Amateur movie with Big budget

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

... because that is the only season available on DVD, and I never saw it in syndication on TV. E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed star as a father and son team of defense lawyers. I can just imagine the stink that this might have made when it first came on the air 56 years ago. For example, episode one deals with a doctor performing a mercy killing in the case of a newborn mongoloid child before there was any capability to know anything about the child one was carrying until it was born. The show also tackles rape, temporary insanity, and the death penalty among other issues. But not every episode is "ripped from the headlines" before newspapers would ever even print this material. There are quite a few basic "whodunnits" and some humorous episodes along the lines of Agatha Christie such as "Gideon's Follies" when a rich man with half a dozen ex-wives - who are all best friends - is murdered.There is a love interest for Robert Reed's character in the first episode, but then she disappears, only to reappear sporadically in a few other episodes and then she is only mentioned in a few episodes later in the season. Maybe the writers wanted to concentrate on the legal issues feeling that they had their hands full just with that. Among the future famous actors that have notable guest appearances are Jack Klugman, Gene Hackman, Hugh Herbert, Martin Sheen, and William Shatner. But not in every case is this true. In one episode near the end of the season Gene Wilder appears as a waiter at a reunion in a hotel. I was very disappointed when all he did was serve the butter and leave.Also, right out of the gate, the two main characters have their personas down, and the writing is just superb. Not a wasted or boring minute in any of the episodes I've seen. I'd highly recommend purchasing the first season if you can. It is truly classic television at its dramatic best.

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.

There are heavy residuals on this great show, which I sure would like see again. Currently I have 32 stories, 29 of which are very good. If anyone has any episodes, please let met know. The ones I have are 30 listed "caseyguy", the Locked Room, and The Nonviolent. Of the remaining 100, I would like all but the the 2 part episode The 600 Year Old Gangm and Poltergest. Both of these were bad. Almost all of the old shows on video stores or cable were not worth watching even once. Somebody out there has the brainpower and pull to make them available to those willing to pay the price. This show caused you to think about conditions in your country. E.G. Marshall as excellent as were the frequent guest stars such as Frank Overton, Viveca Lindfors, Judson Laire, Jack Klugman, Harold Stone, Richard Kiley, Gene Hackmen, Edward Binns, Sylvia Sidney, Robert Webber, Malcom Atterberry, and others. This was the most socially conscious show ever.

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...