A few months after first appearing on Studio One’s “The Defender”, a program originally created and produced by Worthington Minor, Shatner returned to the show Minor was currently executive producing, The Kaiser Aluminum Hour, for the third and final time.
The Kaiser Aluminum Hour was only on TV for one season and 25 episodes so that means Shatner appeared in 12% of the episodes. Too bad it didn’t run longer I guess, maybe he could have somehow beefed up that ratio! Although I was not able to view his prior two appearances, for this one I was able to see it a few years back at the Paley Center in Los Angeles, which now appears to be closed. Good thing I watched when I did! I also found a few pics, but obviously not much visual evidence exists.
The drama centers around the Sandor family, immigrant parents Marcus “Papa” Sandor (Ben Astar) and Mama Sandor (Lili Arvas,) and their two grown sons, Paul (Harry Guardino) and John (William F. Shatner.) It’s almost immediately established that Papa likes/relates to his oldest son Paul the most, with the opening scene involving them joking and horseplaying in the living room of the parent’s home while they await John and his new girlfriend Emily (Jane McArthur) for dinner. When Papa asks Paul what he’s been working on, Paul answers that he’s very busy working on a bunch of “deals.” It’s all quite vague, but Papa laps it up and is obviously immensely proud of Paul.
Before John arrives, Paul gets a phone call at the house. Mama answers the phone and asks who is calling, but the man on the other end refuses to give his name. She tells Paul he has a phone call, and goes out to the living room to tell Papa that she is worried about Paul and his vague business dealings with men who won’t even identify themselves. Papa tells her not to worry, that Paul is “good business” now, which helpfully intimates to the audience that Paul has had “bad business” in the past.
Indeed, Paul’s phone call cements the already ominous warning signs surrounding him. He tells the man on the phone that he’s “over a barrel” and then quickly hangs up when his mother enters the room. Doesn’t seem like “good business” at all, does it?
John and Emily arrive, and we learn that this is the first time Emily is meeting the rest of the Sandor clan. As such, she becomes a kind of audience surrogate viewing the Sandor family dynamic. Mama embarrasses John by telling Emily about how good he is and how he would make such a wonderful husband. Paul jokingly ribs his brother quite a bit, and as Papa and Paul joke and sing songs in whatever language they speak in the old Sandor homeland, the point is driven home that Papa and Paul are a team unto themselves.
We learn over the course of the dinner that Shatner is the only college graduate in the family, working now as some kind of science teacher at the beginning of his career. Papa is an iron worker, and Paul we find out was in jail for something in the past. Apparently he beat up some people and wound up hitting a policeman. As noted earlier, Papa thinks he’s now on the straight and narrow.
Shatner is sort of back to playing one of those “earnest young men” that carried him through most of his days working in Canadian television. He’s kind, he’s a college graduate with a degree and a teaching job, hoping one day to become a working scientist. There’s not much to his character other than that he loves his family, wants his father’s approval, and is a decent chap.
At the end of the evening, Papa gives his son Paul a great big hug…but only shakes John’s hand. The screenwriter (Irving Gaynor Newman) wisely doesn’t overplay this dynamic too much. It’s clear that Papa loves both sons, but it’s also obvious that most of his affection is given to the eldest while the one who has it clearly together is a bit ignored.
Outside the house, Paul asks John to take a “package” uptown to a hotel and drop it off for him as a favor. I’m sure this is going to end well and there are no red flags anywhere. Shatner waffles a bit but ultimately agrees to run Paul’s errand for him. After Paul leaves, Julie remarks that she doesn’t like how how Paul pushes him around. She has faith that one day he will be a great scientist, but that John is also still “a little boy yearning for Papa’s approval.”
So now we have all the family dynamics nailed down and the real plot starts. John takes the package to the hotel. When he drops off the package to a man in one of the rooms, he is immediately arrested in what was actually a police sting operation. Turns out the package contained heroin, and John is carted off to jail.
When his parents and Paul come to visit him, John implores his brother to explain to the police that it was his package being delivered. Paul tells his family that he “had no idea” what was in the package, but now that it is discovered to be heroin he would like John to take the fall. His reasoning is simple: he has a record and if he tells the police that it was his package he will go to jail for 20 years. However, John doesn’t have a record and is an upstanding citizen. If John tells the police that he was just delivering the package for a stranger (yeah right) he will almost assuredly not face any jail time.
Of course, Papa Sandor thinks this is the wisest course of action. He says that he “has no life without Paul” and that if Paul goes to jail “he will die…and so will Papa.” Under this immense familial pressure, John agrees to stick to the cover story devised by Paul and take the fall.
Meeting with his attorney (Robert Emmett) John lays out the false story of the stranger who asked him to deliver the package. The attorney absolutely does not believe John, but what can he do? Julie visits next and implores John to tell the truth, the truth that she witnessed when Paul gave John the package. John flatly refuses, and tells Julie 1) that he will deny it totally if she tells police the story and 2) that they cannot be together any longer and that she should leave him.
So, off to court John goes and gets a judge who FUCKING HATES drug pushers. As a result, he sentences John to 3-5 years in prison, effectively ending his fledging scientific and career futures. The family is devastated, with Papa standing in shock after the verdict and punishment are declared.
Although his mom is all but certain that Paul did know what was in the package, Papa refuses to believe it. Although he’s totally sad that John is in prison for something he didn’t do (so sad that he can’t even bear to visit him) he still honestly believes that it’s better than Paul going to jail. So Mama gets together with Julie and tells her that they have to do something to help poor John out.
Their plan consists of getting the non-jailed family members all together at the house where Paul is having a raucous good time, even turning on some lively music and asking Julie to dance with him (Jesus…this guy is the worst.) Mama and Julie tell Papa not to be sad, explaining that it wasn’t Paul’s fault at all for this mess. I mean “what could he do?” since he didn’t know what was in the package. They say that it was “safe” for John to have the package because he was a school teacher and the police would never bother him! Basically, they take Paul’s side to make him comfortable and to get him to chime in and try to cheer poor old Dad up.
And boy does he chime in, sticking both feet into his mouth: “You see, Papa? That’s the whole thing! Look, the cops might have picked me up any time with that package but I knew John was in the clear when I gave it…” Oops. Should have kept your trap closed, Paul. Now Papa knows that you knew what was in the package! Bad dog!
Paul attempts to backtrack but it’s too late. So Paul abruptly tells everyone he’s going out of town and then leaves. Mama gives her husband an earful about letting “her good John” go to jail while Paul walks free. So Papa and Julie head to John’s lawyer, who explains that the only way to get a new trial will be to get Paul to sign a sworn affidavit stating that he was the one who gave John the package and that he knew there was heroin in there.
Papa scours the town looking for Paul. He learns during his search that Paul has a reputation for selling “bad stuff” and that he represents himself as some big executive. Tracking him down at The Calypso Club, Papa locks him in a room and then screams that he has told “100 TIMES LIES!!!” and proceeds to throw him into a lamp when Paul refuses to sign the affidavit. When Paul gets up, breaks a bottle and tells his father he’s going to kill him…he loses his nerve and sees the writing on the wall. He cries and the two men hug, and Paul agrees to tell the truth.
The End.
All in all it’s a rather forgettable little piece of drama, but Shatner is in his comfort zone playing the “earnest young man” and Henry Guardino is in his playing a bit of the rough heavy. After Shatner’s character blows off his attorney and Julie about 2/3rds of the way through the teleplay, he never shows up again. Would have been nice for the episode to end with Paul and John having one last conversation, but ces’t la vie.
So, an OK amount of Shatner but nothing really to sink his (or our) teeth into. Just more steady work for The Man.
Shat Level: 2 = Mildly Shatisfying
Shatner’s Web
It’s time to detail all of the connections between Studio One – “The Defender” and other Shatner appearances!
The only actor in this production that ever worked with Shatner again was Harry Guardino, who had a pretty productive stage and TV career. Over the next few decades he would guest on many of the same television shows as Shatner, but never with Shatner until a 1964 episode of The Reporter – “He Stuck in His Thumb” and then in a 1974 TV movie, Indict & Convict. I haven’t watched that one yet, but have heard that it has a bonkers Shatner acting performance, which wouldn’t surprise me as it was made knee-deep in “The Lost Years” phase of his career. If true that Shatner’s performance is crazy, then that would make three films released/aired in the span of ONE MONTH in 1974 that mark Shatner’s career nadir: Indict & Convict, Pray for the Wildcats and then Impulse. I can’t wait to get there.
Paul Bogart, the director of this episode, would direct and produce one of my all time favorite things Shatner was in: a CBS Playhouse TV movie “Shadow Game” in 1969 just as “The Lost Years” were kicking off.
Worthington Minor created Studio One, and Shatner would appear in several other episodes of the series this same year: “The Defender,” (Part 1 and Part 2,) “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.” 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.”
David Susskind, the producer of this episode, would later be the producer of yet another 1969 TV movie, The Skirts of Happy Chance.
Further Studies
If you’re in NYC, The Paley Center there is apparently still open and you might be able to watch this episode if so inclined.
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