Things I Learned Watching the original Perry Mason

William Talman was an interesting guy. He was fired from Perry Mason when he was arrested at an orgy where marijuana was being smoked. He later became the first actor to produce anti smoking messages. A lifelong smoker, he ended up with lung cancer which killed him just a short time after filming his PSAs

Didn’t Raymond Burr put up bail to get him out from that arrest?

Burr helped Talman get rehired by CBS. The narcotic and lewdness charges were eventually dropped. I don’t know who paid his bail, though. One of the women at the party ended up marrying Talman.

as a side note, before Ray Collins started portraying Tragg, he appeared in an episode as a bad-guy manager (they used a lot of recurring actors)

Lieutenant is his rank. Detective is his job description.
In the Patrol Division, you have Patrolmen, Patrol Sergeants, Patrol Lieutenants, etc.
In the Investigation Division, you have Detectives, Detective Sergeants, Detective Lieutenants, etc.

Ah! For some reason, I’ve only thought of Lieutenants as being uniformed and Detectives as plainclothed. Never sank in about ranks in Detective for some reason, even though I’m sure I’ve seen it on TV and movies and such.

You did realize that his nickname would be “Ham Burger,” which is what Perry makes him into each week.

Yeah, that win/loss record must really weigh on a man. I bet he twitches when Perry is mentioned.

According to Wikipedia, Talman noted that Berger didn’t lose all those cases–he failed to convict innocent people, which should count as a win for a DA interested in justice. As opposed, say, to re-election.

In Barney Miller, Miller is a captain. Fish, Dietrich, and Yemana are sergeants. Wojo is initially a Detective 3rd Grade, later promoted to Sergeant. Harris is initially a Detective 1st Grade, later promoted to Sergeant.

I guess if you’re all interested in people doing the right thing. :roll_eyes:

:smile:

Note how often that when they show his head in close-up, it’s at an angle.

That is a good point. Just bad luck for him that only innocent people wanted Perry to defend them. He did fail to figure out the clear pattern there, he could have just asked Perry to work out what actually happened without all the rigamarole of a trial.

Was it a censor Hays Code kind of thing that he always defended an innocent person? Or a show runner mandate? If a client had been guilty once in a while it would have been more exciting.

Nope. He was just that good. He was written that way on the TV show because the character already had that reputation long established in books and movies before the TV show began. And the audience loved it that way just as they had done before.

William Hopper (Paul Drake) was the son of famous Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper. He was considered for the lead role before Burr. He had been a Navy frogman in WWII, a job frought with danger. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his service.

Once the role of Perry Mason was given to the 6’ tall Burr they may have felt the need to cast a larger man like the 6’3" Hopper to play the ‘muscle’ on the show.

Like other characters his role was established in books that preceded the TV show and the producers were attempting to cast actors that would match the expectations of the audience.

Conversely, a district attorney who never, ever wins a case can still keep his job seemingly forever. The fact that the DA’s name was literally Ham Burger was plenty enough reason to fire him on the spot.

Actually, I believe that the LA county DA is elected, so what I learned was that the voters of LA county are either halfwits or criminals.

Perry Mason wasn’t the only defense attorney in Los Angeles. The cases depicted in the series were only a small fraction of Burger’s caseload.

And Perry did leave other DA’s befuddled as well. He’s an equal opportunity wrecking ball, legally speaking.

Especially if most of your clients are ordinary working stiffs with average bank accounts.