (1 Viewer)

[lrachiele]

It looks like allot of people want to see the above series. Let's all stick together on this one. Maybe we could get some prominate people or organizations to help. The movie Twelve Angry men in many ways the forerunner of this series. Herbert Brodkin was the producer and Reginald Rose was the writer of both the movie and television show. Many medical schools, law schools, and advertising agencies use the movie in their academic courses. They may be able to help us.

 

[Darby67]

Welcome to HTF, Leonard. There are many fans of The Defenders on this site and even a dedicated thread to the show at https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/could-the-defenders-be-released-on-dvd.252349/

 

[JamesSmith]

Not necessarily a fan, but I hope the Defenders fans get their season 2,3, and 4.

james

 

[lrachiele]

Thank you for your good wishes.

 

[bmasters9]

Not necessarily a fan, but I hope the Defenders fans get their season 2,3, and 4.

james

We got our wish w/the remainder of Gunsmoke (all of that 1955-75 CBS Western is out), so I think we ought to (sometime in the future) get the remainder of this 1961-65 CBS legal series.

 

[smithbrad]

The value-added to CBS for Gunsmoke is that it's been in syndication somewhere pretty much since going off the air. Thus, it is a known commodity to want to continue in syndication in HD going forward. The DVD releases are just a cash-flow opportunity to recoup some of the transfer costs for the remastering until HD syndication becomes the norm.

Defender's has no such luxury, from what I understand. It's not even available for syndication. Therefore, CBS has nothing to formally base what the return on investment would be to offset the remastering costs to bring it up to the times. The first season was transferred for the DVD release, and while it may have sold decent numbers, it obviously wasn't enough to continue with future seasons. Series that already have syndication packages available have SD quality prints ready to use to cut costs and test the market. However, for series like Defender's that have to go all the way back to the film elements, the cost can be prohibit.

Odder things have happened, but my guess is that Defender's will need a champion at CBS to want to push it through, like we heard for the Fugitive, and I wouldn't be surprised if even then it doesn't happen until physical media has gone to the wayside (i.e., only available through streaming, sub-channel syndication), and only after the many more readily available titles have already been taken care of (i.e., initiating CBS to dig deeper in the vaults).

 

[Darby67]

The value-added to CBS for Gunsmoke is that it's been in syndication somewhere pretty much since going off the air. Thus, it is a known commodity to want to continue in syndication in HD going forward. The DVD releases are just a cash-flow opportunity to recoup some of the transfer costs for the remastering until HD syndication becomes the norm.

Defender's has no such luxury, from what I understand. It's not even available for syndication. Therefore, CBS has nothing to formally base what the return on investment would be to offset the remastering costs to bring it up to the times. The first season was transferred for the DVD release, and while it may have sold decent numbers, it obviously wasn't enough to continue with future seasons. Series that already have syndication packages available have SD quality prints ready to use to cut costs and test the market. However, for series like Defender's that have to go all the way back to the film elements, the cost can be prohibit.

Odder things have happened, but my guess is that Defender's will need a champion at CBS to want to push it through, like we heard for the Fugitive, and I wouldn't be surprised if even then it doesn't happen until physical media has gone to the wayside (i.e., only available through streaming, sub-channel syndication), and only after the many more readily available titles have already been taken care of (i.e., initiating CBS to dig deeper in the vaults).

Brad:

You articulate the challenges for future releases of The Defenders quite well. The Defenders did have a CBS executive who championed its release and was instrumental in striking the deal with Shout Factory for the season 1 release. As a Shout Factory rep once confirmed, season 1 did sell well for a classic tv release but apparently not enough due to the high transfer and music clearances costs. Assuming Shout Factory has moved on from any more releases, I suppose CBS could try to make deal with other distributors such as Kino-Lorber, Classic Flix, VEI, VCI, etc. but the transfer and music clearance costs would still be prohibitive and I really don't see CBS paying for all or part of those costs.

It is an unfortunate quandary and a real bummer since it is such terrific series and seasons 2 through 4 are apparently even better than season 1.

 

[JamesSmith]

We got our wish w/the remainder of Gunsmoke (all of that 1955-75 CBS Western is out), so I think we ought to (sometime in the future) get the remainder of this 1961-65 CBS legal series.

I hope it happens. But CBS/Paramount might be trying to finish Bonanza, Love, American Style, and a few other series that they think might need finishing before The Defenders. Again, I might be wrong. There's also Our Miss Brooks and Ben Casey on the table.

--jthree

 

[bmasters9]

I hope it happens. But CBS/Paramount might be trying to finish Bonanza, Love, American Style, and a few other series that they think might need finishing before The Defenders. Again, I might be wrong. There's also Our Miss Brooks and Ben Casey on the table.

--jthree

I hope also they finish Bonanza too, come to think of it (and they're so remarkably close-- four gos to go, IIRC; tenth one came out sometime back, also IIRC).

 

[smithbrad]

I hope also they finish Bonanza too, come to think of it (and they're so remarkably close-- four gos to go, IIRC; tenth one came out sometime back, also IIRC).

Season 11 was already announced for October 27. Bonanza has also been in syndication for years. I don't think we have to worry about it not being finished. It just depends on whether they decide to push the last few seasons through quickly like Gunsmoke, or they stick to more of a one season per year approach.

 

[DaveHof]

I know it's hopelessly naive to expect a large corporation to care more about art than commerce, but I continue to believe that shows that attain the quality level of The Defenders should be made accessible based on nothing other than their status as examples of the medium at its very best. Same with Room 222. We are living in times when law and order/criminal justice and the state of education are hot button topics. Despite their vintage status these shows can make valuable contributions to those conversations, and can be utilized in schools to explore how they were viewed 50 years ago, and what has or has not changed. Some of the federal/state funds spent on education could certainly be better spent on these projects - these shows certainly stand a better chance of engaging students than a textbook.

 

[ian McLachlan]

I agree. I really enjoyed watching season one of The Defenders a programme that I remember from my childhood. It amazes me that such a quality production has not been seen for years. It might be available on DVD in the future if some TV channel was encouraged to screen it. I live in the UK so sadly there are not so many available outlets for the show.

 

[lrachiele]

I don't see why CBS doesn't conduct a straw man estimating buys revenue, unit cost, and total cost of the series. Then ask for cashiers checks of the amount. For me, the cost of $ 45 was a give away. I would easily pay $500 for the remainder. I understand that Issac Asimov the University of Wisconsin have the entire series.

 

[Darby67]

I don't see why CBS doesn't conduct a straw man estimating buys revenue, unit cost, and total cost of the series. Then ask for cashiers checks of the amount. For me, the cost of $ 45 was a give away. I would easily pay $500 for the remainder. I understand that Issac Asimov the University of Wisconsin have the entire series.

Leonard:

First off, I want to say your passion for The Defenders is palpable and refreshing. When the complete season one was released by Shout Factory in July 2016, us HTF Defenders fans iniitally rejoiced and then set about contacting as many media outlets and online home video review websites as we could think to spread the word and entice them to write reviews of the release. As the years went by without word of any further season releases, we become disheartened (perhaps even cynical) that we would ever seen any more season releases. So, I just want to thank you for a much-needed shot of adrenaline!

The University of Wisconsin does indeed have all 132 episodes of the series in their archives: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cg...ves;view=text;rgn=main;didno=uw-whs-defenders

I don't want to speak for him, but I believe Neil Brock has watched each episode (Neil, correct me if I'm in error here) and is one of our resident experts on the series.

Keep the flame of hope burning and perhaps by some miracle we may yet see seasons two, three, and four released!

P.S. - I know my heart palpitates every time I see a new posting in this and the original Defenders thread, so I apologize in advance for sending any of my fellow HTFers into premature cardiac arrest...