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For nine seasons and over 250 episodes Perry Mason ruled the television roost, it was the ratings flagship for CBS. Saturday nights at 7:30 this show was a viewing requirement in my household.
The show had a built in audience from the start with the millions of mystery fans who loved Erle Stanley Gardner’s criminal defense attorney who always defended the innocent and never lost a case. Those parameters for the television series had to be respected. But also the right actor had to be found to play Mason.
One of the highest pieces of praise I ever read was Erle Stanley Gardner himself saying that Raymond Burr completely fitted his concept of the character he created. When you’ve got that kind of endorsement as well as the ratings to back it up, I’m sure the show could have run forever.
A really solid group of character players made up the cast here. Take a look at the credits on the pages here for Burr, Barbara Hale as Della Street, William Talman as District Attorney Hamilton Burger, William Hopper as Perry’s private detective Paul Drake and Ray Collins as Police Lieutenant Tragg seem like they appeared in some of the best movies ever before going to series television.
Collins began experiencing health problems and first Wesley Lau and later Richard Anderson took the load from him. When Collins died in 1965 Anderson was the official cop for the series last year.
So indelible an impression this cast made on viewers minds that when CBS sought to revive Perry Mason in the middle seventies with a younger cast, the public viewed other stations in droves. Even with Collins, Hopper, and Talman all gone at that point, no one would accept their replacements.
The writers given the constraints of an hour television show managed to respect Erle Stanley Gardner’s parameters and did a beautiful job with each and every episode.
This is what a good television series is all about.
Perhaps the most successful formula show in the history of TV. An interesting question is why, since the lead characters never varied, the outcome was predictable, and the plots could at times defy expert analysis. To me, that sounds pretty boring. So why did I faithfully watch the first runs and still catch the reruns when I can, and why did the series catch the fancy of so many others as it still does. Here are some conjectures.
Mason, Street, and Drake are more than a team— they are a family. The chemistry among them is so good it’s almost spooky. Burr’s Mason is nothing if not masterful both inside the courtroom and out. He’s a strong father-figure, while Hale’s Della Street is the perfect secretary, sweet, attractive and highly efficient. Not quite a mother-figure (after all, this is a chaste family), she’s the perfect older sister. And Hopper’s Paul Drake is clever, charming, and slightly rakish. All in all, he’s the perfect younger brother. Though each is a professional, together they operate as a loyal family unit. And when their final scene rolls around (The Final Fadeout, 1966), we’re happy to know they will remain together even though we (the viewers) won’t be with them.
The key here is Burr’s grasp of character. After all, Mason wins week after week— he never misses. What’s more, he shows up the guardians of law and order week after week. If not done right, Mason would be an easy character to dislike. But Burr’s Mason is never smug, never immodest, and always low-key, so we don’t resent his near god-like status. This is a real tribute to Burr and the show’s producers, who managed to walk a very fine line. There’s one other character point worth noting. Mason’s personality is the only one of the five (Burger and Tragg included) to alter. In the early episodes, he smokes, wears loud jackets, and occasionally flirts. But with the show’s success, he’s transformed into a paragon of virtue, probably because his character has come to stand for the quality of criminal justice in America. Shrewdly, the producers would take no chances with their golden egg.
The engaging quality of the stories varies little, an unusual feature for any formula show. That’s likely because the script-writers worked with variations on six or seven basic plots. After all, they had to come up with thirty-plus mysteries every year for nine years. And each episode had to have a plausible list of suspects with a story line to unravel, which is a pretty heavy load. Then too, each entry had to have a larger than average cast of capable actors as suspects. Watching the re-runs, we see just about every familiar face from that era (one of the joys of catching the re-runs). Executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson deserves a lot of behind-the-scenes credit, since I’m sure this was not an easy series to put together week after week.
I had never thought of the show as film noir. But other reviewers have correctly pointed this out. Indeed, there are elements of noir in many of the first half hours, where the mystery sets up. Many of these were done in shadow, with strong emotions and a heavy atmosphere of doom, which distinguishes the series. For, overall, there was very little noir from any series during that sunny era. Frankly, it’s that part I always enjoyed more than the courtroom scenes with their high-key lighting and extended dialogue. The general excellence of these first half- hours is another reason, I think, for the show’s unusual success.
The mystery angle remains an attraction for many. It’s fun, for those who want, to try to figure out the culprit. We know he or she will be exposed and the loose ends tied-up by hour’s end. But the entries can be enjoyed for their drama alone. The witness-stand confessions served as a chance for neglected feature players to show their acting chops. Some of these were truly memorable. My favorite is from that great unsung actress of the era, Constance Ford. Watch her split personality emerge under Mason’s perceptive grilling (The Case of the Deadly Double, 1958). It’s a dramatic tour-de-force, as good as anything from the movies of the time. Many of the confessions were also poignant. The culprit could be seen as a sympathetic character, driven to murder by larger forces. And though, the epilogue (usually in Mason’s office) often ended on a humorously upbeat note, the confessions remain the dramatic high point.
These are some of my best guesses. I expect there’s another, not so flattering reason. Many of us, of course, have a nostalgic attachment to those younger years, which, I suppose, is only natural. Nonetheless, there is something timeless about the brave knight rescuing unfortunates in distress (in this case, usually a shapely blonde or brunette). In fact, the Mason show was predicated on that venerable premise. And even though Mason-as-ideal-defense-attorney would probably not work in today’s post-Vietnam era, the key plot elements endure ( understandably, the series ended, just as the war in south-east Asia heated up). Greed, jealousy, ambition— this is the stuff of high drama, while the Mason show used them effectively inside a format that fit its time. But the elements themselves remain timeless. And in that sense, so does the series.
. why didn’t D.A. Hamilton Burger just eventually go crazy and kill himself or at least just quit and maybe open up that fishing supply store in the country that he’d always dreamed about, because Perry won. EVERY. single. case. Well, there was one episode where Perry lost, but then they figured out that the guy was really innocent, so Perry won there too, it just took more work.
My first exposure to Raymond Burr was watching him as Parry Mason when I was a child, then as disabled police detective Ironside in that long running show where he manages to continue fighting crime after being paralyzed from a gunshot wound. Thus I always saw him as the good guy. Imagine my surprise when I saw him as the heavy (no pun intended) in films like «Rear Window», «Red Light», and «Pitfall». What an actor!
At any rate, Perry here is the polite and never ruffled always suave defense attorney without a hair out of place taking the cases where the defendant looks embarrassingly guilty, usually of murder. With the help of secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale) and private detective Paul Drake (William Hopper), he always manages to get the bad guy (or girl) by putting the pieces of the puzzle together, even if he has to make those puzzle pieces by hand.
This show was quite sophisticated for its time, showing, unlike many early shows or films about attorneys, that they couldn’t do it all by themselves, it was a team effort. And the shows are still fun to watch today. The solution to the crime is not obvious, plus you learn some interesting things about culture and law just 50 years ago. For example, I remember one episode from the 1960’s where two women exchange California drivers licenses and thus identities, and then one of the women winds up murdered! How could they just exchange licenses like that? There was no picture on a California drivers license well into the 1960’s! That’s how! At any rate, give the show a chance if it ever comes your way. I think you’ll find it interesting.
TV courtroom-drama never looked more sophisticated and exciting than it did when L.A.’s slick and terribly expensive defense lawyer, Perry Mason, was on the case.
Never, ever seeming to lose a case, Perry Mason, with his gift of good-timing, always dazzled one and all in the courtroom.
Never failing to uncover that one piece of overlooked evidence, Perry Mason was sure to clear his clients and put the bad guys (and girls) behind bars before the show was over.
This 1950s, TV crime show, with its climatic witness-stand confessions, offers you good value (and lots of nail-biting drama) for your entertainment-dollar.
Perry Mason is possibly at once the most memorable central character in the 20th Century American Detective Story and at the same time being the number one source of misinformation concerning the Nature of both Lawyers and the Legal Racket, er-uh I meant the «Law Profession.» Yet like a Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan or Dick Tracy even; Mr. Mason and company have taken on an aura of their being real, live persons.
When the series hit the airwaves on CBS in Fall of 1957, this writer was 11 tears old, was more interested in Baseball, Batman Comics and pleasing my 6th Grade Teacher, Sister Mary Euphemia, C.S.C. in our daily confrontations at St. Theodore Grade School in Chicago. Perry Mason was indeed an unknown commodity to this and most other grade schoolers. But that would soon change, for the series hit the ground running and barely slowed down during its 9 season run on the «Tiffany Network».
PERRY MASON (Paisano Prod/CBS TV,1957-66) was a quality piece of work in every respect. From its low key opening showing Perry and the regulars caught up in a very important moment in some trial; the very distinctive theme starts slowly with just 3 measly, little notes; before building up to a crescendo by the time opening credits end and the title of today’s story is shown. For example, it might be something like «The Case of the Fifth Sixth Grader.»
Before too long, PERRY MASON was truly a hot item. Being shown on CBS in the earlier portion of the evening; it was deemed fit for family viewing. Indeed it did seem to attract and hold onto a great cross section of viewers from grade schoolers up to their parents and even their parents! Why even the Good Sisters over at St. Theodore’s Convent confessed (not in the little box) to having a Jones for Perry’s weekly episodes.
Starting with Miss Barbara Hale (Perry’s Confidential Secretary, Della Street) had some big parts in some RKO Features; but in spite of her good, really good looks and high level of acting ability; she never quite broke into the ranks of the «Movie Stars.» Next, we had Perry’s Private Detective Associate, Paul Drake as interpreted by William Hopper, who definitely came by his acting talents naturally. Lt. Arthur Tragg was the usual Homicide Defective in Perry Mason Novels and his part was given over to Ray Collins. Mr. Collins, who was already 70 years of age the year that PERRY MASON premiered, was a fine stage actor of much and wide-spread experience. Ray came to Hollywood as a member of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre players. He portrayed the crooked Political Boss of the Tammany Hall-like political machine and Governor of New York, Jim W. Geddes in that RKO potboiler called CITIZEN KANE (1941). Ever hear of it, Schultz?
Yes, it’s true. The producers wanted to cast Mr. Burr as the crotchety yet capable District Attorney; yet it was Ray’s desire to be Perry. In order to gain consideration, the rather heavy-set actor trained and dieted his way down to a slimmer look and was successful. But he to get too thin as the character was not too slender of a guy himself.
The creator, Erle Stanley Gardner, who himself was an Attorney-at-Law (We won’t hold that against you, Erle!), had described Perry Mason as «a Big Man; but not the Bigness of a fat man; but rather a Bigness of Strength.» Incidentally. Mr. Garner no doubt put a lot of himself into the Character as that «Bigness of Strength» phrase certainly fit Erle quite well.
This wasn’t the first try to bring Perry to life. Warner Brothers made 6 Perry Mason «B» Movies in the 1930’s. Being about an hour long and designed to be exhibited on the lower half of a Double Feature; four starred Warren William as Perry, while Ricardo Cortez and Donald Woods each assayed the role once.
Several years after the series ended we saw the rise of THE NEW PERRY MASON (20th Century-Fox/CBS TV, 1973-74) with Monte Markham as a very fit, but not so big of a Barrister. It fell by the wayside after only one season. But the Masonic Forces weren’t through yet.
In 1985-93 we saw the likes of 30 2 Hour Long Made-for-TV PERRY MASON Movies again starring the surviving members of the original TV Cast, Miss Hale & Mr. Burr along with Barbara’s real life Son, William Katt (Father=Bill Williams) as Private Investigator Paul Drake, Jr.
IN addition to the original novels, Movies & TV; Perry Mason Adventures also appeared on his own Radio Show, in Comic Books and in a short running Newspaper Comic Strip.
NOTE: * In 1968, William Talman, realizing that he was dying of Lung Cancer due to his excessive cigarette smoking, filmed a very touching Public Service Anti-Smoking Message in which he laments having to leave his family so prematurely. At its end, the title card states the date of Mr. Talman’s death at age 53.
Season 1 is rife with them, there are less in season 2, a few in Season 3.
I could never figure out the logic of Perry Mason’s car, which at times is a Ford, then a Cadillac. and in one episode, his reward for winning a case is a down payment on a magnificent Ford Thunderbird.
Also confusing is the parade of great Hollywood character actors and even some heavies, who sometimes play multiple roles. including Robert Strauss, «Animal» from Stalag 17, in «The Case of the Dangerous Dowager «. I did not even recognize Robert by his looks, but by his (AT EASE, AT EASE!) voice and his very funny poo-eating grin. Barry Atwater was seen several times, George Takei, and then there are dozens of Hollywood character actors who could be seen in at least 3 episodes per season. Fay Wray was in at least 2 episodes, one as an older Blonde woman, another as a younger dark haired woman.
You never know who is gonna show up in a Perry Mason episode, including the occasional guest Lawyers, «Dr Morbius», Bette Davis, Michael Rennie.
And sometimes we would be surprised when an episode would be partially filmed in a location like Tijuana, Mexico. I knew what it looked like in the early 60’s and late 50’s, after going back and forth dozens of times to see our family jeweler. Sometimes, the «location» would be stock footage, but sometimes they had to film Perry there.
I never knew about Raymond Burr’s proclivities, which of course he kept hidden for most of the golden era of Hollywood, but now that I know, the character of Perry Mason just makes a lot of sense. He was a genius, but even he had secrets that he was vulnerable to. But I never saw him go on a Date with other than Della and Paul, usually both at once.
You know Perry has figured it out when he shows that little smile. All you need do is then sit back and wait for him to drop a ton of Bricks onto DA «HAM» Berger. I never knew that the actor playing Berger had been blacklisted, that is another sad thing that used to happen in the 50’s and 60’s. Because I thought he was brilliant.
I never realized Dennis. excuse me, I mean William Hopper was Hedda Hopper’s offspring, but he was born to play Paul Drake. He left us way too soon. The Trivia states that his hair went all white due to a WWII incident. I thought he was Blonde, but that is just Black and White for you.
Really, watch all of the ESG stories, I had the opportunity to read some of these «Cases» in book form, they are a lot different, but if you do, you will see why Ray was the perfect actor to play Perry, the same with «The Skipper’s Sister» Barbara Hale and Paul Drake. (my bad, for some reason I thought Barbara Hale was the sister of Alan Hale, maybe because they were both in «the giant spider invasion»)
Another interesting thing to do is look at the Ads in the end credits, for products that we barely remember.
This review is for the recently released box set PERRY MASON: THE COMPLETE SERIES.
I never watched the classic TV series PERRY MASON when it first aired. That’s because I was born the same year that the series based on the books by Erle Stanley Gardner about a tireless lawyer in search of justice for his clients began. PERRY MASON went on to run for nine seasons, ending in 1966. Even then I wasn’t watching it. No, I discovered PERRY MASON the same way most of us did, in reruns and syndication. I came on board late in the game and found the series to be one of the most entertaining I’d come across. And now it’s all been collected in one great package.
The series told the story of Mason (Raymond Burr), a lawyer who knew all the tricks of the trade. Each week Mason, aided by his secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale) and private detective Paul Drake (William Hopper) took on a new client and helped them from small crimes to murder. His main nemesis in the series was District Attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman), a man he respected and was friends with outside of the court room.
The best thing about the series was that each week a different story, a different defendant, made for compelling mysteries that had you guessing till the end. That was the fun of the series, trying to figure it out before the end of the show. Those endings have been satirized for years since with the famous court room admissions from the witness chair that Mason always seemed able to pull out of the most confident witness.
For fans this is the perfect way to have the collection on hand. It will offer hours of entertainment and puzzle solving for the arm chair detective. It is family friendly rather than the current spate of law shows that seem intent on delving into the worst cases of sexual deviant or scenes of blood drenched corpses. Mind you I’m not slamming those shows but if you enjoy series like this and have kids the odds aren’t great that you’ll be able to watch these shows while the kids are awake. The same isn’t true for this series which all ages can watch. The clothes might seem funny to the kids but the stories are still captivating.
This is a set that the collector will want to have on hand. I got rid of my split seasons with this one here to add to my shelf. My guess is that Perry Mason fans will want to do the same. While the price may seem high it is actually quite a bargain. Even more so when you consider the entertainment value as well. This one is worth owning.
Lawyer Perry Mason is what we would like lawyers to be. TV Show Perry Mason is what we would like court cases to be.
Was life every this way? It’s easy to look around today and «No way», but those who didn’t have many experiences before the information age simply don’t have «information» to go on.
There was a time of «naivette», of rotary phones, of waiting for news.
Still, the episodes of «Perry Mason» depict a world that was way before my time, the fifties, when I was born.
The characters behave believably, except for the final confession in the courtroom. It had to be a great stand up comic joke at the time.
I always got a kick out of Hamilton Burger, the opposing attorney, who never could beat Perry Mason. Again, another tailor made stand up comic joke.
It was the «atmosphere» that made the show. A safe world, partially safe because of Perry Mason and his crew, as well as Lt. Tragg and Hamilton Burger. A world where people treated each other with respect. A world where being disrespectful wasn’t rewarded.
It’s a black and white world, and often the world is black and white. There aren’t as many «gray» situations in real life as the modernists want you to think. That’s part of their «snake oil».
***SPOILERS*** I’ve reviewed a bunch of these, and I see them on METV, usually just before I do. Nonetheless, i invested in the entire series from AMAZON, and I’m glad I did. There have been some very good opinions of this show published by IMDb, and I actually only found fault with one. Let’s just take a brief look at this very fine program.
It was a very long-running series for it’s time, and even now. It had the same main characters (mostly) in the same roles, week after week. Three was a hiccup with William Talmann, and four weak episodes when Raymond was out sick. Also, those were the days when they actually expected The show members to put in a serious work schedule for a year; unlike today, where you’re lucky to get a dozen episodes a year from them.
The office setting did not change in all the time the series ran. This is ridiculous. I’ve given my opinion of the office decor, and the reason for that opinion in other reviews, so, I won’t go into it here except to say it looks like it was borrowed from a department store window.
Della should have been taking notes almost any time she and Perry were interviewing clients; I’ve covered this, too.
This is a character driven drama wherein, the viewer is compelled to care about the main characters, and only SOMETIMES, the clients. There are exceptions: Almost always beautiful women. This point brings up another one. WHY were so many of these talented, beautiful actresses paired with goofy looking, older weirdos? My theory is simple. To give us older, goofy looking weirdos hope; fleeting, but so it is with hope.
Next question is: WHY are so many of Perry’s clients stupid? That’s a good question, too. Probably to show off why emotion should never control our lives. Also, in a few cases, the clients ARE genuinely stupid. No doubt, some really are. Some make dumb mistakes, but are explainable for honorable, or misunderstood ends, but a few are truly idiotic. The main lesson? don’t let emotion guide your life (good luck).
The reason Perry wins. Besides the fact that he has a loyal, dependable, intelligent and skilled team, there remains the fact that he is a legal genius. If you watch these episodes, you’ll see several times when Perry is dictating a legal brief, or business letter to a client concerning economic, or financial law. He is then, somehow, pulled away to defend someone in need.
A favorite way, is Della getting him to rescue the damsel in distress. I love those stories. He mainly is a criminal defense attorney as a hobby. Just look at how many times his clients just can’t pay him, or pay him a pittance of what they owe. My theory is that he is a high priced litigator (shark), who is very wealthy due to his unequaled legal expertise. He makes Burger crazy just for the fun of it.
Next point would be the almost inevitable «Happy Ending». This is a very large worm in the nice, red apple. Frankly, back then, I guess we somehow needed the «all is well with the world» stopping point, but this is a flaw in my opinion, and if I see it coming, I’ll usually turn off the show. There ARE some great ending lines, but some are disgusting drivel.
I think Perry is so popular today (and according to IMDb, GAINING in fans) because so many of us are retired, and we want a good show to watch on T.V., rather than what seems to pass for entertainment today. This is a high quality drama that is one of the greats. A real treasure, that a lot of us had to miss to do homework, fight with our siblings, collect our paper routes, play with our friends. I’m sure it’s all coming back to you now, isn’t it?? This show is a consistent 10.
Erle Stanley Gardner was already a famous author by the time this series appeared. I have to confess never having read any of his works, though I mean to change that.
And I was still just a kid when this dramatisation of his famous lawyer first hit British TV screens. But it rolled out to such a compelling and bombastic title music that I just had to stop and listen. Much of the argument and legal discovery went over my head, yet Raymond Burr had the part of Perry Mason in the palm of his hand. He was born to the role. He fitted it like Paul Schofield fitted Thomas More, or George C Scott fitted ‘Patton’. He was, in short, The Man.
There are many excellent evaluations set down here and I won’t attempt to compete with them. Save to say that this series was so hugely popular amongst thinking viewers (I suspect there were more back then than there are now) that it went on for a decade or so. I seemed to grow up with it. Inevitably; it typecast Burr, but I guess a regular paycheque in showbizz is worth more than the paper it’s printed on, and it was such a great role to star in; who could walk away? Most of the plots were the same. However, Burr’s tremendous persona and the interesting though always platonic chemistry with his assistant Della Street and commissioned gumshoe Paul Drake, steam-rollered any shortcomings in the story department.
Mason was the unflinching juggernaut of the LAW, protecting the innocent and bringing the guilty to book, whilst benignly driving its minions (Lt Tragg) to their best efforts.
Nevertheless Raymond Burr’s ‘Perry Mason’ could be re-screened tomorrow with all of its unambiguous morality, and a whole new generation would line up for the fan club.