Customer Reviews

Perry Mason (50th Anniversary Edition)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

As a devoted "Perry Mason" fan for nearly four decades, I think this product is a step too far in abusing the legions of people who have been waiting to see some decent treatment by Viacom:

*There was the "Collector's Series", which went through various permutations of two or three episodes on a disc, not in chronological order, and with extras that were occasionally amusing, but uniformly weak. They never finished releasing the entire series;

*Then came the promising season-by-half-season-box-set discs; a bit pricey for something with no extras at all, but at least we were starting to get all of the episodes, in order. But the rate of release has been dreadfully slow. (Hey, Viacoma: it's not like you're waiting for extras to be produced, what's taking so bloody long?);

Now this "50th Anniversary" edition. Guess what, guys? The 50th Anniversary was LAST YEAR. You missed it. And what are we supposed to pay for? Episodes that we'll be paying for again, when they get around to releasing more half-asseason boxes (and most, if not all, of which were part of the "Collector's Series" that many fans will already own, making that three copies). A list of extras which would have been great attached to those half-a-season boxes. A "Returns" movie which, while it was nice to see Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale together again (and kind of a hoot for Hale's son William Katt to be playing Paul Drake's son), wasn't really all that great, and is cheapened in memory by the steadily decreasing quality of the later films. Oh, and one of the episodes here is marked by the near-total absence of...Perry Mason.

Seriously. Get back to giving us the series, in order. Stop wasting our time, because we won't be wasting our money.

The two co-producers on this DVD set are Jim Davidson and award-winning DVD Producer Paul Brownstein ("The Twilight Zone", "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Get Smart" DVD sets). Jim Davidson was the founder (and past president) of the National Association for the Advancement of Perry Mason, and currently runs the Classic TV info website.

We fans of Raymond Burr's "Perry Mason" will definitely enjoy all of the delightful extras. Most of this DVD set's episodes were obviously chosen for the current popular name recognition of the actors. The "Perry Mason" series had many wonderful actors throughout its 9 year run, and we will, unfortunately, have to wait for their appearances as the season sets are released.

Even with all of its negatives, we can expect this DVD set to be "first class" with such great producers at the helm!

The word is that this is The Complete List of Episodes and Extras for the "Perry Mason 50th Anniversary Edition" DVD:

EPISODES, with introductions by Barbara Hale ("Della Street")

1. THE CASE OF THE WARY WILDCATTER - 1960 - Season 3
* (with Barbara Bain)

2. THE CASE OF THE TREACHEROUS TOUPEE - 1960 - Season 4
* (with Robert Redford)

3. THE CASE OF THE ENVIOUS EDITOR - 1961 - Season 4
* (with James Coburn)

4. THE CASE OF THE BAREFACED WITNESS - 1961 - Season 4
* (with Adam West)

5. THE CASE OF THE COUNTERFEIT CRANK - 1962 - Season 5
* (with Burt Reynolds)

6. THE CASE OF THE SHOPLIFTER'S SHOE - 1963 - Season 6
* (with Leonard Nimoy)

7. THE CASE OF THE CONSTANT DOYLE - 1963 - Season 6
* (with Bette Davis)

8. THE CASE OF THE DEADLY VERDICT - 1963 - Season 7
* (Mason loses a case)

9. THE CASE OF THE BOUNTIFUL BEAUTY - 1964 - Season 7
* (with Ryan O'Neal)

10. THE CASE OF THE TWICE-TOLD TWIST - 1966 - Season 9
* (the only color episode)

11. THE CASE OF THE DEAD RINGER - 1966 - Season 9
* (Raymond Burr plays a dual role)

12. THE CASE OF THE FINAL FADE-OUT - 1966 - Season 9
* (with Dick Clark and Erle Stanley Gardner)

The breakdown by Seasons:
Season 3 - 1 episode
Season 4 - 3 episodes
Season 5 - 1 episode
Season 6 - 2 episodes
Season 7 - 2 episodes
Season 9 - 3 episodes

EXTRAS:

* PERRY MASON RETURNS (1985 TV-movie revival)

SPECIAL FEATURES:

* SCREEN TESTS (5/24/1956):
1. Raymond Burr as Hamilton Burger
2. William Hopper as Perry Mason
3. Raymond Burr as Perry Mason

* Featurette: "The Case of Erle Stanley Gardner"

* Interviews with Barbara Hale, producer-director Arthur Marks and CBS executive Anne Nelson

* Syndication Promos

* Raymond Burr interviewed by Charlie Rose on CBS "Nightwatch"

* Raymond Burr interviewed by Charles Collingwood on "Person to Person" (10/20/1960)

* Clip from "Stump the Stars" with the cast of Perry Mason (7/8/1963)

* Photo Gallery

Lets get on with Season Three,Volume 1!For crying out loud,with the pace
they are moving,it will take 7 years to release all 9 seasons!By the time this special edition comes out in April,it will already have been
five months since Season Two,Volume 2.Season Three should be out in April,not this special.While on this subject,this half season nonsense
is out of hand.Why dont they release the full season or two volumes at
the same time like they did with Combat?You buy both or you buy one and
most likely everybody will buy both anyway so release the volumes
together,this 7-8 months in between is just idiotic!

Your honor, I do object to the harsh treatment this DVD has gotten before its released. I have viewed this evidence and found it able to stand on its own merits.

A little back history on my relationship with the defendant Perry Mason. In the early 1970's, when Ironside was still on prime time television, I was a Perry Mason addict. It was on at five pm, so it was after school viewing. Raymond Burr was as much Perry Mason as he was Ironside. Each may have been different character, but this series like Ironside was memorible.

Now to the evidence....In this DVD tribute, you have 12 episodes and a TV movie (Perry Mason Returns) of this classic legal drama. This tribute is guest star ladden set (with such actors as Robert Redford, Bette Davis, Leonard Nimoy, Burt Retnold, James Colburn,etc) and also has a few rare episodes (the only color episode, the last show of the series). If these dozen episodes are edited at all from their original format , you can not tell. These recording seem to have been copied from very clean master recordings of the shows. Each episode and the TV movie are introduced by Barbara Hale (Della Street), the last remaining cast member of the Mason show.

Exhibit A...The fourth disk is chock filled with extras like Hopper, Talman and Burr's screen tests for Mason, Old Raymond Burr interviews, New Barbara Hale interview, and Mason cast playing "Stump The Stars".

Exhibit B...The most unique extra on the fourth disk is the William Talman's anti-smoking message. For those of you who did not know, Talman was dying of cancer after the show closed. as sick as he was, he left the hospital and recorded an anti-smoking message weeks before he died.

Sidebar, your Honor...I have previous discussed the good part of the DVD....now to the bad part, charging almost forty dollar for 12 episode is too too much. Also, to harbor on points made by others previously, Paramount CBS is very slow to release season three of Mason...and when they do, it is in half season installments. At this time (April 2008), there is no release date for season three volume one.

In summation, this collection of the best of Perry Mason is good television and nice to see these shows on DVD. However the jury is out if Paramount and its release practices is right.

I do not want a hung jury, so buy this collection and you make your own judgement

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

As a devoted Perry Mason fan, I've purchased the last four half-season DVD sets.
Yes, I grumbled at having them released as half-seasons, being expensive and having no "bonus" extras but I still enjoyed them and I hope the rest of the series makes its way to DVD.
But I draw the line at this contrived "Anniversary" edition which is just a shoddy attempt to extract even more money from long-suffering Mason fans!
Well Paramount, I ain't biting. You've gone to the well once too often.

It was fascinating to see the interview with Barbara Hale and Arthur Marks about episode #262, "The Case Of The Twice Told Twist", the only episode filmed in color. Early in the ninth season, CBS president William S. Paley ordered a color episode to be made so that he could see what "Perry Mason" looked like in color, should it be renewed for a 10th season (for the 1966-67 season, the season all prime time shows went color). The cost of the color episode was not much more than black and white. During it's 9th season, "Perry Mason" was competing with the 7th season of "Bonanza", a show that was #1 in the ratings from 1964-67, and which had been in color since it's premier in 1959. When it was decided that "Perry Mason" would not be renewed for another season (in mid-November, 1965) this prototype episode for a proposed 10th season, was aired 2/3 of the way through season 9, as the 21st of 30 episodes, on February 27, 1966. The color print of "The Case Of The Twice Told Twist" on this DVD is astonishingly vibrant; a far cry from a murky VHS copy I have from a TBS marathon from 1994. It's also at least 5 minutes longer at 51 minutes, 30 seconds. I was reluctant to purchase this 50th Anniversary Edition until season 3, volume 1, was revealed for an August, 2008 DVD release. When I saw this on sale, I decided I couldn't wait 6 years for the release of season 9, volume 2, to see a restored copy of the color episode, and hear the explanation on why this sole episode was done in color.

Perry Mason - Very Fun To Watch, but - For those of us getting up in age please release the Perry Mason seasons in one set (not two per season) and hurry up between releases - I'd like to enjoy them before I die.

This set should've come out last year as that was the actual 50th anniversary of the debut of the Perry Mason tv series. Still, better late than never. An interesting assortment of episodes, including a beautiful transfer of the only color episode "The Case of the Twice Told Twist". Ironically, that looked better than the transfer of "Perry Mason returns", the reunion tv-movie from December 1985. I loved all the extras, whether it was the screen tests to the introductions by Barbara Hale & Arthur Marks to William Talman's posthumous anti-smoking message. It's not quite an easter egg but, if you blink you might miss the fact that Hale & Marks provide commentary for "The Case of the Deadly Ringer". I would've loved for CBS/Paramount to have included an episode of "The New Perry Mason" starring Monte Markham in the set as the odds of that short-lived series seeing the light of day on dvd are slim and none, and slim just walked out the door. Now, if only CBS/Paramount would start releasing future seasons in complete sets as opposed to this vol.1/vol.2 nonsense.

While I agree with everyone else on this page that we want more Mason and we want it now, I feel there is something very special in this set that has been overlooked. Seeing Barbara Hale in the present day in her charming interview and episode presentation is like having a visit from a favorite family member that you haven't seen in years. The twinkle in her smiling eyes has not withered one iota and she will charm you just as she did all those years ago when she was a regular visitor to our homes as the beautifully intelligent Della Street. Perhaps it would have been wiser to do this as a single disc anniversary special, but since we're waiting for more episodes anyway, I'm glad to have a preview of what I hope is to come. Meanwhile, my hat is off to Barbara Hale one of the grandest ladies ever on television

Has it really been over 50 years since Perry Mason first walked into a television courtroom? It is a high compliment, viewing "Perry Mason (50th Anniversary Edition)", that the episodes are still as fresh, and entertaining, in a new millennium!

The episodes chosen for the collection may not be every fan's choice, but each is a gem; seeing Robert Redford, James Coburn, Adam West, Burt Reynolds, Bette Davis, Dick Clark, and a hot-tempered(!) Leonard Nimoy seamlessly enter the 'Mason' universe is great fun, and four episodes included should be on every 'Top' list; "The Case of the Deadly Verdict", where Mason actually LOSES; "The Case of the Twice Told Twist", the only color episode ever filmed; "The Case of the Dead Ringer", with Raymond Burr in dual roles (he's a hoot as a reprobate British sailor); and, of course, "The Case of the Final Fadeout", the last episode of the series. The episodes offer the option of an introduction by Barbara Hale (often with director Arthur Marks), which, while not necessary, are warm and often delightful.

The Disc 4 Special Features are certainly worth the price of the set, by themselves...The first 'Perry Mason' TV-movie, made nearly two decades after the series left the air, is a sweet reunion, as Della (Barbara Hale) is accused of murder, and Perry leaves the bench to defend her, aided by Paul Drake's son (Hale's real-life son, William Katt)...Raymond Burr's screen tests, for both the roles of Mason AND Hamilton Burger (William Hopper's test for the Mason role is also included, and shows just how mesmerizing Burr was, in both roles; thank goodness he became Mason, because as Burger, he'd have been unbeatable!)...a bittersweet "Person-to-Person" tour of Burr's home, from the late fifties (Burr, while justifiably proud of his home, rarely saw it during the series' nine-year run, as the nature of the scripts kept him at the studio, 24/7); two excerpts from Burr interviews with Charlie Rose from the 1980s; a loving biography of 'Mason' creator, Erle Stanley Gardner; the tragic TV anti-smoking ad by William Talman (who was dying of lung cancer); a funny "Stump the Stars" bit with the original cast, and MUCH more!

This is certainly one of my favorite DVD collections, and I HIGHLY recommend it, for both long-time fans, and viewers unfamiliar with the series. You're in for a treat!