- Emmys And Actors
- Enthralling Theme Music
- Perry Emerging Into Popularity
- PERRY MASON CAST
- PERRY MASON CHARACTERS
- PERRY MASON COMPLETE SERIES ON DVD
- PERRY MASON SHOW
- PERRY MASON TRIVIA
- PERRY MASON DVD
- PERRY MASON EPISODE
- PERRY MASON EPISODES
- Perry Mason Loses Case
- Perry Mason On The Radio
- Perry Mason On To TV
- PERRY MASON TV COLLECTION
- PERRY MASON TV SERIES
- Perry Mason TV Series
- Sponsors Pour In To Grab Their Share
- The Problems Of Success
Pushing aside the criticisms against the show, one must accept that Perry Mason proved to be highly entertaining and intelligent show at the same time. For the 1958-59 season, Raymond Burr proudly bagged the Emmy for best actor in a dramatic series while Barbara Hale was chosen as the best supporting actress. Burr secured it once again in 1961.
The serial also proved to be a launching ground for actors and actresses who would later fly on with their own successes. "The Case of the Treacherous Toupée" portrayed a young Robert Redford, while "The Case of the Counterfeit Crank" figured a younger Burt Reynolds. Actors like Ryan O'Neal, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, and James Coburn crept up on episodes particularly as either killers or defendants. performers who appeared on the Mason show including Barbara Eden, Werner Klemperer, Francis Bavier, Leonard Nimoy, Gary Collins, Gavin MacLeod, Jerry Van Dyke, Daniel Travanti, Barbara Bain, Paul Picerni, Jim Davis, Angie Dickinson, Dick Clark, Adam West and several others later successfully made their mark on TV.
When a minor surgery had forced Raymond Burr to miss out a number of episodes in 1963, Gail Jackson squeezed in some high-profile people like Bette Davis, Walter Pidgeon and Michael Rennie to play as lawyer friends of Perry's who were attending to his caseload while he was away in Europe. Interestingly, when asked whether any of the guest lawyers would actually end up losing a case, Jackson said, "Our principal aim in 'Perry Mason' has always been that justice prevails. If justice would prevail by having the guest lawyer losing a case, we would not object." However, it never happened this way.
The Perry Mason experience had left two indelible impressions on Bette Davis. The first one was that she was made to feel that she didn't require seeing a script ever before she accepted a particular job. She always used to say in this context, "It's a formula show and I know the formula". The second one was that the fast pace in which the show progressed left her totally occupied and breathless. She used to remark that since there wasn't any time between the shootings, "There aren't even any rehearsals!"