theoshul If you like Raymond Burr's beautiful, velvety voice and commanding stage presence, check out the great, recently-deceased operatic basso Kurt Moll. They might have been identical twins!This, for instance.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eQkgZ-pz1Ahttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241075/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1a

smk_films I remember this series when I was a kid. It was great back then. I recently purchased the full series and Wow.... It's great. I see the suggestion of re-making this series. Please Don't!!! Call it something else... Do not do another Hollywood Re-make and screw up of a classic. Why re-do the Mona Lisa in chalk. Anyway, if you are contemplating getting a great series from the 60's, this is the one. Raymond Burr was a skillful and polished actor. Do enjoy it...

BigSkyMax Here's the deal.In September of 1957, CBS television began broadcasting Perry Mason, starring Raymond Burr. The title character was a fictional lawyer made popular by author Erle Stanley Gardner in a series of novels in the 1930s. There had been a half-dozen Perry Mason films and a long-running radio program. Gardner hated them. But he had signed away creative control on the lure of a barrelful of money, and which of us hasn't done that? I would, for a hoot.Twenty years later, the new medium of television brought new contracts with new terms. Gardner could now show Mason the way he wanted – a bold knight of the courtroom, besting the foes of honest men and women, his only weapon a sharp mind, his only shield the law.Perry Mason the TV show was an immediate hit. It had stylish sets, expensive out-of-studio production costs, solid acting, writing and directing, and, best of all, showcased a steady stream of handsome actors and beautiful Hollywood starlets. It set a high standard for all the legal American television shows to follow, from Burr's own Ironside in the 1970s to today's fifteen or so Law and Order franchises.While the show's black-and-white format might turn off some, most viewers appreciate the noir flavor of bygone Hollywood glamour.Perry Mason is an American icon, both national and personal. This show has been on in the background of my life for over five decades. Yet until last year, 2015 (pause) I'd never seen a complete episode.It was always a show I meant to watch, but since it was always there, what's the hurry? It was background video, the way Friends would be for another generation. Perry Mason, along with Gilligan's Island, was one of the great "filler shows" in early cable television. When 24-hour cable television debuted in the late 70s, programmers had a dilemma: There wasn't enough programming to fill all the time. One hour-long Perry Mason reruns helped fill the void.Unfortunately, Perry Mason's popularity also made it a victim. The original programs ran a fat 52-53 minutes, leaving a scant seven to eight minutes for commercials. Cable advertisers demand more time to sell more junk. So the shows are sliced, diced and time-compressed to fit a new market. Last year I watched a PM on a "hallmark" mystery channel, and I swear it had a whopping 20-22 minutes of advertising packed in. How? By cutting out whole scenes and characters. But beginning in 2006, DVDs offered a return to the original intent of the lawyer.On January 1, 2016 I resolved to watch all 271 episodes of the CBS- TV Perry Mason show. The gift of modern technology makes this project most achievable and pleasant. A fella, an ambitious fella, can own the set of the entire nine seasons, 72 disks, for a mere $150. If you don't care to spend that much, there are a couple of alternatives.First, there's a stream available on CBS Online for about $7 a month. I tried that for a while but didn't like it. Here on the Montana range, my internet speed via Charter Communications is about 62 mbps, apparently not enough to prevent image buffering, so the shows flicker and repeat themselves, like an old film. Moreover, CBS only offered the first five seasons, and not even all episodes. That seems odd.You might find some of the DVDs at the library, but its a bit bothersome. In the end, possession is nine-tenths of the fun.http://www.littlebigtownmt.com/

bigdave5472 I was three years old when first episodes aired. I have been watching then in syndication most of my life. I try to watch an episode every morning on a local station, and watch additional episodes on tape and DVD most days. I enjoy seeing the various lifestyles depicted, from extreme wealthy to middle-class and bluecollar to down and out. The story lines are often very clever.In the way of criticism, I must admit that the quality went downhill as the series went on. Near the end, episodes were being recycled, and the re-telling was definitely not an improvement.In watching the episodes over and over as I do, I began to realize that the same actors were used in different roles, and it becomes a distraction.Also the writers were not often very creative in naming the characters. On occasion they did a great job like in naming the character Johnny Starr, but more often the same names are used over and over for similar but different characters. For example there are several teenage stepdaughters named Helen in episode after episode. The name Walsh is used over and again, as are other names.The producers sometimes took liberties with automobiles, and seem to think the viewers would not notice if an accident victim drove to the cliff in one car, and then went down the ravine in a different one.It was early television, starting in 1957, and these problems may be a little annoying but I am willing to overlook them and just enjoy the nostalgia.