YMMV / Perry Mason

• Awesome Music:
  • The show's Instrumental Theme Tune, "Park Avenue Beat", by Fred Steiner. Seriously, just listen.
  • Equally awesome is the rerecording used for the TV movies.
• Can't Un-Hear It: Ever since the television series and Made for TV Movies, it is impossible to read any of the novels without hearing Raymond Burr as the title character, or Barbara Hale as Della Street, or in fact most of the main cast.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The Everybody Smokes aspect of the show's time can be seen as this given that two years after the series ended; William Talman (Hamilton Burger's actor) succumbed to lung cancer in 1968, though not before shooting an anti-smoking PSA designed to begin airing after his death.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In one episode, Mason defends a man played by Robert Stack. Decades later, Raymond Burr hosted the first Unsolved Mysteries special before Stack took over the job.
  • Some of Raymond Burr's previous roles as The Heavy (or, in the case of Rear Window, the murderer) could count as this thanks to Perry Mason eventually becoming Burr's best-known role. In fact, Burr had played the District Attorney in A Place in the Sun.
  • The same also goes for William Talman, who played DA Hamilton Burger in the original series — Talman got his first major role as a psychopathic serial killer in the 1953 Film Noir The Hitch-Hiker.
  • "The Case of the Lazy Lover" has Neil Hamilton and Yvonne Craig as father and daughter nine years before Barbara Gordon/Batgirl first appeared on Batman (1966). Coincidentally, Perry Mason was filmed at future Batman producers TCF Television Productions,Inc.^note It was renamed 20th Century-Fox Television in 1957
  • Fans of Top Gear or The Grand Tour might get a chuckle out of the client of the week in "The Case of the Credulous Quarry" being called Richard Hammond. Especially what looks like a hit-and-run homicide is a linchpin of the plot.
• Ho Yay:
  • In "The Case of the Jaded Joker," comedian Danny Ross lives in a house with a man named Freddie Green, and they seem to spend a lot of time together. Danny is also adamant that Perry represent Freddie.
    Paul Drake: One day, [Freddie]'s picking up pennies, doing two-bit errands for any guy that's got two bits in his pocket. The next day, he's living in luxury at Ross's expense.
  • Female example: In "The Case of the Gilded Lily," Mrs. Brent and secretary Enid Griffin seem to take more of a liking to one another than one would expect for mere acquaintances.
  • In "The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll," the false Fern Driscoll seems to have a kind of thing for the just-dumped fiancée, Mildred.
  • Author Dan O'Malley seems curiously disapproving of his sculptor friend and drinking buddy John Kenyon's bringing back a young Greek girl named Theba to the US after a trip abroad in "The Case of the Greek Goddess." O'Malley feels strongly that Kenyon should be devoting his attentions to making great art and says so on the witness stand. His focused attention on Kenyon and strong distaste for the artist's romantic interest in Theba suggest feelings of being dumped from a one-sided attraction as much as anything else.
  • "The Case of the Deadly Double" (a standard Split Personality plot^note of course, they refer to it as "classic schizophrenia") has Paul and Perry investigating the apartment of gentle Helen's feisty other self, Joyce. They find Helen's ex-husband dead on the floor, and are examining Joyce's purse when Tragg walks in, and the following exchange ensues:
    Perry: Well, come in, Lt. Tragg. We were just about to phone you.
    Lt. Tragg: I bet. I'm surprised, Mason. A fashion plate like you in the company of anyone improperly attired. (Paul is still holding Joyce's black purse)
    Perry: Yeah, I see what you mean, black bag, brown jacket. Well, some people just have no taste.
    Tragg: Exactly. No private detective would be carrying an evening bag when dressed for the afternoon. Not even an ex private detective.
    Paul: (looks guilty as hell) Now wait just a minute. Perry can explain everything.
    Tragg: Yes, I'm sure he can.^note Raymond Burr was gay, and this may or may not have been an intentional gag, although he was extremely closeted.
• Magnificent Bastard: "The Case of the Traveling Treasure": Leon Ulrich and Max Nolan smuggle a fortune in gold out of a gold mine, delaying the discovery of their theft by leaving fake gold bars behind. They plan to get the gold out of the country by infiltrating a scientific expedition and hiding the gold at sea under a kelp bed. When the businessman funding the expedition cancels the trip, Ulrich tricks him into changing his mind by posing as a debt collector out to seize all of his assets if he remains in the country. The two are uninvolved in the businessman's murder and after being exposed Max compliments Perry on thwarting them and makes sure to exonerate an innocent party suspected of helping them.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Some fans apply this to any revival done after Erle Stanley Gardner died in 1970.
• The Scrappy: David Gideon, an eager young law student brought in to assist Perry. He doesn't last.
• Unconvincingly Unpopular Character: In the books, his only admirer is his secretary, Della Street. This one especially boggles the mind, considering that he's an incredibly rich, handsome, powerful, world famous lawyer that is well known for being on the side of justice. He has hundreds of attractive, young female clients, who go through life and death situations with him, where he's always there to comfort and save them in their time of need. Yet none of them ever fall for him. If they flirt with him, it's always because they're just trying to manipulate or trick him. Apparently, no woman during those days wanted to chase and marry an insanely rich, prominent lawyer. Luckily he has Paul.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Other than the heavy tobacco use by the characters, some of the Raymond Burr-era TV episodes make casual, everyday utilization of substances considered innocuous back in the 1950s and 1960s in a manner that would be unthinkable today.
    • "The Case of the 12th Wildcat" shows Perry demonstrating in court how to short out a lamp and start a fire, with one of the ingredients used being asbestos — nowadays prohibited from many kinds of use because of its known carcinogenic properties, and certainly not in a public circumstance like this anymore.
    • "The Case of the Hasty Honeymooner" shows the murder suspect taking calomel (a poisonous mercury compound not even in use back then) to self-medicate a chronic liver problem.
    • Several episodes, such as "The Case of the Romantic Rogue" and "The Case of the Bashful Burro," show characters involved in trying to mine or otherwise extract uranium, an element often presented at the time as being just as valuable as gold. Handling radioactive material in the casual manner portrayed would nowadays be considered most unwise.
  • And speaking of Everybody Smokes, this classic from "The Case of the One-Eyed Witness":
    Charles. You see, Ms. Street, while I was in prison, I picked up a case of TB. [lights a cigarette]

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