The Defenders: Season One coming from Shout! Factory

[Darby]

The Defenders was an Emmy Award-winning legal drama television series that ran on CBS from 1961 to 1965. Todd VanDerWerff wrote a great article on The Defenders on the A.V. Club website on July 30, 2012 at http://www.avclub.com/article/ithe-defe ... 0s-b-83042.

I just wanted to let everyone know that Shout! Factory will be releasing The Defenders: Season One on DVD on July 12, 2016.

Here are the links:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Defenders-Sea ... PDKIKX0DER


Shout:

https://www.shoutfactory.com/tv/drama/t ... =1&units=1


tvshowsondvd:

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Defenders-Season-1/22158

Please show support for this release by purchasing it so that Shout! Factory will be convinced to release the remaining three seasons. You can also send Shout! Factory a message at https://www.shoutfactory.com/contact

[Darby]

Shout! Factory has announced the bonus features for The Defenders: Season One and they are terrific:

The Studio One Presentation Of The Defender (1957) Starring Ralph Bellamy, Steve McQueen And William Shatner

Original And Extended Version Of The Pilot Episode

New Interviews With Associate Producer Bob Markell And Writer Larry Cohen

Interview With Actor E.G. Marshall

Source: https://www.shoutfactory.com/tv/drama/t ... season-one

July 12th can't come soon enough!

Darby

[Darby]

An excellent new article about Season One of The Defenders: https://classictvhistory.wordpress.com/ ... defenders/

My copy arrived a few days ago and I can unequivocally say this is one show that definitely lives up to its hype, I want to sincerely thank Shout Factory! for taking the risk of bringing a 55-year old program which was barely syndicated back out of the vault for old fans of the series to relish and to hopefully expose new generations to a legal drama of the highest quality. This is no Perry Mason where the defense lawyer wins every time or Law & Order where the audience is practically spoon-fed the clues but instead it is a riveting hour of television which fearlessly and thoughtfully confronted controversial issues in a mature and nuanced manner that ultimately leaves it up to the viewer to come terms with both the legality and the morality of the case. Just watching the first few minutes of Episode #1 “The Quality of Mercy” sets the tone of the series as you squirm with discomfort witnessing euthanasia principally through the dialogue of the doctors; this series definitely doesn’t pull its punches. The writing and acting are top-notch and the video and audio quality are certainly more than acceptable given the age of the show. Shout! really went above and beyond with the special features as well which include The Studio One Presentation Of The Defender (1957) Starring Ralph Bellamy, Steve McQueen And William Shatner, the original and extended version of the pilot episode, new interviews with associate producer Bob Markell and writer Larry Cohen, and an interview with actor E.G. Marshall.

Just to hold a Region 1 DVD release of "The Defenders: Season One" in my hands is nothing short of a miracle; I honestly never thought I'd live to see the day and I hope I get the express the same sentiment at least 3 more times with the releases of the remaining three seasons!

Darby

[Darby]

Another great article, this time on how the release came to fruition: http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv ... 1.12058054

Darby

[Darby]

Some more articles about The Defenders:

http://eddieonfilm.blogspot.com/2010/09 ... y.html?m=1

http://articles.latimes.com/1997/sep/01 ... t/ca-27817

http://www.museum.tv/eotv/defendersth.htm

http://blog.unl.edu/dixon/2016/07/28/cl ... d-at-last/

Darby

[Darby]

2 recent articles on the Season One DVD release:

http://comforttv.blogspot.com/2016/08/b ... n-dvd.html

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv ... story.html

[Darby]

A recent DVD Talk review of The Defenders: Season One: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/71880/de ... son-1-the/