Studio One (TV Series) The Defender: Part 2 (1957) User Reviews

O Dickens how you influence

[tinyfordst · 6/10 · 1 July 2020]

I was looking forward to watching these 2 episodes since the moment I saw the cast. To make it better it's a court drama.

The acting was good given it was back in the early years of TV. The writing on the other hand went from okay to bad in an instant. No re-examination after the doctor tried to explain the headaches, no objection to the badgering, and then the oldest trick in the book written a hundred and 2 years before this episode by Charles Dickens himself, the switch to give a mistrial. The only problem is that this trick is not allowed in a court of law. It is also unoriginal by now.

The first episode was good and well thought through, and in the second one everything fell flat when the writers couldn't find a way for Steve McQueen to be free. I'm mad at this episode right now. So apologies if it seemed like ranting and you had to read it.

Hungry Like The (Ian) Wolfe

[cutterccbaxter · 17 December 2023]

In this Studio One production, TJ Hooker and a guy who looks a lot like Ralph Bellamy play a father and son legal team defending an unhappy Steve McQueen. The defendant is charged with committing a larceny murder while delivering meat. At one point McQueen gets socked in the face and he gets to wear a band-aid like WKRP's Les Nessman. Lou Grant from the WJM newsroom is a member of the jury.

Steve McQueen has migraines due to some type of nasal problem. He is mostly a sullen defendant. The guy who looks a lot like Ralph Bellamy doesn't like Steve McQueen. I know Yul Brenner didn't like McQueen either, after working with him in The Magnificent Seven. The guy who looks a lot like Ralph Bellamy doesn't like McQueen because he thinks he's guilty. I'm thinking the guy who looks like Ralph Bellamy should have gone into a different branch of law if he didn't like defending guilty clients.

We don't know for sure if McQueen is guilty. His mother thinks he is innocent but all mothers think their children are the most innocent little angels on Earth. I know my mom does.

I always thought Ian Wolfe had a cool name. He plays a judge and does it well. Too bad he was never on the Supreme Court, the People's Court or Night Court.

What's fun about watching these originally live broadcasts are the occasional flubs either from the actors or production. In this case there is a camera dolly that bumps into the witnesses stand. Oops! No going back and doing "Take Two!"