The Defenders

My elder brother (who is now a Metropolitan Trial Court judge) and I used to watch this every week back in the early '60s. I don't remember much of the episodes except I know I enjoyed most of them. It has a very inspiring trumpet led theme music as the camera took a long bird's eye view panning shot of a majestic courthouse with Greco-Roman architecture.

I do remember Atty. Preston, the elder, (E.G. Marshall) often arguing on the basis of principles over strict or often shystery interpretation of the law used by his court opponents.

One episode I distinctly remember is the one that involves a leader of an American neo-Nazi organization who organized a counter-demonstration to a Jewish rally or parade. Dressed in what looked like approximations of Sturmabteilung ("shock troops" or SA)uniforms, they peacefully stood on the sidewalks and shouted "Hitler had the right idea" repeatedly. They got arrested and charged with something in court. The Preston father and son lawyer team had the rather unpleasant but legally correct task of defending the neo-Nazi leader on the grounds of freedom of speech.

before this show came out, Television was meant to be pure escapism meaning that like movies,people who watched TV often times watched it to escape from all the turbulent and sometimes horrendous things that happened in that 60's. So because of that, Most network & daytime TV shows often avoided current social issues of the day, making them seem very unrealistic. And then the Defenders came along.

Now, back in the 60's if you decided to make a show that focused on contemporary controversial social issues, you would risk getting your show cancelled because most big corporations would be uncomfortable sponsoring a show that did that, and that's exactly what the Defenders did. They were the first show that was brave enough to focus on such controversial social issues of the 60's such as civil rights,abortion neo-natzis and they almost got cancelled because of it. there was one episode where the father-son lawyer team of Lawrence and Kenneth Preston (E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed) had to a defend an abortionist, and almost every regular sponsor of the show, decided not to sponsor the episode and all of the sudden, the series was hanging by a thread, until one sponsor came in at the eleventh hour to sponsor the episode, and they saved the show from cancellation singled handed.

the bottom line is that this show was incredibly groundbreaking because if was one of the first TV shows to deal with contemporary controversial social issues, something no other show before or on on at the same time did, making it one of the most realistic shows of it's time. it also paved the way for socially conscious shows that came after it. Now what I really don't understand is that the show's not on DVD and it hasn't been seen in reruns in 20 years. But regardless, the show needs to be on DVD or in syndication, and it definitely can't be forgotten by the next generation of TV watchers.

From the early Sixties came this show which one viewer described as that era's Law and Order. It wasn't that, it couldn't be that because the Prestons were defense attorneys. Still the cases raised some of the legal issues that Law and Order raises. The Defenders whatever else it was, was not a who done it show like Perry Mason.

E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed played the father and son law firm of Preston&Preston. E.G. as Lawrence Preston was a widower and Reed was his son Kenneth. What I remember was these two guys apparently had no personal life at all. I can't remember a single episode where these two weren't on the clock defending all kinds of clients.

But lawyers and law students loved this show as it took on some really important issues. The episode that I remember best was one involving the McNaghten Rule which evolved from an English murder case in which a guy named McNaghten killed Prime Minister Robert Peel's Secretary, thinking it was Peel. The poor demented jerk thought that the government was plotting against him personally. That case set a standard for a successful insanity defense, that someone like McNaghten had to be unaware of the difference between right and wrong when he committed the homicide.

I still remember Marshall saying that in behalf of his client the McNaghten Rule should be repealed. He certainly gave it one good effort in trying to repeal about a 120 years of Anglo-American jurisprudence. The rule's been modified, but never repealed. But that was typical of the stuff the Prestons did. No arraignments in night court for this duo.

The scripts though were intelligently written even if you didn't agree with what the Prestons were doing. Proof that entertainment can be intelligent and informative, the show ran for four years.

I wish that TV Land would pick up this series.

Of the 132 stories, 33 are now available. Couldn't we pool our resources to get this show on video DVD. There are high residuals for this show buy if enough people want it, they will pay the money. Most of the TV programs on DVD now were not worth watching even once. One exception is Death Valleys Days in B/W. Let's bug CBS for the remaining 99 episodes of the Defenders. All but three of them were very good. The three bad ones are a two parter The 600 Year Old Gang and Poltergeist. All of the rest were quality stories that would hold up well today. Some of the guest stars included Ruth Roman, Frank Overton, Fritz Weaver, and Robert Redford. Let's ban together and find out who has the rights to the Defenders.

I have not seen an episode since the mid-60s (YIKES, how long is that?), but I remember many of them. In one, these father/son are assigned the defense of a young Nazi. The man was defacing a synagogue when he was interrupted by the rabbi, who accidentally fell and hit his head and died. The man was caught and charged with murder, since it was assumed that he had killed the rabbi. There turned out to be a witness who could clear the man. When the Defenders finally tracked him down, he told them the most horrific story of his arrest and transfer to a concentration camp - and for that reason he would not testify for "one of THEM." Their response was, "Do you want us to be like them, ignoring the truth?" And that was how the episode ended - would the witness testify or not? How childish modern TV "drama" seems in comparison...