The Defenders 1960s TV Show comes to DVD - 1st season 32 episodes in July

I'm looking forward to this. I've only recently gotten into 60's TV series. There was some quality work being done. I bought The Fugituve & The Naked City & was impressed with both. I've never seen an episode but I'm definitely picking this up.

 

Great piece on The Defenders from The Classic TV History Blog:

Defending the Defenders »

 

Nice article, I hope we see all the seasons released (along with Lou Grant)

 

If you liked those two series the I should think you would like this one as well!

 

Another article.

Why quality TV comes from NY, not Hollywood »

 

Been watching this all weekend. Takes a few episodes to find its stride, but by the middle of the season you can definitely see why it's so beloved. Fantastic show.

 

Surprised to see a young Martin Sheen in one of the episodes.

 

9/10 for me on this first episode! The acting was great especially Klugman. Klugman's acting seemed to get steadily worse as he got older, which is a little weird. Loved his Twilight Zone episodes as well as this one and his work on the various playhouse type programs of the 1950s. The Odd Couple was a big step down, IMHO, but still a great show with his performance being one of the best parts. In Quincy ME, he just became too preachy and too much of the know-it-all, but that was largely the part of the writing.

Back to this episode, very interesting story line, but certainly there would be no gray area about this subject 55 years later. The closest controversial story I can think of today was if a doctor and patient's spouse carried out a mercy killing of an advanced Alzheimer's patient.

 

8/10 for this one.

I have the same concern about rushing through. Maybe I'll try for two or three a week, even though I've jumped through the first two discs already. Maybe one or two each week along with one or two episodes of the recently released The Loner, Rod Serling's great series. If you like The Defenders, then I highly recommend the Loner currently Walmart exclusive.

Onto the the episode at hand. Shatner is another actor who's acting got steadily worse as he aged. Love all of his pre-Star Trek work, almost as much as Klugman's, see my earlier post. It's cute how the Shatner/Kirk fighting style can be seen in this episode, as he beats a man to death in two or three blows with his hands together, used equally effectively against the Gorn seen a few years later on an entirely different planet! The writing on this episode is interesting, but nearly every character acts in ways that I would not expect. I would think that he would have gotten far more support for his actions, but then it would not have been as interesting.

Also the episode could be done almost verbatim today about a soldier coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan, or maybe a member of Seal Team Six. I moved it up a point for the fact that it still works today.