Perry Mason

I am a big fan of Perry Mason. When I was younger, I used to read the books written by Earle Stanley Gardner and loved each one. At that time, his Perry Mason novels were in print and there was a huge selection.

I also am a big fan of Raymond Burr's portrayal of Mason and have been watching the DVD sets that have been coming out these past few years. I could watch episode after episode of these shows. I know that some feel that it is very formalistic but I love them. Burr was so good at playing Mason and had a great supporting cast with Barbara Hale, William Hopper, Ray Collins, and William Talman.

I liked the TV movies that came out with Burr reprising the role, but felt that the two hour format was a bit padded. Mason mysteries can easily be told in one hour shows, neat and sweet.

I recently saw some of the Perry Mason movies that were made with Warren Williams and while they were not bad, the producers of that series tried to make them too much like the successful Thin Man movies which was not the way Gardner had written the characters.

I also remind the New Adventures of Perry Mason with Monte Markham as Mason. They were not bad, and some of the shows were based on Gardner novels that were not made into shows in the original series. I also remember that Hamilton Burger, the DA in the series, was played by Harry Guardino. I wish this series would pop up on DVD, it would be interesting to see how they hope up.

Burr was the classic Perry Mason and did a perfect job playing the part, he made it his own. Gene Siskel once wrote that Perry Mason could not be made into a successful movie series because of the heavy handed way Burr played the character. No offense to the late Mr. Siskel, but you are dead wrong. Burr's performance is the best of Mason that I have ever seen and fits in well with the character created by Gardner.

Given the lack of creative thinking in TV today, I would love to see Perry Mason revived as a TV show with a new cast, but sticking to the one hour format and style of the original series. You could easily update the series for 2009 and James Wood would make a interesting choice to play the character.