Is anyone aware of the availability of any "The Defenders" episodes for home viewing? In any format?
shareI have been searching frantically for the same thing. Please post if anyone knows how to get this terrific series on DVD or VHS. PLEASE!!
shareIf you are a member of Ebay, three sellers are jddubya, highgreatladytwo and videounlimited1 who periodically have episodes available on DVD or VCR.
shareThere is a company called tvaddicts.tv who are selling the complete Defenders.Have'nt checked this out,so do not know all the details.
shareI checked them out some time ago and from what I could learn, I won't risk purchasing from them. I did a search under tvaddicts.tv complaints to see the actual complaints about them from past consumers. Some have lost their money or received excuses about delivery. There are several of these companies around, which websites all look alike only with different titles.
shareI'd LOVE to see "The Defenders" again on dvd! That was a great program! When it first aired in 1961, I was 12 years young and I remember watching it with my Mom. First time we ever saw Rober Reed. E.G. Marshall was a long-time actor that had been around for ages when he starred in this hit t.v. drama. Boy, only if t.v. were like that again. <sigh> Got more channels now and less programs worth watching. Sad.
Brad.
The Defenders seems to have fallen off a cliff. I don't even recall if this wonderful series was ever syndicated after its all too short original run.
A few years ago when Nickelodeon showed the original 1960's Burkes Law,
I e-mailed them about The Defenders, but received no answer. Perhaps there are legal (how ironic) difficulties relating to ownership preventing any DVD
release. This series should not be allowed to stay buried.
Unfortunately the show has been out of the public eye for so long at this point that I don't know how many units it would sell on DVD. Unless you are a historian, no one under 55 has ever even seen the show. Yes it would make a great release but I don't know if Paramount would ever do it.
share51 and seem to remember it
shareAnd yet, you can get practically the entire run of Naked City and Route 66, two shows from about the same era, on DVD. Actually, if you look at the Netflix catalogue, they have some really obscure TV dramas from the 1950s, ones that I barely remember. "Medic"? "The Adventures of Robin Hood"?
share"Medic" was an early medical drama, Richard Boone as a doctor.
"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde
And yet, Naked City, which is even older, has been released on video.
To my mind, The Defenders is one of the great gaps in the DVD genre. The other is seasons 2 and beyond of Saint Elsewhere.
If they company doesn't think it will sell, then stream it through Netflix or Hulu. I'm guessing Netflix and Hulu would pay the owner for the right to stream the show. The company doesn't have to spend money to produce a physical product (DVD set), and people will get to watch the show. It's a total win-win.
"Forget reality, give me a picture"-Remington Steele
"Is anyone aware of the availability of any "The Defenders" episodes for home viewing? In any format?"
I can tell you that there is an amateur derived set of 36 episodes on dvd, available out there if you know the right places to look. The remainder of the 132 episodes produced are likely lost forever. Remember, there was no VHS when these shows were last aired. Unfortunately, I am constrained by imdb policy from telling you exactly where to look. You would have to be an extreme fan (like me) to want to watch them, because the video quality is extremely poor.
Cases like The Defenders are very sad indeed, since it is absolutely clear that the copyright holder has not the slightest intention of ever trying to make money from re-releasing the show. The fair thing to do would be to make an announcement releasing it into the public domain, or if they still possess usable masters (which I rather doubt), perhaps making them available for download for a fee.
I have thirty-four episodes of The Defenders on DVD and one on VHS. One of the DVD's is a two-part episode. The quality of many episodes ranges from fair to good. There are a few episodes that are poor, and one that is awful, "The Treadmill." I guess the quality depends on where you purchase them. One of these episodes, "The Iron Man," is now on YouTube in five parts.
There is also a claim that the show has never been in syndication, which is not true. Not long after it was discontinued by CBS in 1965, The Defenders was in syndication in the New York City area on WPIX, Channel 11 from September 1966 through August 1967. Sometimes, two episodes were shown a week. I taped the soundtrack of forty-one episodes during this time. From February 12 to August 23, 1967, I used a reel-to-reel tape recorder with a microphone as there were no jacks on TVs back then. Six of these episodes have been repeated on DVD and also the one on VHS. I transcribed about half of them to audio-cassette. The others are still on reel-to-reel tape. To get parts and repairs are almost non-existent for vintage reel tape recorders today. Altogether, I have sixty-eight episodes of The Defenders in one form or another (not counting the ones that were repeated).
Would you happen to have "The Brother Killers" or "The Tarnished Cross", episodes? I would pay you what you think they are worth. Thank you, Felix
[email protected]
Do you have "the brother killers" or "the tarnished cross". My father was in them ands it would me a lot to me.
shareI don't have either of these episodes. I remember "The Brother Killers" quite well. It was about a fraternity hazing.
shareWould you have season 3, episode 12, "Old Lady Ironsides"? My husband was in that one. It would be such a wonderful surprise for him. I've been looking everywhere, to no avail. Thanks.
shareYes, I have it, but the site from which I bought it is now unavailable. It was included with about 30 other episodes. You should try Google listed as follows: THE DEFENDERS 1960S SHOW This is another site with the same episodes, which are listed. It is inexpensive and it has reviews that are good.
shareThanks. I didn't find any individual episodes on Google. Even those that stated the episodes could be found on their site didn't pan out. Finally went to ioffer.com, which had the season and episode I was looking for. Downside was having to buy the whole season for $25. Glad I was able to get it, even with that. My husband, who was in season 3, episode 12, was so happy that I found it. Still don't know the condition and haven't received it yet, but being an eternal optimist, am assuming it will work out just fine. Thanks for your help.
shareI was just watching the first DVD of the second season of "Mad Men". The "Defenders" television show played an important part in the plot of the 3rd show of the season. The advertising agency was trying to find a sponsor for this "new" and controversial show, that dealt with issues such as abortion.
There is also a special feature on that first DVD that documents the history of the "Defenders". It was an excellent presentation, that hopefully, will spark interest in releasing the show on DVD. I loved the show when I was a kid and would really like to see it again, since I have no doubt that I would not remember any of the stories.
Several episodes on VHS tape on available for RENT by a store called
EDDIE BRANDT'S Saturday Matinee
5006 Vineland Avenue North Hollywood, CA 91601 - (818) 506-4242
Open Weekdays 1pm-6pm; Sat 8:30am-5pm
I just watched two episodes: MOMENT OF TRUTH and ALONG CAME A SPIDER.
The guest stars, the writing, acting, etc. just great.
The quality of the tapes varies but all watchable and you forget about it because the show is so great.
USE the NET like I did to bag 15 episodes.
shareI purchased a subset of episodes via IOFFER.com quite recently.
I believe, these were copied from a private collection.
The quality is fair to poor, but as already mentioned, it is superbly better than nothing. I never saw these episodes because I was just a child when they were first run. I do recall they were shown in syndication when I was a little older--in California, at least.
It's possible there is a litigation/estate problem surrounding this series.
I hope that's it and that they are not just lost forever.
It would be extremely profitable to release these officially to DVD:
just about EVERYONE was a guest on this show: Hoffman, Hackman, Redford, Duvall...this list goes on and on.
I was able to give Evans Evans Frankenheimer a copy of her show 'The Accident', which, it turned out, she hadn't seen since its original airing in 1961.
I can just imagine how many other wonderful actors would love to see their episodes once again...
I was just short of 10 years old when I saw some episodes rerun on CBC in northern Canada in the spring of 1971, so it was in syndication at least to that date.
I understand that there was litigation over royalties, and the network responded by putting the show into the vaults, which is why it hasn't been available for several decades. I'd love to see it again.