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Perry Mason: Seasons 1-4

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Perry Mason was certainly the finest courtroom drama ever on television. It was entertainment that kept viewers glued to their seats, waiting for that moment when Perry would nail the killer on the witness stand and free his client. TV fans waited a long time for a DVD release of the finest courtroom drama ever to be broadcast into homes.

Over the decades, Perry Mason has become as much a part of American culture as apple pie and mom. You'd have difficulty finding anyone who doesn't at least recognize the name. Erle Stanley Gardner's books have millions of devoted fans. Beginning in more pulp style fashion, they gradually grew more to resemble the Perry of network television. Warren William had starred as Mason in a couple of nifty films during the early 1930's, but left after four films, Ricardo Cortez and Donald Woods following in his footsteps as it became a "B" entry. All those were actually based on Erle Stanley Gardner's original novels. The television show it spawned was fabulous entertainment, however, and today is widely regarded as one of the best shows television ever produced. Perry was the attorney you wanted on your side in a jam.

It was Gardner himself who picked Raymond Burr, even though the studio only agreed to let him test for Perry if he would test for Burger too! Barbara Hale was his pretty secretary, Della Street, who kept Perry human and was in love with him. William Hopper was the dapper detective, Paul Drake. He had a playful and flirtatious relationship with Della but every viewer knew that secretly her heart belonged to Perry. And we liked it that way. Warren William did, in fact, propose to Claire Dodd (Della) in the films, and had a honeymoon interrupted by mystery in his final entry as Mason.

A great cast for the other side made the television series sparkle as well. William Talman as D.A. Hamilton Burger would almost be ready to gloat, Lt. Tragg (Ray Collins) not far behind, when Perry would spring his client by revealing the real killer on the witness stand. There has never been anything close to it in genre on television since. Its mix of drama, noir, and humor, and its truly likable central cast of characters, made for terrific viewing. Those who haven't picked up any of the prior offerings, can catch up in this set of seasons 1-4! Here is the entire list of episodes for those checking against what they own, trying to decide if it's worth picking up everything, or perhaps just a certain season missing from your library.

The Case of the Restless Redhead -- The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece -- The Case of the Nervous Accomplice -- The Case of the Drowning Duck -- The Case of the Sulky Girl -- The Case of the Silent Partner -- The Case of the Angry Mourner -- The Case of the Crimson Kiss -- The Case of the Vagabond Vixen -- The Case of the Runaway Corpse -- The Case of the Crooked Candle -- The Case of the Negligent Nymph -- The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink -- The Case of the Baited Hook -- The Case of the Fan-Dancer's Horse -- The Case of the Demure Defendant -- The Case of the Sun Bather's Diary -- The Case of the Cautious Coquette -- The Case of the Haunted Husband -- The Case of the Lonely Heiress -- The Case of the Green-Eyed Sister -- The Case of the Fugitive Nurse -- The Case of the One-Eyed Witness -- The Case of the Deadly Double -- The Case of the Empty Tin -- The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife -- The Case of the Desperate Daughter -- The Case of the Daring Decoy -- The Case of the Hesitant Hostess -- The Case of the Screaming Woman -- The Case of the Fiery Fingers -- The Case of the Substitute Face -- The Case of the Long-Legged Models -- The Case of the Gilded Lily -- The Case of the Lazy Lover -- The Case of the Prodigal Parent -- The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde -- The Case of the Terrified Typist -- The Case of the Rolling Bones -- The Case of the Corresponding Corpse---The Case of the Lucky Loser---The Case of the Pint-Sized Client---The Case of the Sardonic Sergeant---The Case of the Curious Bride--The Case of the Buried Clock---The Case of the Married Moonlighter---The Case of the Jilted Jockey--- The Case of the Purple Woman---The Case of the Fancy Figures---The Case of the Perjured Parrot---The Case of the Shattered Dream---The Case of the Borrowed Brunette---The Case of the Glittering Goldfish---The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll---The Case of the Fraudulent Foto---The Case of the Romantic Rogue---The Case of the Jaded Joker---The Case of the Caretaker's Cat---The Case of the Stuttering Bishop---The Case of the Lost Last Act---The Case of the Bedeviled Doctor---The Case of the Howling Dog---The Case of the Calendar Girl--- The Case of the Petulant Partner---The Case of the Dangerous Dowager---The Case of the Deadly Toy---The Case of the Spanish Cross---The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom---The Case of the Lame Canary -- The Case of the Watery Witness--The Case of the Garrulous Gambler--The Case of the Blushing Pearls--The Case of the Startled Stallion--The Case of Paul Drake's Dilemma--The Case of the Golden Fraud--The Case of the Bartered Bikini-- The Case of the Artful Dodger--The Case of the Lucky Legs--The Case of the Violent Village--The Case of the Frantic Flyer--The Case of the Wayward Wife--The Case of the Prudent Prosecutor--The Case of the Gallant Grafter--The Case of the Wary Wildcatter--The Case of the Mythical Monkeys--The Case of the Singing Skirt--The Case of the Bashful Burro--The Case of the Crying Cherub--The Case of the Nimble Nephew--The Case of the Madcap Modiste--The Case of the Slandered Submarine--The Case of the Ominous Outcast--The Case of the Irate Inventor--The Case of the Flighty Father -- The Case of the Treacherous Toupee--The Case of the Credulous Quarry--The Case of the Ill-Fated Faker--The Case of the Singular Double--The Case of the Lavender Lipstick--The Case of the Wandering Widow--The Case of the Clumsy Clown-- The Case of the Provocative Protege--The Case of the Nine Dolls--The Case of the Loquacious Liar--The Case of the Red Riding Boots--The Case of the Larcenous Lady--The Case of the Envious Editor--The Case of the Resolute Reformer--The Case of the Fickle Fortune--The Case of the Waylaid Wolf--The Case of the Wintry Wife --The Case of the Angry Dead Man--The Case of the Blind Man's Bluff--The Case of the Barefaced Witness--The Case of the Difficult Detour--The Case of the Cowardly Lion--The Case of the Torrid Tapestry--The Case of the Violent Vest--The Case of the Misguided Missile--The Case of the Duplicate Daughter--The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather--The Case of the Guilty Clients

This was one of the best dramas ever to hit the air. Seeing it today reminds us just how good television can be, but is often not. It's a bit of nostalgia and a lot of entertainment for TV fans. Fred Steiner's "Park Avenue Beat" remains one of the most recognizable themes ever heard. Being offered now for release just in time for Christmas, this would make the perfect gift for the Mason fan in your family. A fine example of great television.

The product is great if you are a lover of the series. I was then and still am as the quality is super which was the only part I was worried about. I have bought series before and were copied off of VHS crappy quality. This product is super!

Perry Mason Seasons 1-4 DVD

The "Perry Mason" TV show lasted nine seasons, a record in that era. Some TV series lasted longer by replacing the actors to keep viewers interested ("ER" and "Law & Order"). Erle Stanley Gardner was "the World's Greatest Author" in his time, his books outsold the combined totals of his competitors. His stories were as stylized as baseball games. Season 1 used 36 of his novels for its 39 episodes, Season 2 used 15 of his novels for the 30 episodes. That was half of his Perry Mason novels. The later episodes became a formula where someone would confess in the last minutes. The original novels were much better, read them for comparison. The films were the simplified and condensed versions of the novels, or new material.

Gardner's novels would educate the readers by using examples from law and science or new technology. He dedicated novels to an important person in medicine or law. Gardner founded "The Court of Last Resort" to exonerate the convicted innocent. Gardner's stories warned of the dangers of invalid eyewitness identification, drawing the wrong conclusions from circumstantial evidence (guilt by inference), or prematurely accusing a suspect before all the evidence was gathered and evaluated. Some of this stories made the point that while ballistics can identify the gun that fired a bullet it cannot tell when it was fired (before or after the crime). "Perry Mason" advised his clients to never lie to the police, it was better to say nothing except call for a lawyer. No story dealt with a false confession as in the 1947 movie "Boomerang", which was based on a true crime.

There is a famous true crime that has the above elements. You can read about the case of Sacco & Vanzetti where they were convicted of robbery and murder in spite of their alibis. Many believed they were innocent and were convicted as part of the repression of the 1920s. The fall in agricultural products in 1921 was worldwide and resulted in falling income. This worked its way through the economy and led to business failures in 1927. The looting of shareholder value made this worse. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 was the result, it was not the cause of the Great Depression. This was avoided after WW II by government actions such as keeping a large standing army to prevent unemployment and other policies from the New Deal.

Erle Stanley Gardner generally avoided politics in this "Perry Mason" novels. Some of the "A.A. Fair" novels used political corruption in the stories. The 1967 novel "The Case of the Queenly Contestant" was publicized for the remark that a bullet found on a stretcher was not proof of anything. Dr. Milton Halpern was blacklisted by the government for criticizing the autopsy of JFK for its lack of an experienced medical examiner. A book written about the TV show said William Talman was not the first choice for DA Hamilton Burger. Raymond Burr played a DA in "A Place in the Sun" and a villain in earlier films like "Borderline". A book about the Sacco & Vanzetti case has the picture of DA Frederick Katzmann, who resembles William Talman. Perhaps the selection of William Talman as the DA was Gardner's comment on the Sacco & Vanzetti case? In its day "Perry Mason" was criticized for never losing a case. What is the record for newer TV shows like "Law & Order"?

I am really enjoying these old Perry Mason episodes. The video and audio quality is excellent. The image is black & white and very sharp, even on a 52" HD screen. The peripheral aspects of the scenes, cars, interiors, clothes, are as interesting as the characters are entertaining. The stories are well-written clever whodunits. ...And the women are gorgeous.

Perry Mason: Seasons 1-4 is a very good DVD set. Arrived on time and in perfect condition. A lot better than what's currently on network TV! Well worth the money.

This is a series of programs based a character in the writings of Erle Stanley Gardner. The CBS TV series stretched from 1957 through 1966.

Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is a defense lawyer who is always thought of after it is too late for him to save the defendant from being accused of murder. Supporting Perry is his trusty more than friendly but professional secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale). And their trusty and sneaky private investigator Paul Drake (William DeWolf Hopper, Son of the actress-turned-gossip-columnist Hedda Hopper). On the other side of the courtroom is the district attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman) assisted by the not so neutral Homicide Lt. Arthur Tragg (Ray Collins).

You wonder how they get away with manufacturing evidence and the defendant usually has foot in mouth. Then there are the signature courtroom demonstrations.

Be sure to re-watch these programs as you can then see at even in TV programs they can sprinkle in subtle clues.

The was a mad magazine mock that had a boy scout immediately confess from the back of the courtroom upon seeing Perry mason.

Many of the subsequent programs allowed many TV actors of the time to become different characters and even replace the Burger and Tragg characters. You find yourself not only trying to outguess Mason but also saying "Hey I saw that actor in..."

Even though the characters are from Erle Stanley Gardner the actual programs are written by many different TV writers of the day.

I have on occasion read some of the Erle Stanly Gardner Mason's and they are closely related. The TV version has a few less characters and has to write in some of our favorites.

The DVD's themselves usually have four episodes with a glaring lack of the extras that are so popular nowadays. The plus is that there are no advertisements.

Once again, we are shown that it pays to wait. Anyone who likes PM and hasn't bought it yet should snatch this up. For you, it's a bargain - four seasons with an average price of under $50 a season. The rest of season four hasn't been released yet. Those of us who bought the first three seasons as they were released are being charged a higher price. Season one alone (39 shows) was (and is still being sold for) about $80. I have to pay $65 for season four but the person who buys this set gets it for less than $50. There is something rotten in the state of Paramount. Its pricing schemes stink to high heaven.

He warned us about Godzilla, he was the bad guy of choice for over a decade and he beat the crap out of the district attorney Ham Burger for years and years. Raymond Burr was never quite leading man material, despite scores of movie roles from Bride of the Gorilla to Hitchcock's Rear Window, San Quentin, Raw Deal, Fort Laramie, Blue Dahlia and A Place in the Sun. Burr remained in the shadow land of featured players, working constantly but never quite hitting the mainstream of recognizable faces, until Perry Mason. And, after filming 271 episodes of Mason, he went on to the TV series Ironsides, then returned, at the end of his career, to 26 two-hour TV movies, again playing Mason. Burr filmed the final installment only a few weeks before his death. From 1957 until his death some 36 years later, he worked constantly.
Burr was born in British Columbia in 1917, and spent his younger years traveling with his mother, a single parent, who was an itinerant piano and organ player for movie houses and churches. He then worked as a ranch hand, a forest service fire guard, and a variety of other odd jobs until he settled on becoming an entertainer. After a brief period as a nightclub singer in Paris, he returned to America and worked at the Pasadena Playhouse. After stage work on the west coast and in New York, he made his film debut (unbilled) in 1946 as Claudette Colbert's dancing partner in Without Reservations.
And now, for his "private" life . . .
Raymond Burr met Arnette Southerland while touring with an English Rep Company in the early forties. She died in the same plane crash that killed Leslie Howard in 1943. They had a son, Michael Evan Burr, who died of leukemia in 1953. A brief marriage to Isabella Ward ended in annulment in 1947. His third wife, Laura Morgan, died of cancer in 1955.
This tragic tale of love and loss is made even more tragic by the fact that most of it is a complete fabrication. There is no record of Arnette being in the plain that crashed with Leslie Howard, and there is no record of Michael Evan Burr ever existing. Further, there is no record of Burr ever marrying Laura Morgan. There is a record of the annulment of the Ward marriage.
The closet is large in Hollywood. It's thought being gay could ruin your career, even today. That debate is open and ongoing, but there can be no doubt that being gay was a severe handicap in the pre-Stonewall era of gay liberation. It's easy to say today that people don't care about anyone's sexuality, and that may be true. But in the time of Rock Hudson, George Nader, Tab Hunter and Raymond Burr, there can be no doubt that any hint of sexual peculiarity would mean instant dismissal from Hollywood-no money, no career, no friends, nothing. And this can be a pretty horrifying place to be.
So gay men, and women, married, dated, were seen around the town with members of the opposite sex, and remained in the closet. Lavender marriages, or marriages of public convenience, were commonplace. Two very popular ladies, just close friends, one an international stage star, the other ditto movies, took adjoining farms in Brazil with their respective husbands, a manager and a costume designer. That is one deep closet, stretching from Broadway, and Hollywood to the forests of Brazil.
Raymond Burr had a very interesting attack to keep the door tightly locked on his closet. By creating a fiction in the past, in many way it allowed him to live more comfortably in the present. Certainly a double widower who had lost a child would not be subject to scrutiny about his sexuality. And if this seems extreme and faintly heartless today, just think of the atmosphere that made it necessary. You couldn't love who you chose openly, you'd be fired in a minute. When L.B. Mayer told William Haines, the highest paid star in Hollywood some 25 years before Burr arrived, to give up his boyfriend, Haines told Mayer that he would . . . right after Mayer gave up his wife. In that instant, William Haines, movie star, became William Haines, interior designer. But at that point, Haines' career was behind him. And, most importantly, damned few other performers had the guts or the ability to stand up for their own sexuality. And consider how much worse it would be to pretend not to be gay and marry a real person who loved you, rather than making up a couple of fictitious wives. Cruel circumstances produce cruel solutions.
Since his death in 1993, rumors have abounded about Burr, that he supported a stable of hustlers in Hollywood in the '50s, that he had a bachelor pad in Palm Springs with Rock Hudson, and any number of equally seamy stories. One interesting thing about Burr is the absence of any such innuendo during his lifetime. The '50s, '60s and '70s were not all as innocent and devoid of the sleazy rumor mill as we might recall, given Hedda, Louella, Confidential magazine, and snitches everywhere looking for a leg up in tinsel town, willing to trade gossip for position and status.
Yet, Raymond Burr remained untouched. No contemporary gossip about his sexuality seems to exist. Some years ago in a film festival in Palm Springs, Raw Deal was shown, and Marsha Hunt, the film's star, was present. Burr played a particularly menacing villain in the film who was a pyromaniac---at one point he throws a flaming pot of cherries jubilee into a woman's face. After the screening, there was a question and answer session with Hunt, who is indeed a very classy dame. She was asked if she was aware the Burr was homosexual, and she took a pause, smiled graciously, and said, "Ray was one of the nicest men I've ever worked with, but this was a low budget film that had to be made very quickly, so we really had no time to discuss his......er....gaiety."
Burr was a tremendously kind and generous man who in the course of his life sponsored well over twenty foster children and gave large sums to charities. He paid for his own trips to Korea and Vietnam to visit American soldiers caught in a foreign war. After his televison career took off, he was known to be extraordinarily generous to performers whose careers had fallen on hard times. He was fiercely protective of co-workers, threatening to walk off the set if any were treated in a manner less than what he considered professional. In 1965, he purchased an island in Fiji, where he vastly improved the quality of life while pursuing his passion for the cultivation of orchids.
This is one of the few Hollywood tales with a happy ending. Burr met his life partner in 1958, former actor Robert Benevides, and they lived together for 35 years, until Burr's death in 1993. The two moved to a ranch in Sonoma Valley, and decided one day to plant some grapes. Today, Benevides is still overseeing the Raymond Burr Vineyards.
Burr spent his final days in Sonoma Valley, where the two men had been regarded as a couple for many years. In his final weeks, Burr refused to see anyone but his closest friends, and threw a series of "farewell" parties to keep up everyone's spirits. Forty eight hours before his death, he told Benevides, "If I lie down, I'll die." Benevides told TV Guide, "He finally accepted death. Up until then, he had been fighting like an army of men to keep from dying. But in the end, a sweet death."
Burr had a favorite quote, one, he said, that had brought him a great deal of comfort over the years. "Try and live your life the way you wish other people would live theirs."
There may have been necessary compromises, but Raymond Burr's life and legacy continue to enrich us all.

Yes, Perry Mason gives my views on my own intelligence a boost since I can just about guarantee you every time I'll figure out who the guilty person was, long before the carefully measured plot reveals it. Well, for starters, it's never Mr. Mason's client, so that's one down. And it's almost never a total stranger, so start looking at those around the accused. And it's usually not anyone with a WASPy name---never a Williams or a Holmes or a Johnson, always someone named Guido or Rothstein or something---so think ethnic character here, and voila, I find the perp before the jury does! Yep, Perry Mason is the single greatest booster of self-esteem since the date rape drug. Personally I watch it for the witty banter between Paul and Della and for that chilling theme music that just cries out for lyrics. ("Perry Maaaason...He's a laaaaawyer..he solves the crime, they do no time, he dresses so fine....he doesn't sip wine....Perry Maaaason...Perry Maaason....doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo...) As you can tell I am a megafan and this megafan loves having so many episodes on DVD!!!