Sun 17 Apr 2016
BRENNER. “False Witness.” CBS; 6 June 1959. (Season 1, Episode 1.) Edward Binns, James Broderick. Guest Cast: Frank Overton, Kay Medford, Alan Ansara, Michael Conrad, with Dana Elcar (uncredited). Written by Loring Mandel. Director: Gerald Mayer.
The series as a whole was reviewed here on this blog by Ted Fitzgerald almost seven years ago soon after a box set of DVDs was released. Now that I’ve watched the first episode, I’m impressed enough to want to see more.
Ted described it as “character-driven drama about two New York City cops, Roy Brenner (Edward Binns) a veteran member of The Confidential Squad (aka Internal Affairs), and his son Ernie (James Broderick), a rookie detective,” details that for one reason or another weren’t completely nailed down in this first episode.
This one’s about a hack assistant D.A. who wants Ernie to embellish, shall we say, his testimony against a man accused of splashing a container of lye in his wife’s eyes. No one saw the crime itself. The man says the lye was hers (in more ways than one) and she spilled it on herself.
The D.A. guy puts all kinds of pressure on Ernie, but in the end he (spoiler) does the right thing. According to Wikipedia, the series was “filmed live,” by people who knew something about telecasting live TV. This particular episode begins with some interesting long tracking shots, and facial closeups are used to very good advantage. Skilled people were at work here.
As for the guest cast, Kay Medford has the acting ability to make her quirky character, the victim of the attack, even more interesting than the lines she has to say, and Alan Ansara, as the cellmate of the accused assailant, sounds very much like Robin Williams to me in his exaggerated way of trying to say whatever he thinks he needs to that will earn him rewards from the police and D.A.’s office.
What I found unusual, and the problem I alluded to above, is that there was no effort to “introduce” the characters. We do not even know who the younger Brenner is until he’s spoken to by name about ten minutes into the program. The father, Edward Binns, does not appear until there’s only two minutes to go. As he is sitting there in the courtroom awaiting the trial to begin as someone we have net seen before, the young Brenner sits next to him and calls him Dad. Presumably he has bigger roles in future episodes.
April 18th, 2016 at 11:56 am
I remember when this series aired, was impressed by it and kept coming back to it although I haven’t retained specific memories of any of the episodes. That happens with a lot of things I saw when I was young. I don’t think it lasted long, maybe just the one season, but it was repeated in the summer, perhaps in the hope that it might gain new viewers.
April 18th, 2016 at 11:58 am
Judging by the date on this first episode Brenner was a summer replacement for a series that went on hiatus.
April 18th, 2016 at 2:30 pm
Steve has forgotten his review of pilot CHARLIE PARADISE lead to some discussion about the series BRENNER – the backdoor pilot was an episode from the series BRENNER.
Here is a link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=34675#comments
April 18th, 2016 at 2:32 pm
You’re probably right about that, Randy. There isn’t a lot of information about the show online, however, so I’m hoping that someone else reading this can say or find out more.
The series has been covered on this blog in another way: the very last episode was a pilot for another series called CHARLIE PARADISE, and I reviewed it here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=34675
Only the father of two Brenners appeared, and then only in the most cursory way.
April 18th, 2016 at 2:33 pm
I didn’t quite forget, Michael. I was only two minutes behind you in pointing it out.
April 18th, 2016 at 2:48 pm
I followed the trail of that link and got to the Wikipedia entry that indicated it was a summer replacement TWO summers in a row. That may be what gave me the idea it was looking for a home on the network. I remember tuning in and seeing the same episodes each time. I guess there were new episodes as well, but I never saw them.
April 18th, 2016 at 3:11 pm
Sounds interesting, but also sounds like one of those series where the chief characters took a weekly backseat to the guest stars. Wasn’t sure from the review if that was so or not.
Fine cast and credits though.
April 18th, 2016 at 6:11 pm
7. David, I have seen a few of these. The center of the drama is usually Dad (Edward Binns) even when others may get more screen time.
Binns is either the character who has to make a decision or he is advising his son or friend as they face a choice or the consequence of a decision.
This was a role where Binns proved he could handle a starring role just as well as similar Edmund O’Brien, but Binns never got the chances O’Brien did.
James Broderick did the young man trying to do the right thing and listened to his Dad like young people were supposed to in that era. He got his share of screen time but often with help from Dad.
The writers were typical New York group from stage and print. Henry Kane, Jerome Ross, Peter Stone, Ernest Kinoy, to name a few.
April 18th, 2016 at 11:08 pm
Thanks for answering David’s question for me, Michael. There’s no way I could have. I’ve only watched the first one and the last one, and neither was typical, especially the last one, which had nothing to do with the rest of the series.