# Why do all episodes of Perry Mason have a murder? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [April 8, 2024, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008 "2024-04-08T14:00:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/41 "2024-04-08T22:51:01Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There was a sequel called _Perry Mason: The Class Action Lawsuit_, but ratings were disappointing… That’s only because after 5 seasons, they were still getting through the discovery phase… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2024, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/42 "2024-04-08T23:54:19Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > For heaven’s sake, don’t make friends with Jessica. You’ll either be murdered, framed for murder, or put on trial for murder. And definitely don’t take a vacation on the seemingly idyllic island of Saint-Marie in the Caribbean. There have been a minimum of 109 murders over the last decade, a huge percentage of them being tourists. Seen in the documentary series called [Death in Paradise](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1888075/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_death%2520in%2520). > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Those “Cat who…” books have only the occasional murdered body. There are deaths and bodies mostly by accidents. Eh, dead is dead. Who cares how they got that way? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/43 "2024-04-09T00:06:55Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Those “Cat who…” books have only the occasional murdered body. There are deaths and bodies mostly by accidents. The mystery is how Koko the Siamese solved them. And were any of them mysteriously nibbled after death? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/44 "2024-04-09T00:13:34Z")
Cats are smarter than that. If they nibble, the finish the whole corpse. Great way to destroy the evidence. Sometimes they have to get some friends involved to hurry the process, but if they’re patient enough even a single cat can polish off a whole human in a couple months. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/45 "2024-04-09T00:15:00Z")
And if you bring in a leopard, the corpse’s face will be the first to go. Perfect! ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/46 "2024-04-09T01:12:05Z")
There’s a new mystery show on CBS, _Elsbeth._ She’s one of those quirky types who notices the key piece of evidence everyone in the entire NYPD overlooked. Friday night was Episode #2 and while there was only one victim she figured out All the suspects did it ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/47 "2024-04-09T02:04:43Z")
[Rifleman kill count.](https://youtu.be/nrOPVo5GFY4) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/48 "2024-04-09T02:14:24Z")
Well, there was one were Koko ate the shrimp the dead man was highly allergic to. There by causing all manner of hyjinx trying to figure out how the guy got dead. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/49 "2024-04-09T02:58:16Z")
> [@Bumbazine](#): > > The one thing that stood out to me about Perry Mason was that he always seemed to get the guilty party to confess on the witness stand. Of course I didn’t watch the show all that often, so maybe I’m mis-remembering. You are. Quite a few times he got the guilty party to stand up in the court room and confess while Perry was grilling someone ELSE on the witness stand. _That_ is real talent. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/50 "2024-04-09T03:10:18Z")
“Rifleman kill count”, eh? What I noticed is how many shots he wasted. I only watched a small part of that, and I swear there are a few people it took him five shots to kill. Tsk. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/51 "2024-04-09T03:30:57Z")
The Rifleman though, a bit like Dirty Harry, was always on the side of Good and everybody he ever shot was a scoundrel who needed killin’. So he’s got that goin’ for him. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/52 "2024-04-09T03:41:27Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > Rich people must be the most dangerous demographic, always murdering each other or killing bystanders or whatever. It’s uncanny. > [@Railer13](#): > > Along the same lines, I often wondered why people continued to live in Cabot Cove, Maine. That was the home of Jessica Fletcher of _Murder, She Wrote_, and there was a homicide each week. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Much less Midsomer county in England, home of _Midsomer Murders_. Most of those episodes feature several homicides over a short period of time. Yeah, the body count in Midsomer would exceed the population of the United Kingdom at the rate their murderers were removing people. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/53 "2024-04-09T04:07:45Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Much less Midsomer county in England, home of _Midsomer Murders_. Most of those episodes feature several homicides over a short period of time. Hehehe, Thursday night is the local PBS affiliate’s night to show British mystery shows, including this one. When my wife and I notice it’s Thursday, we’ll often ask “This is the night everyone in Brittan dies, what do you want to watch instead?” ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/54 "2024-04-09T04:25:21Z")
Hmm, is that true? Lucas boy had the biggest bad guy kill count in tv westerns? Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/55 "2024-04-09T04:44:42Z")
On Barnaby Jones, there were a few cases where the initial death is clearly manslaughter or accidental death. The person may have not even been required to serve time in the mildest cases. Nevertheless, there was always a second murder at the half hour mark to cover up the first death. At the end of the episode, the killer would shoot once at Barnaby attempting to flee, and miss. Then Barnaby would shoot the killer in the arm. The exception was if the killer was a woman, then either a male accomplice would do the shot at Barnaby, or Barnaby would talk the female killer out of shooting. There was also one early episode where the killer shot at Barnaby twice. Barnaby did kill that perp. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/56 "2024-04-09T05:24:12Z")
And he uses my favorite long gun. Love that Rifleman. I just can’t take that kid in that show. I sometimes wish he’d just unload on the kid. 😳 ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/57 "2024-04-09T06:42:51Z")
The Ace Attorney series of video games is loosely inspired by Perry Mason in that the main character is a defense lawyer who defends wrongfully accused clients, and true to form each of the four to five “cases” in each game involve a murder. The third game throws you for a bit of a loop in one case where you wind up defending someone accused of a burglary, but once you get him off the hook the alibi you’ve established for him implicates him in a murder and you wind up having to defend him again. Incidentally, if you think Perry Mason gets a lot wrong about the legal system, Ace Attorney is much worse. The games were originally set in Japan and based on the Japanese legal system, where (until fairly recently) there was no trial by jury and over 90% of prosecutions result into a guilty verdict, but for the US release they rewrote it to take place in Los Angeles and the result is a mishmash of the American and Japanese legal systems that resembles neither, lawyers are also able to investigate crime scenes and interrogate witnesses, and in various games you admit testimony from parrots, radios, and ghosts. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/58 "2024-04-09T06:53:30Z")
You can always watch Quincy M.E., they fall at his feet(or his morgue) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/59 "2024-04-09T07:09:57Z")
> [@Bumbazine](#): > > The one thing that stood out to me about Perry Mason was that he always seemed to get the guilty party to confess on the witness stand. Of course I didn’t watch the show all that often, so maybe I’m mis-remembering. Not always - it could be someone in the gallery and very occasionally, outside the courtroom. But they’re on the witness stand most of the time. _Banacek_ was on mystery TV show that wasn’t about murders: it was about theft, usually one that seemed impossible. Unfortunately, the solution to the theft was always the same. The object was stolen before everyone thought it was. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008/60 "2024-04-09T07:18:30Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And definitely don’t take a vacation on the seemingly idyllic island of Saint-Marie in the Caribbean. There have been a minimum of 109 murders over the last decade, a huge percentage of them being tourists. Seen in the documentary series called [Death in Paradise](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1888075/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_death%2520in%2520) I think I’d be OK; as a middle aged male white English visitor to the island, I reckon my chances are fair that I would turn out to be the policeman, rather than the victim. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-all-episodes-of-perry-mason-have-a-murder/1000008.md?page=4)