Best Episodes of Famous TV Series

[SWC75]

I decided to create a thread for what were the best episodes of famous TV series, in my judgment. I invite others to submit their own choices for these series or for other series. The idea is to get the essence of that made the shows famous. My tastes tend toward shows I grew up with but others can fill in the gaps in my perception. I’ll link you to the IMDB page for each episode and an on-line video of it if I can find one, as well as a Wikipedia page on the series.

THE DEFENDERS 9/23/61 “Killer Insitnct”

William Shatner appeared in the pilot for this series, which was shown on “Studio One” back in 1957, (that’s the episode that had clips of it used for Boston Legal a half century later – the original is way better and is also on You-Tube). Shatner played young defense lawyer Kenneth Preston, assisting his father Lawrence Preston, played by Ralph Bellamy. The show itself didn’t premiere until four years later, in 1961. EG Marshall played Lawrence and Robert Reed, (later the dad on the insipid “The Brady Bunch”) was cast at Kenneth. Shatner, free-lancing at the time, appeared in four different episodes of the show, which lasted until 1965. It was the most highly praised show of it’s time. FCC chairman Newton Minnow had made a speech calling TV “a vast wasteland” and the networks responded by putting on prestige shows with very serious, relevant dramas and this was CBS’s offering. The show, like the 1957 pilot, was written by Reginald Rose, author of “12 Angry Men”.

This is the first of Shatner’s five guest appearances and the best. It’s second regular episode of the series. He plays a war veteran, (presumably Korea), who has learned some martial arts moves designed to dispatch assailants quickly. He’s now a businessman and family man in Manhattan, a decade after his military service. He’s on his way to work and it jostled and confronted by a crude bully and, without thinking, uses his now ingrained self-defense skills and the man is killed. The Prestons have to defend him. They want to blame his military training for the death. But Shatner’s character isn’t so sure, especially when he looks into the eyes of his young son. It makes for a powerful ending.

The Defenders (1961 TV series) - Wikipedia

"The Defenders" Killer Instinct (TV Episode 1961) - IMDb

 

[upperdeck]

A show I have never seen

 

[SWC75]

A show I have never seen

Well, You can watch it now!

 

[SWC75]

THE TWILIGHT ZONE 4/1/60 “The Execution”

There are many famous episodes of the Twilight Zone, (1959-64), and this one isn’t much discussed but it’s my favorite. We often wonder what it would be like to travel through time to a different era. In this one, Russell Johnson, (later, ironically, “The Professor” on Gilligan’s Island), is a scientist who, on his own, has built a chamber through which time can be traveled. Meanwhile, back in the Old West, Albert Salmi is an outlaw about to be hanged. Just at the moment his horse bolts from under him…he vanishes!

He reappears in Johnson’s New York apartment in 1960. He doesn’t understand the scientific explanation given by the scientist and, when the scientist threatens to ‘send him back’, beats him and kills him. The doctor tries to get a gun out of his desk and Salmi winds up with it. He then stumbles out into the streets of 1960 New York, where he’s confronted by more stimulation than he would have gotten in a lifetime in his previous environment: noise, neon lights, more people than he’s ever seen, towering buildings. To him the modern city is a vision of hell. He confronts all kinds of modern technology. The best scene comes when he sees a TV western where a marshal, facing the camera draws, (obviously based on the famous ‘Gunsmoke’ opening, which unfortunately, they didn’t use – both were CBS shows), and Salmi shoots ‘him’ by blowing out the TV screen. Eventually Salmi wants so to escape this modern ‘Hell’ he goes back to the scientist’s place and straight into one of the great ironic endings of all time: “Justice in the Twilight Zone”!

The Twilight Zone - Wikipedia

"The Twilight Zone" Execution (TV Episode 1960) - IMDb

The Twilight Zone The excution - Search Videos

www.bing.com

 

[donniesyracuse]

THE TWILIGHT ZONE 4/1/60 “The Execution”

There are many famous episodes of the Twilight Zone, (1959-64), and this one isn’t much discussed but it’s my favorite. We often wonder what it would be like to travel through time to a different era. In this one, Russell Johnson, (later, ironically, “The Professor” on Gilligan’s Island), is a scientist who, on his own, has built a chamber through which time can be traveled. Meanwhile, back in the Old West, Albert Salmi is an outlaw about to be hanged. Just at the moment his horse bolts from under him…he vanishes!

He reappears in Johnson’s New York apartment in 1960. He doesn’t understand the scientific explanation given by the scientist and, when the scientist threatens to ‘send him back’, beats him and kills him. The doctor tries to get a gun out of his desk and Salmi winds up with it. He then stumbles out into the streets of 1960 New York, where he’s confronted by more stimulation than he would have gotten in a lifetime in his previous environment: noise, neon lights, more people than he’s ever seen, towering buildings. To him the modern city is a vision of hell. He confronts all kinds of modern technology. The best scene comes when he sees a TV western where a marshal, facing the camera draws, (obviously based on the famous ‘Gunsmoke’ opening, which unfortunately, they didn’t use – both were CBS shows), and Salmi shoots ‘him’ by blowing out the TV screen. Eventually Salmi wants so to escape this modern ‘Hell’ he goes back to the scientist’s place and straight into one of the great ironic endings of all time: “Justice in the Twilight Zone”!

The Twilight Zone - Wikipedia

"The Twilight Zone" Execution (TV Episode 1960) - IMDb

The Twilight Zone The excution - Search Videos

www.bing.com

It’s interesting that the professor was in two episodes involving time travel.

 

[SWC75]

GUNSMOKE 3/3/62 “The Gallows”

A likeable drifter, (Jeremy Slate), gets cheated by his employer, gets drunk and has a confrontation with him. The employer winds up dead, although it’s not clear that the drifter did it. The fact that he runs doesn’t help him. He’s found guilty based on circumstantial evidence and an unsympathetic judge sentences him to hang in Hays City. Matt has to deliver the prisoner, who guilt he isn’t fully convinced of and whose personality he likes. They encounter some lawman-hating hillbillies who shoot matt. The drifter has a chance to escape but comes back and nurses Matt back to health, even thought matt is still obligated to deliver him to the hangman.

The story is tilted toward the drifter: he’s a nice guy. We don’t know that he did it. It could be self-defense. The victim, the judge and the crew at the gallows are portrayed as unlikeable people. But it all works and is great drama with fine acting. Take a look at the reviews on IMDB.

(The final scene is played out on the Paramount Western set, which also serves as “Virginia City” on Bonanza.)

Gunsmoke - Wikipedia

"Gunsmoke" The Gallows (TV Episode 1962) - IMDb

 

[SWC75]

HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL 2/13/60 “The Ledge”

Richard Boone played what we would now call a ‘fixer’ in the Old West. He would read in the papers about someone’s problem that he felt he had the skills – and the smarts- to resolve and send his card to them. Often he used unconventional means of dealing with the problem. People often wanted him to use his gun to kill someone and he could do that, if he had to, but preferred to seek other means. Sometimes the people who hired him WERE the problem and he had to make them see that.

Sometimes the problem would find him, as here. He’s traveling through the mountains with a small group of interesting characters. They encounter a man hiking along the trail who suddenly gets swept over a cliff by a small rockslide. They can see that he’s lying on a ledge below them and isn’t moving. But is he dead? Trying to find out means a dangerous climb down the side of the mountain. The passengers and the stagecoach driver all have various reasons for not wanting to make that climb, each revealing of their character. They are finally persuaded by Paladin of the need to make the attempt – and find the guy was, indeed dead. Had they unnecessarily risked their lives and wasted their time? Or had they gained something within themselves by making the attempt?

Have Gun – Will Travel - Wikipedia

"Have Gun - Will Travel" The Ledge (TV Episode 1960) - IMDb

have gun will travel the ledge - Search Videos

www.bing.com

 

[Toga]

I thought turkeys could fly.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Abyssinia, Henry - M*A*S*H*

.

The cast didn’t know McLean Stevenson was off the show until this scene. I believe Radar got his line just before entering.

 

[MSOrange]

Bob Newhart Show - Over the River and Through the Woods

 

[MSOrange]

Seinfeld - The Contest

 

[SWC75]

COMBAT 4/21/64 “The Glory Among Men”

This one bears a lot of similarities to HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL’s “The Ledge” and is just as good. It was directed by series star Vic Morrow, who 18 years later would be killed in an on-set accident during another combat scene in The Twilight Zone. But he does a great job with the acting and atmosphere of this episode. The plot is simple: There’s a new member of the squad no one likes or respects who gets wounded and trapped in an open area in front of German machine gun nest. The Germans could finish him off but they want to use him to lure the rest of the squad out to try to rescue him so they can kill all of them. The squad faces a moral dilemma: leave the man to die to save themselves or find a way to take out the German position and save the guy. The last line is “Why did we do that? Murrow, as Sgt. Saunders, replies: “You know why.”

Combat! - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Combat!" The Glory Among Men (TV Episode 1964) ⭐ 8.9 | Action, Drama, War

1h

www.imdb.com

(Check out the reviews on the IMDB and the comments on You-Tube)

 

[sendithome]

Person of Interest - “The Devil’s Share”
The Wire - “Middle Ground”

 

[SWC75]

BONANZA 12/15/63 “The Legacy”

Ben Cartwright goes after a poacher on the Ponderosa but is ambushed and left for dead. His bloodied horse makes it back to their ranch house where his three sons have heard that three recently released convicts are traveling across the ranch to get home, their sentence completed. They decide that those men must be responsible and each of the three sons: Adam, the oldest and most responsible, Hoss the biggest and strongest but also gentlest and Little Joe, the youngest and most emotional each go to the place where each of the three convicts had lived before their sentencing. Meanwhile Ben has been found by a peddler who takes him home in his wagon. When Ben finds out what his sons have done, he worries that they will just take revenge on the men or bring them to justice. The peddler, a cynical type from his observations of human nature, bets Ben that at least one of his sons will do just that. Ben insists that his legacy to his sons has been the values he taught them. But he isn’t sure, especially about Little Joe…

Bonanza - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Bonanza" The Legacy (TV Episode 1963) ⭐ 7.9 | Western

1h | TV-PG

www.imdb.com

 

[orangefog]

Square Pegs 11/29/1982 Buffy's Bat Mitzvah

 

[OrangeDW]

A few of mine off the top of my head. If you asked me next week, I might say something else for some of these. Except for Sopranos...that one is etched in stone for me.

Sopranos: Pine Barrens

The Wire: Middle Ground

Breaking Bad: Salud

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Grand Opening

Seinfeld: The Opposite

Mad Men: The Wheel

 

[MSOrange]

Square Pegs 11/29/1982 Buffy's Bat Mitzvah

I tried to watch Square Pegs a few years ago on Hulu. It wasn't my cup of tea at all. I see it's streaming on Crackle now. Might give it another try.

 

[orangefog]

I tried to watch Square Pegs a few years ago on Hulu. It wasn't my cup of tea at all. I see it's streaming on Crackle now. Might give it another try.

Don't bother, it's terrible. Unless you read some of the back story and what was going on with the young cast at the time. Very 80's.

 

[SWC75]

THE VIRGINIAN 11/28/62 “West”

Owen Wister wrote a novel “The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains” in 1902, which was later turned into a Hollywood movie starting Gary Cooper in 1929, (remade in 1946 Joel McCrea). The main character is a tough cowboy who becomes foreman of a ranch and represents old-fashioned western values at the turn of the 20th century. In 1958 a pilot for a TV series with James Drury was made with Drury playing the character as a dandy with a southern accent who proves tougher than he looks. The series finally premiered in 1962 with Drury playing a character closer to Wister’s description. The villain of the original, Trampas, became a sympathetic character played by Doug McClure as a young cowboy whom the Virginia has to teach how to be a man and a responsible citizen. He also provides some comic relief as he learns his lessons the hard way.

This episode bears some resemblance to Shakespeare’s description of Prince Hal, who became Henry V. In Henry IV, Prince Hal is a young man who loves to spend his time with some happy-go-lucky ruffians in various semi-comic adventures. But, eventually, he has to assume the throne and leave his carefree life and the friends he lived it with behind. In ‘West’, Trampas encounters three men who experienced the early west and don’t think much of the coming of civilization. Trampas, tired of The Virginian’s lessons, decides to go with them and have some adventures. They want to do everything for fun and excitement. The episode is a comic one most of the way but becomes progressively more serious as the irresponsible group gets in more and more trouble. The ending anticipates that of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, with Trampas returning to the Shiloh Ranch and The Virginian realizing that he can’t return to the past: he has to make a life for himself in the new world.

The Virginian (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"The Virginian" West (TV Episode 1962) ⭐ 7.1 | Western

1h 15m | TV-PG

www.imdb.com

The episode is in 2 segments on “Daily Motion”:


The Virginian - Se1 - Ep10 - Part 02 HD Watch - Dailymotion Video

 

[SWC75]

BRONCO 11/4/58 “Four Guns and a Prayer”

Warner Brothers hesitated, like the other movie studios to get into TV production until they realized that the new medium wasn’t going away and that it could be a big source of revenue for them. They finally agreed to enter the ring in 1955 by making a deal with ABC, then a distant third in ratings to CBS and NBC, to produce shows for them. They created the classic westerns ‘Cheyenne’, ‘Maverick’, ‘Sugarfoot’, ‘Lawman’ and ‘Bronco’ and detective shows like ‘77 Sunset Strip’, ‘Bourbon Street Beat’, ‘Hawaiian Eye’ and ‘Surfside 6’. They weren’t exactly envelope-pushing or award winning but they were solid entertainment. They helped push ABC into the major leagues and to inaugurate the era of the “Adult Western”, (meaning they weren’t kiddie shows like ‘Hopalong Cassidy’ and the ‘Lone Ranger’).

They also created the “wheel”: multiple shows alternating in the same time slot. It made it easier to keep up the production schedule because multiple shows could be filmed simultaneously. ‘Cheyenne’ originally alternated with TV versions of the famous Warner movies ‘Casablanca’ and ‘King’s Row’. To their surprise the western show they’d created for TV proved to be the most popular. The next year they alternated it with an anthology series called ‘Conflict’, which contained the pilots for some of their other shows. Them in 1957, they brought in ‘Sugarfoot’ and ‘Maverick’ and Lawman in 1958. That year Cheyenne’s star, Clint Walker, rebelled against his salary and unfulfilled promises by Warners to give him a chance at being a movie start. The show redid some Cheyenne episodes using a new main character, Bronco Layne using one of their other contract players, Ty Hardin. He proved popular enough that when Walker came back, they gave Hardin, his own show, ‘Bronco’, which lasted in a wheel with Cheyenne and Sugarfoot for four years.

This episode has some similarities to the episode of ‘The Virginian’, above. All the Warner’s western heroes were wanderers, except on ‘Lawman’, (which was their version of ‘Gunsmoke’). Bronco has taken a job as a sheriff but had to dealt with a gang of violent criminals. He has to hire some gunmen of his own to deal with them and sends for some old friends who help him get rid of the varmints. As in the Virginian episode, there are three of them and they are a happy-go-lucky bunch who sign on for the adventure of it. And, as in that episode, the town doesn’t think much of them. There’s also a touch of ‘High Noon’ when the town fathers, faced with the threat of the bad guys returning in force, tell the good guys to leave. It ends with a running shoot-out with the bad guys where Bronco’s new friends, one by one, make a stand to hold the bad guys off and save the town. It’s similar to part of the story in ‘The Three Musketeers’ where each of the musketeers hold off Richelieu’s henchmen one by one so D’Artagnan can return the queen’s jewels to her. But the musketeers survive. Bronco’s friends do not, making for a very poignant ending. I like the fact that Douglas Kennedy, who normally played garrulous bad guys, gets to play a refined and principled good guy here. I like that kind of stuff.

Bronco (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Bronco" Four Guns and a Prayer (TV Episode 1958) - IMDb

I couldn’t find a video of this episode on-line but the Warner Brothers westerns are sometimes shown on regular TV on the nostalgia-related channels. Warner Brothers does have these previews of the show and Season 1 to get you to buy the DVDs:


Preview Clip | Bronco: Season 1 | Warner Archive

The theme and some more brief clips: Classic TV Theme: Bronco

 

[Zelda Zonk]

BARRY: "ronny/lily"
Taxi: "Simka Returns"
Seinfeld: "The Contest" / "Soup Nazi"
Game of Thrones: "Battle of the Bastards" / "The Door" / "No One" / "Mother's Mercy"
Teenage Bounty Hunters: "Basically Pluto"
Dick Van Dyke: "The Curious Thing About Women"
The Office: "Dinner Party" / "Cafe Disco" / "Garage Sale"
The Honeymooners: "Teamwork Beats the Clock" / "The Golfer"

 

[SWC75]

CHEYENNE 1/24/56 “Decision”

‘Cheyenne’ was an historically important TV show for several reasons. It was part of Warner Brother’s introduction into television, which helped make ABC a major player.it was the first of Warner’s memorable westerns, including ‘Maverick’, Sugarfoot’, ‘Bronco’ and ‘Lawman’. It helped introduced the ‘wheel‘ concept in programing, with multiple shows alternating in the same time slot and it helped introduce the ‘adult’ western, which in the 1950’s mean the stories were geared for adult minds instead of children, (the show premiered the same week as ‘Gunsmoke’ and the ‘The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp’). It also helped introduce the era of the hour-long drama. These days that’s the norm but in the 50’s most dramatic shows, like the comedies, were a half hour long.

In its first season, Cheyenne was in a wheel called “Warner Brothers presents” with TV versions of their famous films “Casablanca“ and “Kings Row”. Cheyenne wasn’t itself based on a movie but used stories form Warner’s movies. One episode “The Argonauts”, was a redo of “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” with Cheyenne in the Walter Huston role. Another, “Fury at Rio Hondo”, was a remake of “To Have and Have Not” with Cheyenne in the Humphrey Bogart role. I think several other episodes are also based on less renown films but I was unable to trace them. “Decision”, the best episode of the first season, and I think of the series, (I have the entire run on DVD), is probably one of them. They use footage form a 1954 film called “Command” that has a somewhat different plot.

The plot of this one resembles “Mutiny on the Bounty”, (which wasn’t a Warner Brother’s film). Ray Teal, (later the Sheriff on Bonanza), plays a cavalry major who ahs lost his nerve in a bottle and decisions to abandon his fort to travel to a larger one. His second in command is played by Richard Denning, who is aware of his commander’s limitation believes rigidly in the chain of command. The third in command is played by James Garner, two years before Maverick. He’s more dedicated to life – his and the other soldiers and their families – than to the chain of command. Cheyenne is serving as their scout, whose recommendations the Major consistently ignores. Also in the episode is Michael Landon, making what appears to be his very first appearance before the camera as an appropriately nervous soldier. It’s the interaction between the main characters and their values and priorities that make the episode special, along with plenty of action as they wind up in a running battle with the Indians. Each man has to make his own decision about what he must do.

Cheyenne (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Cheyenne" Decision (TV Episode 1956) ⭐ 8.0 | Western

1h | TV-G

www.imdb.com

This is another Warner’s episode that isn’t available for free on the internet, although the entire first season can be had on DVD for $9.95 from Amazon. In lieu of the episode, here is a tribute to the star, Clint Walker, put together by his fans that is full of scenes from the series as well as other work that he’s done.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

One of my favorite shows as a kid. In this episode Sgt Joe Friday tries to recruit OJ to become a LA police office. OJ working homicide?

 

[SWC75]

MAVERICK 3/13/60 “Greenbacks Unlimited”

Maverick was the ballast to the more serious Warner Brothers’ westerns and, in fact to the whole western crazy of the late 1950’s. Bret maverick was an anti-hero, a gambler who wasn’t a talented gunman or a tough but honest guy. He wasn’t so much a coward as guy who liked to stay in his comfort zone. He constantly quoted his “Pappy”, whose many aphorisms, when taken together, suggest that you will be better off minding your own business and sticking to what you are good at rather than getting involved in other people’s problems and trying to do things that are beyond your level of competence.

Of course, he couldn’t be allowed to do that or there would be no stories. He could be drawn out of his comfort zone by a beautiful woman, by being crossed, (which is one thing he didn’t permit), a desire to avoid run-ins with the law or even an occasional attack of conscience or nobility, (much to his surprise). The pained look on star James Garner’s handsome face, (and later his brother Bart’s, played by Jack Kelly after that character was introduced to turn the series into the equivalent of a ‘wheel’), provided a dose of comedy to the show, which started out with fairly serious adventures but became more and more a comedy as it went along.

The most famous and highly praised episode of the show is called “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres”, (11/23/58), and it’s a fine one. Bret is cheated by a bank official he’d trusted to hold his gambling winnings. He vows to get his money back. But he seems to do nothing about it, sitting in a chair, whittling while the townspeople, the sheriff and the banker keep asking him how he’s going to get his money back. Bret keeps whittling, smiles and says “I’m working on it”. Bart and various acquaintances show up one by one and pull a ‘sting’ on the banker while Bret keeps whittling. He, of course, wins in the end, having apparently done nothing.

But my favorite maverick episode is “Greenbacks Unlimited”, a year and a half later. By chance it’s the last episode James Garner films. He left the show in a dispute with Warner’s, (he wanted more greenbacks), and went on to become a movie star. But this episode is almost a sequel to “Sunny Acres” as John Dehner is again the villain, and it involves a bank. But it’s a different story and Dehner is playing a different character, a crook named “Big Ed Murphy”, who has designed on the content of the banks’ safe. Maverick is in town visiting his friend “Foursquare Farley”, (the characters in this show had names like that), played by Gage Clark. Farley is running a poker game where ‘the house’ semes to always have unlimited funds. Maverick wonders why. it turns out Foursquare has discovered that a room in his apartment shares a wall with the bank vault and created a secret door that allow him to ‘borrow’ what cash he needs from the bank. When his luck is good, he pays it back. Maverick is concerned that his friend will be found out and go to jail for along time and suggest that the door should be permanently shut once they make sure that the bank has all of it’s funds.

But then he hears that Murphy and his gang are going to rob the bank. He and foursquare foil the robbery by removing everything from the vault. The arrogantly confident Murphy, assuring his gang that they are about to be rich, ‘cracks’ the vault only to find that nothing is there. Shaken, he wonders what to do. He then decides that the bank president must have stolen the money. He will demand that he get paid for not telling the sheriff that the banker stole his customer’s money and that the vault is empty. But maverick and Foursquare have put everything back and the look on Dehner’s face when the banker opens the vault is priceless.

Maverick (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Maverick" Greenbacks, Unlimited (TV Episode 1960) ⭐ 8.9 | Western

1h | TV-G

www.imdb.com

You can watch this episode for a small fee on Amazon Prime (there’s a link on the IMDB), or You-Tube:

 

[bevosu]

I decided to create a thread for what were the best episodes of famous TV series, in my judgment. I invite others to submit their own choices for these series or for other series. The idea is to get the essence of that made the shows famous. My tastes tend toward shows I grew up with but others can fill in the gaps in my perception. I’ll link you to the IMDB page for each episode and an on-line video of it if I can find one, as well as a Wikipedia page on the series.

THE DEFENDERS 9/23/61 “Killer Insitnct”

William Shatner appeared in the pilot for this series, which was shown on “Studio One” back in 1957, (that’s the episode that had clips of it used for Boston Legal a half century later – the original is way better and is also on You-Tube). Shatner played young defense lawyer Kenneth Preston, assisting his father Lawrence Preston, played by Ralph Bellamy. The show itself didn’t premiere until four years later, in 1961. EG Marshall played Lawrence and Robert Reed, (later the dad on the insipid “The Brady Bunch”) was cast at Kenneth. Shatner, free-lancing at the time, appeared in four different episodes of the show, which lasted until 1965. It was the most highly praised show of it’s time. FCC chairman Newton Minnow had made a speech calling TV “a vast wasteland” and the networks responded by putting on prestige shows with very serious, relevant dramas and this was CBS’s offering. The show, like the 1957 pilot, was written by Reginald Rose, author of “12 Angry Men”.

This is the first of Shatner’s five guest appearances and the best. It’s second regular episode of the series. He plays a war veteran, (presumably Korea), who has learned some martial arts moves designed to dispatch assailants quickly. He’s now a businessman and family man in Manhattan, a decade after his military service. He’s on his way to work and it jostled and confronted by a crude bully and, without thinking, uses his now ingrained self-defense skills and the man is killed. The Prestons have to defend him. They want to blame his military training for the death. But Shatner’s character isn’t so sure, especially when he looks into the eyes of his young son. It makes for a powerful ending.

The Defenders (1961 TV series) - Wikipedia

"The Defenders" Killer Instinct (TV Episode 1961) - IMDb

Without a doubt my favorite TV show when I was a kid. Well written, well-acted (Marshall), and intelligent.