History Franchise / PerryMason

%%* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Subverted oh so many times, since 99% of the women in the books are beautiful.

* WalkingAwayShot: The third and fourth opening of the show starts with him doing it. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1wJP-yDdUk&feature=relmfu view here]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVry0LPyKRo and here]]

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Inverted at times, especially in several early episodes. Mason sometimes stretches the limits of legality or ethics by committing breaking and entering to search for clues, hiding witnesses, and creating confusing situations to help his clients.

* DemotedToExtra: Della slowly recedes in importance and focus as a member of Perry's team. In the earliest episodes, she's bright, plucky, good at vebal sparring, and ocaasionally involved in investigative work. By the early fifth season, she's little more than decoration who's only function seems to be silently jotting down notes and asking Perry how he solved the case. In one instance, Della goes an entire episode (fifth season's "The Case Of The Injured Innocent") without a single line of dialogue. Perhaps someone -- maybe Barbara Hale herself -- complained, because it does get a little better in later seasons.

* DemotedToSatelliteLoveInterest: {{Defied}}. Della Street turned down several proposals of marriage by Perry, because she wanted to be a part of his life and she knew that meant being a part of his work -- and she expected that to [[QuittingToGetMarried end after marriage]].
* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: in some of the tv movies. M 9:''Case of the Lady in the Lake'' had an unusually long StartToCorpse time [[spoiler: probably so the audience would care when she turned out to still be alive]], and M 15: ''Case of the Silenced Singer'' had quite a few flashbacks during suspect interviews [[spoiler: possibly to help show the drastic personality changes that foreshadowed the revelation she was terminally ill, and [[ICannotSelfTerminate arranged her own murder]].]]

* ChewingTheScenery: Individual episodes (especially in later seasons) feature a lot of one-off, way-over-the-top acting, often ones that involve artists or actors as characters, that feature fortune tellers, or that [[FunnyForeigner portray certain ethnic stereotypes]]. Examples include "The Case of the Skeleton's Closet," "The Case of the Badgered Brother," "The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor," "The Case of the Meddling Medium," "The Case of the Sad Sicilian," "The Case of the Wrathful Wraith," "The Case of the Tsarina's Tiara," and "The Case of the Betrayed Bride." "The Case of the Dead Ringer" is an especially notable example, given that Raymond Burr joins the rest of the histrionic cast by overacting shamelessly in his dual role as the seaman Grimes.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: in the 1985 TV movie ''Perry Mason Returns'', the prosecutor relishes the thought of beating THE Perry Mason in court, even if he is 'rusty'. Her supervisor advises her not to get cocky. When she tells him she has an open and shut case against Della Street, her boss replies "How many times do you think Hamilton Burger said that?"

''Perry Mason'' is a hugely successful multimedia franchise of the twentieth century. Beginning as a series of best-selling novels by Creator/ErleStanleyGardner 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.

** In the TV movies, aspiring attorney Ken Malansky became this for Paul Drake, Jr. The recurring characters of DA Michael Reston (Creator/DavidOgdenStiers) and Lt. Ed Brock ({{James McEachin}}) also filled the Burger and Tragg roles.

* IrregularSeries: Ran regularly from 1957-1966, then was revived for a series of TV movies in the 90s.

[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[Film/BluesBrothers2000 "The D.A. was Burgher... The cop was Tragg... Della was the secretary... Drake sat on the desk with Perry..."]]'']]

[[caption-width-right:350: [[Film/BluesBrothers2000 ''"The D.A. was Burger / The cop was Tragg / Della was the secretary / Drake sat on the desk with Perry"'']]]]

[[quoteright:347:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2aa580bc_ff6d_48de_a994_e3d5e915932f.jpeg]]

* NotGoodWithPeople: In "The Case of the Perjured Parrot," murder victim Charles Sabin shows great affection for his pet parrot Casanova but none whatsoever for the people he interacts with. This includes his wife, daughter, and assistant, whom he heaps with paranoid scorn.

* {{UST}}: Between Perry and Della. The TV movies strongly suggest that they start dating.

The original ''Perry Mason'' TV series debuted in 1957, and ran through 1966. It featured Raymond Burr as Mason, Barbara Hale as Della Street, and William Hopper as Paul Drake. It was, at the time, the longest-running, and most successful lawyer show on television, and is still what most people think of when they hear the name.

** "The Case of the Accosted Accountant" has Paul and Della citing Proverbs 1.10 from ''Literature/TheBible''.

* TemporarySubstitute: On seperate occasions when Burr was recuperating from surgery, some episodes from Seasons 6 and 8 featured guest stars to [[ConvenientReplacementCharacter briefly fill Perry's shoes]]. The first, and arguably most notable of these episodes was Season 6's "The Case of Constant Doyle", starring Creator/BetteDavis as the titular character.
The other instances were:

* CourtroomAntic: Usually justified, either by the antics being performed at a pre-trial hearing[[note]]For those wondering, in California, at least, the Grand Jury requirement can be waived for a pre-trial hearing in front of a judge[[/note]], or being explicitly designed to recreate the crime or PullTheThread. However there are multiple instances of people in the courtroom audience related to the case starting fights or standing up and yelling at the current witness.

** ''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.

** The four ''A Perry Mason Mystery'' films produced after Burr's death, featured two of Mason's lawyer friends filling in for [[CharacterOutlivesActor an out-of-town Perry]]. The first was Anthony Caruso (Creator/PaulSorvino) in "The Case of the Wicked Wives", the second was William "Wild Bill" McKenzie (Creator/HalHolbrook) in "Film/TheCaseOfTheLethalLifestyle", "The Case of the Grimacing Governor" and "The Case of the Jealous Jokester".

** In the TV movies, aspiring attorney Ken Malansky became this for Paul Drake, Jr.

* NiceHat:
** Police lieutenants Arthur Tragg and Andy Anderson frequently sport FilmNoir style fedora hats in the TV series, as do Perry Mason and Hamilton Burger on occasion.
** Villainous or otherwise unsavory characters in the TV series sometimes wear a trilby hat with a feather, which subtly reinforces their untrustworthy nature. [[spoiler:Examples include murder victim Clete Hawley (a sleazy music talent manager) in "The Case of the Avenging Angel" and Dan Platte (a shifty auto racing reporter) in "The Case of the Runaway Racer."]]

* ''Literature/TheCaseOfTheVelvetClaws'' (1933)(book)
* ''Film/TheCaseOfTheVelvetClaws'' (1936)(film)

* AbsenteeActor:
** Barbara Hale has only a cameo appearance in "The Case of the Violent Village," via a phone call to Perry. William Hopper, William Talman and Ray Collins don't even get that.
** 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.

%%* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Particularly in regards to Perry Mason and Hamilton Burger, whose characterizations in the TV series [[DynamicCharacter gradually diverged]] from those in [[StaticCharacter the novels.]] Occasional [[CharacterCheck reversions]] to the original personalities do occur, especially in the last season.