One of TV's most successful and best-loved dramatic series--not to mention one of the few black-and-white, hour-long series to flourish in syndication well into the 21st century--
Perry Mason was the brainchild of lawyer-novelist Erle Stanley Gardner, who introduced the character of defense attorney Perry Mason in 1933. Though not all of Perry's literary appearances involved murder, all were mystery-oriented, and all were built around the premise of a brilliant, methodical lawyer with sharply-honed deductive and observational skills, who never lost a case. The weekly TV version of the property made its CBS debut on September 21, 1957. It was a rare instance of a "perfect" ensemble cast, headed by
Raymond Burr, heretofore typed as a movie villain, as Mason (Legend has it that Burr originally read for the role of Perry's perennial adversary, prosecutor Hamilton Burger, but Erle Stanley Gardner took one look at the burly, velvet-voice actor and declared "That's Mason!")
Barbara Hale was Perry's ultraloyal, ultraefficient secretary Della Street;
William Hopper (son of Hollywood columnist
Hedda Hopper) was Perry's associate, private detective Paul Drake;
Ray Collins was the irascible Lt. Tragg until his retirement in 1964 (he died one year later); and
William Talman, who like Burr was typecast in heavy roles, was eternally luckless prosecuting attorney Hamilton Burger. After Collins left the series, the official police were represented by Wesley Lau as Lt. Anderson and
Richard Anderson as Lt. Drumm. With few exceptions,
Perry Mason adhered to a rigid, virtually inviolate formula throughout its nine-season run. The murder victim was a nasty, disreputable sort who, in the words of Sam White--who for several years coproduced the series with former actress Gail Patrick Jackson)--"needed killing." The accused murderer, invariably a client of Perry Mason, was entirely innocent despite a preponderance of circumstantial and material evidence. With the assistant of Della and Paul, and despite the resistance of Lt. Tragg (who never could be convinced that Mason was anything less than ethical), Perry would piece together the clues and draw up a list of potential perpetrators, many of them witnesses for the prosecution. During the climactic courtroom sequence, Mason would call forth one of the witnesses (or sometimes even a mere courtroom spectator), and through intense cross-examination would prove that the person in question was the guilty party--whereupon said party would break down and confess on the spot! The result: Mason emerged victorious yet again, and Hamilton Burger glowered in defeat. (Only on three occasions did Perry lose a case on TV, and only one of those was a murder case--but in each instance he rallied to prove his client's innocence beyond question). Yes, it was a formula. . .but an extremely solid and durable one. Prior to the TV version of
Perry Mason, Warner Bros. produced six medium-budget "Perry Mason" films of wildly variable quality between 1934 and 1936, with three different actors--
Warren William,
Ricardo Cortez,
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