History Franchise / PerryMason

The TV series was revived in 1973 as ''The New Perry Mason'', with a completely different cast led by Monte Markham, but it only lasted one season. It was then {{reviv|al}}ed ''again'' as a made-for-TV movie, ''Perry Mason Returns'' in 1985, with the surviving cast of the original show, plus William "''Series/TheGreatestAmericanHero''" Katt as Paul Drake Jr - a slanted case of RealLifeRelative, as Katt was the son of Barbara Hale. The success of this TV movie spurred the production of twenty-nine more ''Perry Mason'' TV movies between 1985 and 1994, with the last installment airing after Raymond Burr's death in 1993 (NBC made four ''A Perry Mason Mystery'' SpinOff TV movies without Mason himself before calling it quits).

* MoralDissonance: Sometimes occurred when a novel was adapted into an episode without accounting for the moral differences between the television characters and their literary counterparts.

* BadassBeard: A whole town's worth of men sport awesome beards in "The Case of the Barefaced Witness." This is done to celebrate Founder's Week in Piñon City -- and there's even a sign posted requiring male residents to have chin whiskers, stating "Men without beards will be arrested!" When Paul Drake arrives on assignment he gets "arrested" by the local police (decked out like Keystone Kops), though they assure him the "fine" will go to charity. Ironically, the cops themselves only sport mustaches.

[[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PerryMason_852.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:259:Raymond Burr as Perry Mason on the original series.]]

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** Guest lawyer Bruce Jason (covering for Perry in "The Case of the Two-Faced Turnabout") has a reputation as a playboy who is more interested in skiing, playing tennis, and chasing women. Alyssa, daughter of murder suspect Elihu Laban, minces no words when she finds out Jason is representing her father in court. [[spoiler:She and Jason patch up their differences by the end of the film -- they're heading out the door on a date!]]

* HollywoodLaw: Often played straight despite Gardner's law background. Could be classified under AcceptableBreaksFromReality.

** Beachcomber Arthur Dorian in "The Case of the Negligent Nymph" requests only $50.00 to hand over a letter to George Adler supposedly typed by Adler's aunt claiming that he was going to murder her (a letter which was fake, although Dorian didn't know that). Another example, Zack Davis (a hermit who a member of a criminal conspiracy was snowed in with for several months in "The Case of the Frantic Flyer"), only requests $500.00 for his silence in covering up the theft of over a quarter-of-a-million dollars as well as a murder. Both examples are somewhat justified by Perry speculating the two men would have come back later demanding more money, something which is confirmed to be true for [[spoiler:Davis]], although [[spoiler:Dorian]] may have simply been content with that little because of his humble lifestyle.
** "The Absent Artist" features an EccentricArtist who, prior to the episode, blackmailed a tax cheat who earned $140,000 a year. All he asked for was one $28 payment and one $50 one (although his victim later gave him $500 without being asked).

* ComicallySmallBribe: A few blackmailers seem surprisingly satisfied with a tiny amount of bribe money. Beachcomber Arthur Dorian in "The Case of the Negligent Nymph" requests only $50.00 to hand over a letter to George Adler supposedly typed by Adler's aunt claiming that he was going to murder her (a letter which was fake, although Dorian didn't know that). Another example, Zack Davis (a hermit who a member of a criminal conspiracy was snowed in with for several months in "The Case of the Frantic Flyer"), only requests $500.00 for his silence in covering up the theft of over a quarter-of-a-million dollars as well as a murder. Both examples are somewhat justified by Perry speculating the two men would have come back later demanding more money, something which is confirmed to be true for [[spoiler:Davis]], although [[spoiler:Dorian]] may have simply been content with that little because of his humble lifestyle.

* DeadlyBath: In “The Case of the Dodging Domino,” [[spoiler:murder victim Phil Schuyler is electrocuted with a plugged-in toaster while taking a bath]].

* DeadlyBath: In “The Case of the Dodging Domino,” [[spoiler:Phil Schuyler is electrocuted with a plugged-in toaster while taking a bath]].

* SocietyMarchesOn: In M 7: "The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel", the editor of a tabloid newspaper being sued for libel by Perry's client, threatens to manufacture and run a story claiming Perry and his secretary Della are lovers. Perry doesn't even bother with a OneLiner, just smiles and chuckles until the editor storms off in a huff. Such a threat might have had an effect during the tv show in TheFifties or TheSixties,[[note]] though in at least one novel written and published during TheFifties, Perry and Della go away for a (presumably) romantic weekend and don't bother in the least to hide what they're doing [[/note]] but in TheEighties, no one's going to care what two single adults, both on the verge of retirement age, do behind closed doors even if they do work together.

* AlohaHawaii: The TV episode "The Case of the Feather Cloak" sees Perry Mason and Paul Drake in Hawaii working on behalf of a hotel wanting to do beachfront development. They get pressed into duty in a murder trial related to this.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: "The Case of the Silent Six" is loosely based on the 1963 Kitty Genovese murder, in which a woman was slain despite dozens of witnesses having heard or seen the act, none of whom called the police or attempted to intervene. [[spoiler:Here the woman in the episode is being beaten while screaming for help, but none of those who overhear her come to her aid.]]

* ContinuityReboot:
** ''The New Perry Mason'' attempted to do this for the television side of the franchise. [[Series/PerryMason2020 The 2020 series]] is a more successful example.

** The TV series finale, "The Case of the Final Fadeout," provides on-screen cameo opportunities for dozens of the behind-the-scenes production staff. They appear as witnesses, courtroom spectators, show production crew, or bar patrons at Clay's Grill. Everyone from producers (Gail Patrick Jackson) to makeup artists (Irving Pringle) to directors (Jesse Hibbs) to cameramen (Jack Woolf) to prop men (Ray Thompson) to gaffers (Larry Peets) to electricians (Bob Kaplan) to accountants (Bernie Oseransky) are seen. [[http://www.classictvinfo.com/PerryMason/FinalFadeOut.htm A link to the complete list with pictures is presented here.]]

* ContinuityReboot: ''The New Perry Mason'' attempted to do this, without success.

''Perry Mason'' is a hugely successful multimedia franchise of the twentieth century. Beginning as a series of best-selling novels by Erle Stanley Gardner in the 1930s, it has been adapted for film, radio, an iconic and influential 1950s-1960s TV series starring Creator/RaymondBurr, a failed 1970s TV reboot, a series of TV movies in the 1980s and 1990s that brought back the cast of the Raymond Burr show, and finally another TV reboot in 2020 starring Creator/MatthewRhys.

* ConflictBall: In "The Case of the Grinning Gorilla," Perry is depicted in a notably out-of-character fashion. He seems unusually short-tempered in the episode, seen yelling at Della and various people in Benjamin Addicks's household, as well as blowing up at Nathan Fallon who comes to Mason's office trying to purchase the dead woman's effects. His behavior is usually far more measured and professional, with his shouting normally confined to lying or guilty witnesses on the stand. These traits seem to have been dictated by the needs of the plot than for any other reason and approach the level of CharacterDerailment for this one episode.

* IdiotBall: Like Perry, Della is depicted in an out-of-character fashion in "The Case of the Grinning Gorilla." She acts goofy and silly rather than in her usual intelligent and professional manner, sufficiently taken with a scrapbook and diary of a wealthy suicide that she buys the items and prattles about the contents to Perry. It brings out the first of several uncharacteristic ConflictBall moments in Mason. As in his case, this appears to have been dictated more by the needs of the plot than for any other reason and approaches the level of CharacterDerailment for this one episode.

* FakingTheDead: Several examples of people faking their own death occur on the TV show, normally done to start over and forge a new identity. Examples include [[spoiler:Samuel Carlin in "The Case of the One-Eyed Witness," Charles Morris in "The Case of the Fugitive Nurse," Lucy Stevens in "The Case of the Singular Double," Jim Ferris in "The Case of the Ill-Fated Faker," Roy Comstock in "The Case of the Lover's Leap," George Beaumont in "The Case of the Corresponding Corpse," Willard Nesbitt in "The Case of the Angry Dead Man," Ed Davenport in "The Case of the Runaway Corpse," and Jack Culross in "The Case of the Posthumous Painter."]] Sometimes these people are discovered alive and subsequently murdered.

* InvincibleHero: Perry Mason, at least most of the time. Legend has it that the TV writers wanted to do at least one episode where Perry lost, but Erle Stanley Gardner shot them down. Rescuing a client from the gas chamber at the last possible moment was as close as it got. [[WordOfGod Barbara Hale]] (Della Street), however, said in a relatively recent interview that the cases lost by Perry had been declared mistrials off the air.
** Perry actually lost 3 cases in the Raymond Burr series:
*** Episode 1.38, "The Case of the Terrified Typist" - the one most people who think "Perry only lost once" think of: the big case of the episode ends in Burger's favor. Too bad they were trying an impostor, invalidating the entire trial.
*** Episode 6.28, "The Case of the Witless Witness" - this is the easiest to forget, because it's not the main case of the episode, but one which he loses at the beginning.
*** Episode 7.04, "The Case of the Deadly Verdict" - another where the episode starts with Perry losing, this time because his client lied to him. He spends the rest of the episode setting things right.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: In the final TV movie Burr filmed (''The Case of the Killer Kiss''), his physical weakness (from his inoperable cancer) was becoming obvious; he was apparently unable to stand unassisted, so Mason is ''always'' either sitting down or standing up and leaning completely on the defense table. The one scene where he had to be standing only showed a closeup of his head, neck and shoulders, so somebody was probably holding him up.
** The TV movies switched locales from California to Denver, Colorado because it was cheaper to film there.

* TheRival: Both Lt. Tragg and District Attorney Hamilton Burger played this role in regards to Mason.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Series/{{Matlock}}''. The Hallmark Channel's series of ''[=McBride=]'' made-for-TV movies could be considered this as well.
** ''Franchise/{{Ace Attorney}}'' is also arguably one. Both involve defending clients with protagonists that often use CourtroomAntic for a wide variety of clients in a near episodic manner.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Lt. Anderson for Lt. Tragg (though Andy and Tragg appeared concurrently for awhile), then Lt. Drumm for Lt. Anderson.

* TakeThat: When ''The New Perry Mason'' was running, reruns of the show were promoted as ''The Real Perry Mason''.

* EverybodySmokes: And how. One likely reason for the ubiquitous cigarette use on the series is the fact that a tobacco company was a major sponsor during the show's early seasons.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys:
** "The Case of the Cowardly Lion" is set at the San Diego Zoo and concerns a kidnapped (and very cute) baby gorilla.
** The title creature in "The Case of the Grinning Gorilla" is just a [[PeopleInRubberSuits man in an ape suit]], but the baby chimpanzee seen in the episode is a cute MischiefMakingMonkey prone to stealing shiny objects and hiding them in a large hallway urn.

** [[spoiler: Ron Peters]] gives an angry dressing-down to the people who heard Susan being attacked and didn't do anything, [[spoiler: berating them during the course of his witness stand confession.]]

** In "The Case of the Violent Village" only has Barbara Hale in a cameo on the phone to Perry, with William Hopper, William Talman and Ray Collins not even getting that.

** [[spoiler: Ron Peters]] gives one to the people who heard Susan being attacked and didn't do anything. [[spoiler: he berates them in the course of his witness stand confession.]]

* AbsenteeActor: Creator/RayCollins, who played Lt. Tragg, last appears in "The Case of the Capering Camera," which aired in the middle of Season Seven. Despite this, he continued to be listed in the opening credits of the show the rest of that season and all of Season Eight. This was done so Collins (who was ill with emphysema) would continue drawing SAG health insurance benefits. When he died in 1965, his screen credit ceased.