Development

The series was a slight reworking of Rose's 1957 two-part drama, The Defender, from the anthology series Studio One. In the original program, Ralph Bellamy played the father and William Shatner played his son. Shatner guest-starred in various roles in the later series, and the original drama later was incorporated into an episode of his series, Boston Legal.

According to creator Reginald Rose, "the law is the subject of our programs: not crime, not mystery, not the courtroom for its own sake. We were never interested in producing a 'who-done-it' which simply happened to be resolved each week in a flashy courtroom battle of wits."^[1] And unlike Perry Mason, which also ran on CBS, victory was "far from certain on The Defenders—as were morality and justice."^[1]

Topics featured in the series included abortion, capital punishment, "no-knock" searches, custody rights of adoptive parents, the insanity defense, the "poisoned fruit doctrine," immigration quotas, the Hollywood blacklist, jury nullification, and Cold War visa restrictions.^[1]

Writers for the show included Rose in many early episodes, with later episodes by Albert "Al" Ruben and Ernest Kinoy – both Jewish Americans holding socially liberal views.^[2] It was thought the move to “ratings graveyard” Thursday nights after a successful prime time reign on Saturday evenings, was a conservative corporate device to force the socially conscious program into cancellation, which it ultimately did.

Controversial episodes

A 1962 episode entitled "The Benefactor"—in which the father–son legal team defended an abortion care provider—was the most controversial; all of the series' three regular advertisers (Brown & Williamson, Lever Brothers, and Kimberly-Clark) refused to sponsor the episode, so it was only transmitted after a last-minute sponsor was found, Speidel, for a discounted advertising rate.^[3][4] The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation banned this episode when it was first shown on April 28.^[5] In 2008, this incident was used as the basis for a second season episode of the drama Mad Men, set in the 1960s.^[6]

The December 7, 1963 episode, "Climate of Evil," was originally titled "The Gentle Assassin" but was changed two weeks earlier in the aftermath of the John F. Kennedy assassination. In addition, the January 4, 1964 episode, "Clare Cheval Died in Boston," was originally scheduled for the weekend of the assassination, and subsequently had reference to "President Kennedy" deleted from the episode.

Broadcast history

Note: The most frequent time slot for the series is in bold text.

• Saturday at 8:30–9:30 p.m. on CBS: September 16, 1961 – May 25, 1963; November 30, 1963 – June 27, 1964
• Saturday at 9:00–10:00 p.m. on CBS: September 28 – November 16, 1963
• Thursday at 10:00–11:00 p.m. on CBS: September 24, 1964 – May 13, 1965

Awards

The Defenders won 14 Primetime Emmy Awards (including three in a row for Outstanding Drama Series) and received an additional eight nominations.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications called it "perhaps the most socially conscious series the medium has ever seen", a show "singularly resonant with New Frontier liberalism".^[1]

In 2002, The Defenders was ranked #31 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time,^[7] and in 2013 TV Guide ranked it #8 in its list of The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time,^[8] while the Writers Guild of America ranked it – and Gunsmoke – #84 on their list of the 101 Best Written TV Series.^[9]

Ratings

• 1961–1962: #26 (22.4)
• 1962–1963: #18 (23.9)
• 1963–1964: N/A
• 1964–1965: N/A

As a top 30 series, The Defenders has an average rating of 23.2.