America's favorite crime-solving lawyer, Perry Mason, was a character created by lawyer-turned-author Erle Stanley Gardner (1890-1970). Eventually featured in over 80 popular books, Gardner's creation had a modest success in films and radio, but proved a sensation on television. Mason's first appearance came in The Case of the Velvet Claws, published in 1933, but it was not until subsequent volumes that Gardner allowed Mason to spend much time in court.

The mixture of legalistic detail with the time honored whodunit format was a winning combination, but one which Warner Brothers failed to capture in its series of six films (1934-1937); there was also a brief radio series in 1943. Determined not to repeat Hollywood's mistakes, Gardner formed his own production company and oversaw the creation of the Perry Mason series, which debuted on CBS-TV in 1957 and ran until 1966.

Cold War viewers who had been exposed to the Army-McCarthy Hearings quickly warmed to this invincible knight who invariably ferreted out the enemy within. With undertones of film-noir, each episode led to a gripping conclusion of almost ritualistic predictability: Mason's courtroom theatrics and cross-examination elicited a sudden confession from the one who had committed the murder for which Mason's client was on trial. This weekly morality play made a television star out of movie villain Raymond Burr, sparked public awareness of America's legal system, and led to countless other courtroom drama series on the tube. The Burr/Mason combo proved so popular that, after starring in the Ironside series as the wheelchair-bound detective, the actor reprised his most famous role in Perry Mason Returns (1985), the first in a sequence of 90-minute made-for-television movies which ended only with Burr's death in 1993.

Further Reading:

Collins, Max Allan, and John Javna. The Critics' Choice: The Best of Crime and Detective TV. New York, Harmony Books, 1988.

Hughes, Dorothy B. Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Real Perry Mason. New York, Morrow, 1978.

Kelleher, Brian, and Diana Merrill. The Perry Mason TV Book. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1987.