Westinghouse Studio One – “The Defender: Part 1” (02/25/1957)

Just a few short weeks after being on the well-regarded Kraft Television Theatre playing a doctor for the first time, Shatner appeared on the much more prestigious Westinghouse Studio One as a lawyer…again for the very first time in his career. Studio One started out in 1947 as a radio program, but after one year moved to CBS television where it aired under a variety of names from 1948-1958. Much like Kraft Television Theatre, over the years Studio One gained a fantastic reputation for mounting high-quality dramatic programs featuring some of the best writers, directors and actors working in live television. These included directors like John Frankenheimer, Sidney Lumet and Daniel Petrie, writers like Rod Serling, Reginald Rose and Gore Vidal, and yet another who’s who of great actors including Charlton Heston, Jack Klugman, Warren Beatty, Grace Kelly and James Dean.

Several of the productions even made the leap to the big screen, probably the most notable being “Twelve Angry Men.” That teleplay was first broadcast on Studio One in 1954, winning a number of Emmys before becoming the motion picture 12 Angry Men in 1957 and being nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture. The writer of Twelve Angry Men was Reginald Rose who returned to Studio One and to the courtroom setting with “The Defender,” featuring William Shatner performing with veteran actor Ralph Bellamy and future great (and King of Cool) Steve McQueen.

Bellamy and Shatner play Walter and Kenneth Preston, a father and son team of defense attorneys assigned to defend a young man, Joseph Gordon (Steve McQueen), who has been accused of murder. Walter is the highly-respected elder attorney and Kenneth is the fresh out of law school and more idealistic younger half of the duo. As Walter will explain shortly, he was originally very pleased to have been appointed to defend Joseph Gordon, since only the best defense attorneys get what are considered the hopeless cases. And the assignment seemed at first to reignite his passion for his job.

But from the very beginning of the teleplay it’s obvious that his heart is not at all in it anymore. The very first scene of the production has Shatner and Bellamy sitting in the courtroom, Kenneth pleading with his father to just speak with their client. It’s obvious with very little dialog that there is conflict between the son and the father, that Kenneth believes the client is innocent and that Walter is upset at best and at worst disgusted at even having to sit at the same table as Joseph.

In a later conversation,  Walter tells his son that he will give Joseph an “ethical” defense but doesn’t believe that he’s innocent, doesn’t believe that he will be found innocent by the jury and even intimates that he won’t allow him to be found innocent. Kenneth is the opposite, caring a lot about his client, believing that he is innocent and that that  his father should do anything (within the confines of the law) to get him off. This includes some “parlor trick” or “courtroom stunt” that Walter angrily declares he will not allow Kenneth to attempt.

This sets up, obviously, the main conflict in the teleplay. It’s compelling, but slightly undermined by three things. One, McQueen’s character is certainly sullen, hot-headed at times and annoying, but never really comes across as some depraved, gross or terrible human being. He is respectful to his mother, he’s got a girlfriend, he’s got a job, etc. The second thing, and one that ties into the first, is that the defendant is Steve McQueen. It’s really hard for us, as a modern audience most especially, to believe that McQueen is playing an unrepentant murderer.

The third and most severe issue is that it’s hard for me to believe that a prominent and longtime public defender like Bellamy’s Walter Preston has never had to defend a client he found reprehensible or one that seemed to be guilty. I mean, even in this teleplay Walter has already said that he was excited to get what seemed to be a hopeless case! His very job is one that entails defending all clients regardless of guilt. Sure, it would be great if he were television’s Perry Mason and could pick and choose exactly who he wanted to defend, but he’s a fucking public defender! You don’t get to choose! You just need to do all you can to defend within the confines of the law and your oath! I’ll have more comments on this in the next week’s episode review, so stay tuned loyal readers.

And it really doesn’t help (as I alluded to above) that we don’t really get any sense as to what Joseph has done to upset Walter Preston so much. Other than the fact that Walter believes him guilty, it doesn’t seem like Joseph’s sullenness and hot-headedness is that big of a deal, ESPECIALLY since most of that behavior in this episode is almost entirely due to the fact that Joseph is upset that Walter doesn’t believe in his innocence.

But if you can look past those issues, there is certainly a lot of gray to be found. The dilemma is really more for the audience: how do you bring yourself to care about someone who seems so obviously guilty? Again, more on this to come, as some of the themes and conflicts are more explicitly laid out in the story’s finale.

Martin Balsam plays the prosecuting attorney, Francis Toohey, a showman type prosecutor and one we learn later is probably angling to become the next Mayor. He, the reporters, the jury, and just about everyone else believe that this is an open and shut case and that there is no way Joseph will be found innocent. Other than his own mother and Kenneth, it appears that the entire courtroom is against Joseph. He even gets punched by the dead woman’s husband in the courtroom and the husband gets no disciplinary action whatsoever…he isn’t ejected or held in contempt of court. Even the judge (who does admonish him not to do it again) says to him that he understands how difficult this trial is for him.

Toohey parades out various witnesses: the medical examiner who pegged the time of death, the lead detective who arrested Joseph, Joseph’s boss, and (to everyone’s surprise for some reason…doesn’t the defense see the prosecution’s list of witnesses?) his girlfriend. For almost all of these witnesses, Toohey emphatically asks them to identify the defendant as the man they are talking about. Each of these witnesses provides (with the exception of the medical examiner) what can best be described as circumstantial evidence.

Walter cross-examines each of them and is able to inject doubt or additional context that undermines to some extent all of their previous testimony. Even though he doesn’t believe in Joseph’s innocence, he is still providing that competent and ethical defense that he promised his son he would, regardless of enthusiasm. And yet he continues to tell Kenneth that there is no hope. After Walter cross-examines Joseph’s girlfriend, Toohey is fed up with being undermined and calls his most powerful witness…the dead woman’s maid.

The maid takes the stand and calmly and succinctly tells the story of how she got to the apartment at exactly 5 minutes to 10 (thereby nailing down the timeline more than the other witnesses), how she walked in and saw Joseph in the apartment. How he immediately punched her and knocked her out, not the actions of an innocent man and directly contradicting everything Joseph had told the police and his lawyers. She points at the defendant and states definitively that he was the man who she saw in the apartment and that he was the man who punched her out. The episode ends with Joseph having a complete meltdown in court and swearing to Walter and Kenneth (and to himself) that she is wrong and that this never happened. But it sure doesn’t look good for him.

Shatner’s performance, the way that he conveys without dialog his relationship to his father, is quite good. He comes off as professional, calm and caring, only showing some of his character’s cracks when attempting to get his father to listen to him about attempting whatever his “courtroom stunt” might entail. (Don’t worry, we’ll of course see this stunt in the next episode.) But there are no Shatner histrionics, no “playing for the back rows” of the theater. This is the a very competent early Shatner performance, helping to solidify and expand the NYC era of Shatner television appearances. I’ll have more on what this production might have meant for Shatner’s career in the next review.

Of all of the actors in this production, it’s actually McQueen who has the most over the top “actor” moments. He gets upset at multiple points with Walter Preston, and at one points goes absolutely bonkers, gesticulating wildly and yelling things like “You think I’m guilty, Mr. Preston” in such a way that I thought he was saying “Mr. President” which is hilarious in hindsight.

At the end of the episode, after the maid’s damning eyewitness testimony, McQueen’s character even has a courtroom blow up followed by an anxious breakdown at the defense table where he keeps putting his hand into his mouth and then pulling it out. It’s…a bit much. “The King of Cool” had certainly not earned that moniker yet. It did make me very glad/sad that Shatner wasn’t playing McQueen’s character, because I’m not sure anyone (including his career) could have handled it at this point. McQueen’s also playing a 21 year old (he was actually about 26 at the time) but already looks to be in his mid 30’s. Ah, the 1950’s.

Like many/most of the productions Shatner performed on during these first few years of being in NYC, Studio One – “The Defender” was a live production, smooth and well-done. Unlike some of the other productions Shatner was in prior, there were really no flubs or issues (other than a boom mic here and there.) It was a well-oiled machine at this point at Studio One for Shatner’s first appearance on the venerated program, but not his last…starting with next week’s finale of “The Defender”!

Shat Level: 3 = Solid Shat

Shatner’s Web

It’s time to detail all of the connections between Studio One – “The Defender” and other Shatner appearances! 

OK, here we go. The web of Shatner is really going to start heating up as we get more and more into his U.S. television appearances.

Pretty much all of the below actors would, of course, appear with Shatner in Part 2 of “The Defender” in next week’s continuation of this teleplay.

Ralph Bellamy would then next appear on 1958’s The Christmas Tree with Shatner. After that, he would would wait almost 20 years to be basked in the Shat’s greatness on 1977’s Testimony of Two Men. Archival footage of Studio One – “The Defender” that included Bellamy would also be featured many, many years later in a 2007 episode of Boston Legal – “Son of the the Defender.”

Martin Balsam would work with Shatner on an episode of Naked City – “Without Stick or Sword” in 1962. His last appearances with Shatner would be on a five episode arc of TV’s Dr. Kildare – “The Encroachment,” “A Patient Lost,” “What Happened to All the Sunshine and Roses?,” “The Taste of Crow” and “Out of a Concrete Tower” in 1966.

Steve McQueen soon got too big for his britches and never worked with Shatner again.

Ian Wolfe (the judge in “The Defender”) would team up with Shatner again for two episodes of Star Trek: “Bread and Circuses” and “All Our Yesterdays.” He would then be seen again as another judge in 1970’s The Andersonville Trial and then one last time in an episode of the short-lived Barbary Coast TV series in 1975 – “Crazy Cats.”

Vivian Nathan, a stand out in this production playing the mother of McQueen’s character, would have one more Studio One episode with Shatner later this same year: “The Deaf Heart.”

Frank Marth, who had a brief appearance in this production as “First Reporter” would appear with Shatner one more time in a 1963 episode of The Nurses – “A Difference of Years.”

Milton Selzer, credited in this episode as “2nd Guard,” would go on next to work with Shatner in a 1958 Kraft Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Man Who Didn’t Fly.” Next, he would appear in an episode of The Defenders (a show we’ll discuss a bit more below and in the next review) called “The Uncivil War.” Then, in 1973 he would work with Shatner on Mannix – “Search for a Whisper” and finally in 1974 on an episode of Mission: Impossible – “Cocaine.”

Interestingly, Ed Asner can be easily seen as a juror in this production although he has no speaking lines and is uncredited. He would ironically work with Shatner properly in a 1963 episode of The Defenders – “The Cruel Hook.”  In 2001, both men would work on an animated show called Gahan Wilson’s The Kid in an episode titled “The Cat.” Although those were the only three times they would work on the same production as actors, they did appear as themselves for a number of shows, including 1975’s Mitzi and A Hundred Guys, 1987’s Happy Birthday Hollywood, 2008’s TV Land Awards show, and 2012’s Betty White’s 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America’s Golden Girl. Most interestingly, Ed would be a guest on an episode of Shatner’s Raw Nerve in 2011. In that episode, I remember thinking that although Asner was only about 5 years older than Shatner, he looked about 25 years older.

Reginald Rose, the writer of this teleplay, would later be credited as the creator of the series based off it – The Defenders. Although Shatner and Bellamy both turned down the chance to appear in the roles they originated with “The Defender”, Shatner would go on to appear in five episodes of the series over the course of it’s five year run from 1961-65: “Killer Instinct,” “The Invisible Badge,” “The Cruel Hook,” “The Uncivil War” and finally “Whipping Boy.”

Worthington Minor created Studio One, and Shatner would appear in several other episodes of the series this same year: “The Deaf Heart,” and another two part episode “No Deadly Medicine.” In addition, he had already appeared in two episodes of The Kaiser Aluminum Hour that Minor was the Executive Producer on, “Mr. Finchley Versus the Bomb” and “Gwyneth.” He would go on to appear in one more episode later in 1957, “The Deadly Silence.” Finally, Minor was the Executive Producer of Play of the Week when Shatner would co-star in a 1960 production of a sci-fi story, “Night of the Auk.”

Finally, and most importantly, Herb Brodkin was the producer of Studio One at this time. He not only brought Shatner back to the program for “The Deaf Heart,” and another two part episode “No Deadly Medicine” in 1957, but was the producer responsible for The Defenders series that began a few years later. As mentioned above, Shatner and Bellamy both turned down offers to reprise their roles in the ongoing series, but Shatner would be hired to guest on the episodes “Killer Instinct,” “The Invisible Badge,” “The Cruel Hook,” “The Uncivil War” and finally “Whipping Boy.” With The Defenders winding down in 1965, Brodkin created a new show also featuring an attorney and asked Shatner to star in it. That show would become Shatner’s first ongoing series of his own: For The People. After that show disappointedly lasted only one year, Shatner turned around and headed for his biggest break ever: Star Trek.

Further Studies

You can purchase this episode online on DVD. Of course, you can always search for it on the thousands of streaming platforms.

More info on this episode, from a toupological angle of course, can be found at the Shatner’s Toupee blog.

For a little more on Studio One itself, click here.