Word: masons
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...Raymond Chandler every time I turn on the television. In Perry Mason reruns, in Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome, Peter Falk as Columbo, or brand new episodes of Cannon there are elements of Philip Marlowe. Somehow, (using Bogart, perhaps as media image, because we watch television now for the same kind of entertainment our parents looked for in the movies 25 years ago) someone has turned Marlowe into the average American, leading the slightly above average American life. And therefore into a cultural hero, because you should only be slightly above average. Marlowe is more viable than Ford...
...Perry Mason is, of course, defeated by the memory of Raymond Burr--by his forceful presentation, by his impressive physical presence, the slightly aloof wit he could direct toward Burger and Tragg, the consistency of his presentation. Monte Markham tries to badger witnesses in the Mason style. He tries to intimidate Hamilton Burger. But when a witness cracks, or when Burger allows Mason a point, Mason seems to have won only by edict of the script. Monte Markham doesn't win his cases; they're granted him by CBS decree...
...Perry Mason show been castrated? The quality of television declines every year. The "vast wasteland" former FCC chairman Newton Minow described in 1961 has by now been sown with salt. In 1962, The Defenders aired a show dealing with abortion. The advertisers complained, but public letters to CBS were overwhelmingly in favor of the show's sensitive consideration of the problem. Eleven years later, all the dramatic series of the early 60s are gone, and the controversy is over a stupid show called Maude...
...Defenders died years ago. So did Slattery's People and every other show with any substance. And now Perry Mason (which even in its original form survived on style, not dramatic presentation of substantive issues) is back in a nearly worthless form. Perhaps the other two shows were too intellectual for their audience, but Perry Mason lasted nine years and declined in the ratings only after CBS scheduled it opposite Bonanza. It was immensely popular in its original form, yet in revival it has been reduced to the vapid TV norm...
...show called Perry Mason should be an easy money-maker, CBS must have thought. I hope they're wrong. I hope the new show fails before it molds Perry Mason and his colleagues into forgettable characters. The Mason created in 1933 by Erle Stanley Gardner was a volatile, often unscrupulous lawyer-sleuth. Raymond Burr toned the man down, but added a dynamism of his own which made Mason the sort of fascinating static character best suited to an hour-long TV show. Monte Markham, though somewhat better in the second episode than in the first, appears to have whittled Mason...