Carl
Betz, who has long since abandoned the highly-profitable, but theatrically-barren,
role of Dr. Stone in "The Donna Reed Show," is now taking
the law very seriously indeed for his new series, "Judd for the
Defense," in which he portrays a forthright attorney.
So
seriously, in fact, that he not only spends time "picking up atmosphere"
in a local Los Angeles courtroom, but he has just appeared (for the
third time) as guest speaker at a meeting for lawyers.
"I
was quite flabbergasted, because I received standing ovations each time.
I don't know if that's their habit, but it was great, and there were
plenty of compliments afterwards, too," Betz says. "Oh, now
and then someone wanted to quibble over a technical point he'd noticed
in one of our TV shows, but that's all."
Betz
is proud of his Judd for the Defense series, and really
believes it isn't so melodramatic as the old Defenders
series with E.G. Marshall. "That series made the social issue the
core of its stories," Betz states, "while ours has more to
do with the human individual. We're not so preachy as The Defenders
was, and in many of our episodes there's no clear-cut solution. We're
allowed some mistakes and we lose a case occasionally."
Betz
knows he will get some arguments from old fans of The Defenders
who thought it the most honest law series of the many that have been
on TV. But Betz still maintains that Judd tackles topical
themes in a controversial manner, including one episode last year which
dealt with a negro who figured he'd never get justice in a white man's
court.
A
Second Time
Incidentally,
if one digs far enough back into Betz's biography, he'll find he was
an attorney once before. That was years ago on the daytime soap opera,
Love of Life. After that, of course, he was the good
doctor and husband on "The Donna Reed Show" for eight years.
This was financially rewarding but, he maintains, not so satisfying
to his acting talents as his present courtroom series.
*article from New Zealand
TV Weekly, August 12, 1968
