Customer Reviews

Studio One: The Defender

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Studio One made a name for itself doing teleplays for television. These plays were preformed like stage shows for the camera. Most were shot on video live. In the late 1970's CBS destroyed most of these viseo tapes.

The Defenders video tape survived. I know how nor why. If you are a Star Trek Fan, this 1957 tele-play has the acting talents of William Shatner, long before he donned the Star Fleet uniform of James T Kirk and beamed aboard the Starship Enterprise. He plays the son of a father and son legal team. You see, even before he was Denny Crane of TV's Boston Legal, he was a lawyer

This teleplay also starred Ralph Bellamy (as Shatner's Legal eagle father), Steve McQueen (before he was in TV's Wanted: Dead or Alive and the movies The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape) and Martin Balsam.

This was the age of Live TV. However, You could not find a flub in these two episodes of live TV. Nor could you find a bad preformance in these shows

If you are fan of TV history, The Defenders became a regular TV series in the 1960's. Bellamy's father role was played by E.G. Marshall & Shatner by Robert Reed (TV Brady Bunch).

If you are a fan of old TV, a good collection to showcase classic Television

Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD

Studio One was one of the better drama shows ever made. Created around 1948 it featured a multitude of young stars that would become Hollywood Legends like Natalie Wood, Charlton Heston, John Forsythe to name a few. This episode features three great stars: Richard Bellamy, William Shatner and Steve McQueen. Bellamy was already an established actor while Shatner and McQueen weren't even in their acting prime.

This is before Shatner's career arrived on Star Trek and McQueen became a big Hollywood star. In fact his acting on this probably broke upon his career as well as Shatner's (nine years before Star Trek). Shatner plays a lawyer, Kenneth Preston, defending a man, Joseph Gordon wanted for murder (McQueen). Ralph Bellamy is Walter Preston and Kenneth's dad. Kenneth believes in Joseph's innocence but Walter does not especially since Joseph is prone to violent outburst. It also does not help the fact that several witness (including Joseph's ex-girlfriend) point him as the bad guy.

Nevertheless, both father and son team do a great job in poking holes in witness testimony, and raise reasonable doubt and give the young Gordon a chance to survive.

Like I said great acting by all three. Shatner has been known to overact his roles (including Star Trek) but he is rolling on all cylinder showing the young brilliance that he also shown in TV episodes of the Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

After this great episode there is a great documentary on the history behind Studio One that is really worth checking out.

Parts of this episode were used for BL "Son of the Defender" but really that episode doesn't do justice to how brilliant this two part episode really was. Forget about that episode and see this video today.

This two-part episode of the legendary TV series, Studio One, stars Ralph Bellamy and William Shatner as defense lawyers who defends an accused murder played by Steve McQueen. I think this is probably one of the great courtroom dramas ever made. For once it's not about if the defendant is guilty or not guilty, it's about taking the path you choose in a court of law. Bellamy is convinced from the start that Mcqueen is guilty of murder and though he continues to defend him, he can't bring himself to believe his innocence. Surprisingly the tension and drama all comes from Bellamy and Shatner, they are a father and son who clearly never saw eye to eye. Shatner believe's McQueen is innocent and though he never really convinces his father it's the prosecutor who tells him that you can't think of guilt or innosence, you just have to do your job because it's your profession. Today's courtroom dramas aren't like this that operates on this clear logic.

Watching this TV courtroom drama, I realized I saw it when I was a kid--I remember bits and pieces. Nevertheless, I recently saw the Boston Legal episode, Son Of The Defender (one of BL's finest) into which the producers add various clips of The Defender, so I had to have it.
The show, filmed in black and white, really wasted a lot of time in development, and if it had been condensed by half, would have held the audience's attention a bit more.
The acting was top-notch, and the end was excellent, plus it made for a great, I mean truly great, Boston Legal episode, which is in the third season disc set. If you've seen The Defender, then you've got to see Son Of The Defender, or vice-versa....

While the acting is superb, it is inconceivable that anyone other than a first year law student would have the conscience issues of the veteran attorney portrayed by Ralph Bellamy. Making it more absurd is that it takes a didactic oration from the prosecuting attorney (Martin Balsam)to get Bellamy to absorb that the defense attorney's role does not include judging his client. Finally, that the prosecuting attorney does not perceive the courtroom stunt is totally unbelievable.

What is scary is how old the actors appear. Ian Wolfe, who played the judge, while 65, looked 90. Bellamy looks far older than his 54 years. Vivian Nathan, who played McQueen's mother, was only 36. Even Shatner looks older than 26 and McQueen much older than 19.

You may purchase this video on DVD from Amazon. It can be played with and without commercials. The Westinghouse commercials are incredibly campy. Does the viewer really care that WH created a breaking system for weaving machines? Apparently, in the 1950s, Madison Avenue thought they did.

Perhaps time has tarnished the golden age of television.