Erle Stanley Gardner was already a famous author by the time this series appeared. I have to confess never having read any of his works, though I mean to change that.
And I was still just a kid when this dramatisation of his famous lawyer first hit British TV screens. But it rolled out to such a compelling and bombastic title music that I just had to stop and listen. Much of the argument and legal discovery went over my head, yet Raymond Burr had the part of Perry Mason in the palm of his hand. He was born to the role. He fitted it like Paul Schofield fitted Thomas More, or George C Scott fitted 'Patton'. He was, in short, The Man.
There are many excellent evaluations set down here and I won't attempt to compete with them. Save to say that this series was so hugely popular amongst thinking viewers (I suspect there were more back then than there are now) that it went on for a decade or so. I seemed to grow up with it. Inevitably; it typecast Burr, but I guess a regular paycheque in showbizz is worth more than the paper it's printed on, and it was such a great role to star in; who could walk away? Most of the plots were the same. However, Burr's tremendous persona and the interesting though always platonic chemistry with his assistant Della Street and commissioned gumshoe Paul Drake, steam-rollered any shortcomings in the story department.
Mason was the unflinching juggernaut of the LAW, protecting the innocent and bringing the guilty to book, whilst benignly driving its minions (Lt Tragg) to their best efforts.
If Perry Mason has any successor; it is 'Law & Order'. This series contains some almost equally formidable personas but we've moved on, and the absolute 'rightness' of the law is often more subtly evaluated - and found wanting. The clear certainties are no longer there.
Nevertheless Raymond Burr's 'Perry Mason' could be re-screened tomorrow with all of its unambiguous morality, and a whole new generation would line up for the fan club.
And I was still just a kid when this dramatisation of his famous lawyer first hit British TV screens. But it rolled out to such a compelling and bombastic title music that I just had to stop and listen. Much of the argument and legal discovery went over my head, yet Raymond Burr had the part of Perry Mason in the palm of his hand. He was born to the role. He fitted it like Paul Schofield fitted Thomas More, or George C Scott fitted 'Patton'. He was, in short, The Man.
There are many excellent evaluations set down here and I won't attempt to compete with them. Save to say that this series was so hugely popular amongst thinking viewers (I suspect there were more back then than there are now) that it went on for a decade or so. I seemed to grow up with it. Inevitably; it typecast Burr, but I guess a regular paycheque in showbizz is worth more than the paper it's printed on, and it was such a great role to star in; who could walk away? Most of the plots were the same. However, Burr's tremendous persona and the interesting though always platonic chemistry with his assistant Della Street and commissioned gumshoe Paul Drake, steam-rollered any shortcomings in the story department.
Mason was the unflinching juggernaut of the LAW, protecting the innocent and bringing the guilty to book, whilst benignly driving its minions (Lt Tragg) to their best efforts.
If Perry Mason has any successor; it is 'Law & Order'. This series contains some almost equally formidable personas but we've moved on, and the absolute 'rightness' of the law is often more subtly evaluated - and found wanting. The clear certainties are no longer there.
Nevertheless Raymond Burr's 'Perry Mason' could be re-screened tomorrow with all of its unambiguous morality, and a whole new generation would line up for the fan club.