You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
It was only the cases he tried on Saturday night.
The show wasn’t really a lawyer show. It was a detective show. Perry was a private eye, except he did it in the context of being a lawyer.
They’re running first-season episodes now. Perry is far more shady than he was later, taking actions that are tricky to help his client (evidently like he was in the books). He became more of a straight arrow as the series went on.
Also, Tragg was vaguely hostile toward Perry. He also softened.
Heck, in one episode Perry was given the rights to the foal of a champion racehorse. Normal stuff.
The early episodes are fascinating. The TV Perry character was still in flux. So was Perry’s relationship with Della. In an early episode, she massages his neck! I just about fell out of my chair when I saw that. In another one, he’s sick at home on the sofa in his pajamas! Della, on her knees, feeds him chicken soup.
The million-dollar question: did Perry and Della ever Do It?
I love the names. Hamilton “Ham” Burger is not a DA any judge or jury would take seriously. “Tragg” sounds like some object that a particularly nasty dog might drag into the house in the middle of the night, against even the dog’s better judgment.
Perry Mason, however, is perfectly idyllic. What more lovely thing than a mason jar of mother’s homemade preserves? 
And Paul Drake sounded like he should have his own show. He was my favorite character, actually.
Just to switch pop-culture plainclothes LAPD detectives for a moment, “Lieutenant” was practically Columbo’s first name…
If so, it wasn’t in Della’s apartment. Raymond Burr made a big deal in the revival that her apartment was never shown during the original run.
Maybe they did it in the Law Library.
Hitting (it on) the books?
I just watched 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) on Hollywood Suite. William Hopper was the stalwart US Army colonel hunting down a monster from Venus, all the way from Sicily to Rome.
What a hoot! I love how “sciencey” and “philosophical” these old SF flicks are when it comes to monsters. And the “romance” between the Colonel and the gorgeous female “doctor” was pretty cool too!
I remember something about the producers highlighting the sexual tension between Perry and Della, but never could at the time carry things any further. On the show it was clear that Paul was interested in Della, and a couple of times she played Perry by spending time with Paul, but he was clearly friend-zoned and never had a shot.
It’s funny. MeTV is now running the first season of the show. Perry is not the legal straight arrow he was later – he’s not above concocting dubious legal tricks to get his client off. Lt. Tragg is more sarcastic and hostile, as is Hamilton Berger. There isn’t always a confession and sometimes it doesn’t even include a courtroom scene.* The shows were most often taken directly from a Perry Mason novel, which may explain the characterization. Perry occasionally wore a light suit. And Gertie showed up several times.
*Later seasons would do that, but it felt like they were just trying to vary the formula.