O’Connell & Belushi? Actors! Meet the real Vegas Defenders! VIDEO INTERVIEW

Today’s Guest: Michael Cristalli, Marc Saggese, Las Vegas attorneys, inspiration for CBS-TV series “The Defenders”

 

The story is a good one: Las Vegas law partners Michael Cristalli and Marc Saggese thought Fox was going to do a reality show based on their clients and cases. And, no doubt, that would have been pretty cool.

The Defenders of TV and Las Vegas: Michael Cristalli, Jim Belushi, Marc Saggese, Jerry O'Connell
The Defenders of TV and Las Vegas: Michael Cristalli, Jim Belushi, Marc Saggese, Jerry O’Connell

MARC SAGGESE podcast excerpt: “You get into trouble in Vegas, we’ll get you out of it.”

You can LISTEN to this interview with Las Vegas lawyers MICHAEL CRISTALLI and MARC SAGGESE, inspiration for the CBS drama THE DEFENDERS, by clicking the audio player above!

The Defenders: The DVD Edition
Order ‘The Defenders: The DVD Edition,’ available from Amazon.com by clicking on the DVD cover above!

And then an odd thing happened: CBS picked up the show as a weekly scripted drama. Instead of following around Cristalli and Saggese with cameras, the Eye network saw greater value and potential into taking the bigger-than-life characteristics of the pair, casting a pair of real TV stars, Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell. From what I’ve seen, it looks like the producers chose well.

The result is “The Defenders,” a new series that will take its place on the CBS fall schedule on Wednesday, September 22 at 10 p.m.

“The Defenders” will give us another take on life in the up all night city of Las Vegas, a place that has already been good to other networks for long runs of “Vega$” (with Robert Urich) on ABC and “Las Vegas” on NBC (with Josh Duhamel). And, of course, Vegas was the starting point of the many versions of the CBS hits, “CSI.”

So what’s the deal with Cristalli and Saggese? Are they really like the characters depicted by Belushi and O’Connell? More or less? Let’s find out.

Marc Saggese WebsiteTwitterLinkedInFacebook

Michael Cristalli WebsiteLinkedIn

 
Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great, Albert J. Dunlap, Chainsaw, Mr. Media Interviews
“Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great” by Albert J. Dunlap with Bob Andelman, available in print, e-book or digital audio. Order your copy now by clicking on the book cover above!

&o=1&p=12&l=ur1& &f=ifr” width=”300″

The Party AuthorityThe Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.

Up ↑