# What did you think of "Perry Mason"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 27, 2012, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438 "2012-06-27T08:22:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/41 "2012-06-27T20:22:33Z")
> [@bmasters1](#): > > I just finished the first half-season’s worth on DVD of _Perry Mason_, the classic 1957-66 CBS legal series, and I thought that it was kind of slow, but still pretty good. The release wasn’t bad either, in that the menus were simple and easy to use (just click on one of the outings and off it goes). > > I was just wondering what others who have seen this series or parts thereof have thought of it. I’ve always wondered who had the better winning percentage: Perry Mason or Meadowlark Lemon? ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/42 "2012-06-27T20:29:15Z")
> [@](#): > > This time, I was struck by some of the border-line legal shenanigans Perry used to protect his clients (in one episode, he and Paul actually committed arson to flush out a gang of smugglers). I was also amazed at how much story they were able to cram into each episode (lots of expository dialogue). Shoestring budget? Oh, yeah! (It didn’t take me long to notice that they reused the Rich People’s House interiors over and over again.) Yeah, Mason was always hiding clients, instructing them to evade the law (if not outright break it), etc. This goes on in the books as well. My father LOVED the Perry Mason shows and books. Like many others, I was first exposed to the shows, and then I found and read the books. Despite the flaws, I enjoyed both shows and books. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/43 "2012-06-27T20:53:26Z")
I watched it in college (Late 80’s) all the time, as it came on at 1am or something. In fact, I had watched it so much that by the time I saw **Rear Window** for the first time I shouted “It’s Perry Mason!” > [@Flyer](#): > > Another fascinating thing, especially in the books, is the number of times that $1000-bills are mentioned. It’s ironic in some ways how our currency face value has shrunk even as inflation makes it less valuable. Based solely on inflation, $500 bills should be more common than $20s. I remember one episode where Mason had Della get a $1000 bill from the bank and offer some farmer it for some reason, just so he could see where the farmer hid his vaulable stuff. (IIRC the evidence Perry was looking for was also hidden by the farmer). ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/44 "2012-06-27T21:08:03Z")
Remember, a lot more people used cash exclusively or almost exclusively. I’m not sure that there were ANY chain banks as we know them…that is, a bank might have a branch office or two in the same city as the main bank, but banks wouldn’t have branches in other states. They might not have branches in another county, just in neighboring cities. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/45 "2012-06-27T21:28:15Z")
Enjoyed the show. In retrospect it was amusing how many shows ended with a witness box confession variant of “I did it and I’m glad I did!” As a side note it was interesting that Burr was apparently a huge queen in real life and I never got so much as blip on my gaydar. He played straight very convincingly. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/46 "2012-06-27T22:26:17Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > I used to watch it in the day, but haven’t seen it recently. Everything from then seems “slow” in our fast-paced, short-cut era; things were more leisurely then. Even so, just think of the _Law And Order_ franchise comprising several distinct series. Though it plays on the opposite team from _Perry Mason_, as it were, it works through the procedural steps in much the same way as _Perry Mason_. A major reason for that may be that the audience for that type of show _wants_ to see all the details. A few other TV drama series, mainly ones focusing on other aspects of criminal justice, like police procedure and forensics, seem similar in that respect. Here I’m thinking of shows like _Bones_ and _Rizzoli & Isles_. Although both these shows feature an element of humor based on the main characters’ personalities and mutual relations, the overall pacing seems similar to those of the 1950s. To respond to the question, I’ve only seen a very few episodes of _Perry Mason_, but I thought they were great. Big _Dragnet_ fan, too, of both the radio and TV versions. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/47 "2012-06-27T23:31:52Z")
I used to watch reruns in the mid 1970s with my father. He wasn’t much of a TV watcher but “Mason” was an exception. He used to yell out things during the courtroom sequences such as “Burger’s winning now”, “You’re all wet, burger” and then when the judge ruled in favor of Mason on an objection, it was “A Ha, the tide is turning, Mason will wipe the floor with Burger”. And then as the 5 minutes before the hour, it was “almost time, is this guy going to confess…Yes, he did it! Five minutes left in the show!”. back then I thought it was hard to identify the male characters because virtually everyone had a short hair/crew cut, wore a suit and tie and it was in black and white. Nowadays it is handy to have imdb and find out what these actors/actresses did in their careers. I remember watching one a few months ago and thinking one of the woman was very beautiful. Who was she? Joanna Moore, mother of Tatum O’Neal, proving beauty every now and then skips a generation. Trivia facts I remember Barbara Hale saying when she hosted a Perry Mason marathon years ago. Raymond Burr originally auditioned for Hamilton Burger (his career had been playing heavies in movies like “Rear Window” and “The Adventures of Don Juan”). Mason author Earl Stanley Gardner (who made sure he had a lot of control since he didn’t like earlier movie and radio versions, said “That’s Perry Mason!”. To make sure he got the role, Mason had himself locked in a hotel room to lose weight. Some people have mentioned William Hopper being the son of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. His father, DeWolf Hopper, was a vaudevillian who made the poem “Casey at the Bat” popular by reciting it a whole lot of times in an overwrought manner (at least as surviving clips show). William didn’t want his mother pulling strings for him to have an acting career and avoided the film business for years after WWII. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/48 "2012-06-28T00:13:45Z")
Loved this show, and the books when I was a kid. Burr worked himself half to death on the show. It was incredibly popular, and they wanted to kick out one hour dramas every week. The first season had 39 episodes produced and aired in a nine month period. His later series of TV movies were very successful, a product of continuing good will from the original series. Despite the success of Perry Mason, and later Ironside, Burr’s greatest role was, of course, as a reporter named after a future comedian, actor, and banjo player in the Americanized version of the original Godzilla. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/49 "2012-06-28T09:14:37Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Enjoyed the show. In retrospect it was amusing how many shows ended with a witness box confession variant of “I did it and I’m glad I did!” > > As a side note it was interesting that Burr was apparently a huge queen in real life and I never got so much as blip on my gaydar. He played straight very convincingly. There was a thread a few months ago about “who do you suspect as gay in Hollywood” and a couple of us mentioned some lines in “Perry Mason” scripts. One of them was Della Street (entering Perry’s office" “There’s a young man and woman to see you”. Perry Mason “Tell them I’m busy” Della (cooing) “She is very pretty” Mason “Did you happen to notice what the man looked like? (giving in). Alright, send them in”. Now that I think of it, I wonder if having Hedda Hopper’s son in the cast helped shield Raymond Burr. She couldn’t well expose him as gay if it would end the show and her son’s job. Of course Hedda’s bitter enemy and fellow dingbat Louella Parsons could but may even putting Hedda’s kid on the unemployment line was something that Louella’s few scruples couldn’t abide. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/50 "2012-06-28T11:36:24Z")
My ex-wife loved the show, and I watched a bunch with her. Thought they were great. I noticed that the first-season eps seemed much more authentic, courtroom-procedure-wise. She said it was because those were based more closely on actual plots from the books. As time went on, the scriptwriters went off on their own and started writing stuff that would have called for an immediate objection from any decent lawyer. Also, she loved to refer to the DA as “Ham Burger.” ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/51 "2012-06-28T12:22:34Z")
> [@Chicagojeff](#): > > “It’s Incompetent.. Irrevelant and Immaterial!!!” > Hamilton Burger gettin his ass kicked by Perry all of the time.. Great show.. Paul Drake was soo badass.. when they brought it back and had some dimwit as his son.. terrible idea.. > > Great show.. pace..story.. NOW I know where the lawyer who represented Kramer in the “coffee scalding” case got his lines! (“Outrageous, fallacious, salacious!”) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/52 "2012-06-28T14:14:39Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Now that I think of it, I wonder if having Hedda Hopper’s son in the cast helped shield Raymond Burr. She couldn’t well expose him as gay if it would end the show and her son’s job. Of course Hedda’s bitter enemy and fellow dingbat Louella Parsons could but may even putting Hedda’s kid on the unemployment line was something that Louella’s few scruples couldn’t abide. Just how many stars did she EVER out? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/53 "2012-06-28T14:19:27Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > . . . Also, she loved to refer to the DA as “Ham Burger.” And so did a lot of people. And it wasn’t coincidence. Erle Stanley Gardner created the name withe exactly that in mind, so that Perry Mason would grind the prosecutor into “hamburger.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/54 "2012-06-28T16:43:21Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > Also, was Paul Drake cool? I remember him as sort of a buffoon in a badly-cut, ridiculously loud check coat. He was always depicted as highly competent and trustworthy in the books, though his appearance heralded exposition and jokes about the soggy hamburgers he finds himself having to eat on stakeouts. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/55 "2012-06-28T22:06:26Z")
> [@](#): > > What did you think of “Perry Mason”? DENNY CRANE! …I’m just sayin…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/56 "2012-06-28T22:42:32Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Just how many stars did she EVER out? Apparently she spread rumours about Michael Wilding (who?) and Stewart Granger. Wilding won a lawsuit. Also she wanted to expose Cary Grant and Randolph Scott but Grant was too big > **[Hedda Hopper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedda_Hopper)** > > Elda Furry (May 2, 1885 – February 1, 1966), known professionally as Hedda Hopper, was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, more than 35 million people read her columns. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, Hopper named suspected Communists and was a major proponent of the Hollywood blacklist. Hopper continued to write her gossip column until her death in 1966. Her work appeared in many magazines and la... ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/57 "2012-06-29T03:45:51Z")
Hope this doesn’t spoil it for too many people, but it’s said that the real murderer is always the person who’s on the stand twenty-five minutes into the show. What’s that work out to when the commercials are omitted? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/58 "2012-06-29T04:31:45Z")
As the courtroom scenes almost always start at about the halfway point in the show, I don’t see how that could be the case. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/59 "2012-06-29T07:46:31Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > What’s that work out to when the commercials are omitted? Right after the halfway point… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438/60 "2012-06-29T14:04:58Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > Hope this doesn’t spoil it for too many people, but it’s said that the real murderer is always the person who’s on the stand twenty-five minutes into the show. What’s that work out to when the commercials are omitted? Today, an hour-long show is 40 minutes of show, 20 minutes of commercials/station breaks/etc. Assuming the same was true in the 50’s (a shaky assumption), “25 minutes in” is going to be about 18 minutes of “show-time”. Having not watched PM since the 70’s, I have no idea if your spoiler is correct. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-think-of-perry-mason/626438.md?page=4)