I never watched the classic TV series PERRY MASON when it
first aired. That’s because I was born the same year that the series based on
the books by Erle Stanley Gardner about a tireless lawyer in search of justice
for his clients began. PERRY MASON went on to run for nine seasons, ending in
1966. Even then I wasn’t watching it. No, I discovered PERRY MASON the same way
most of us did, in reruns and syndication. I came on board late in the game and
found the series to be one of the most entertaining I’d come across. And now
it’s all been collected in one great package.
The series told the story of Mason (Raymond Burr), a lawyer
who knew all the tricks of the trade. Each week Mason, aided by his secretary
Della Street (Barbara Hale) and private detective Paul Drake (William Hopper)
took on a new client and helped them from small crimes to murder. His main
nemesis in the series was District Attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman), a
man he respected and was friends with outside of the court room.
The best thing about the series was that each week a
different story, a different defendant, made for compelling mysteries that had
you guessing till the end. That was the fun of the series, trying to figure it
out before the end of the show. Those endings have been satirized for years
since with the famous court room admissions from the witness chair that Mason
always seemed able to pull out of the most confident witness.
Is there a favorite episode? I don’t think you can lay claim
to any one particular show. Not when you have 271 episodes to choose from. To
be honest I’ve only begun to watch this collection. When you consider there are
72 discs involved to hold that many episodes the odds are it will take a while
before finishing. But it won’t take that long to enjoy the series for what it
was, a groundbreaking series that held the attention of fans for years. It was
so popular that a TV movie called PERRY MASON RETURNS brought the remaining
cast members back together in 1985 and was so popular that it led to a series
of made for TV movies that came out and continued through 1993!
The series has been available for some time on DVD and
broken down by year or split in two for each year. Selling for anywhere from
$10-15 dollars per seasonal part that broke down to anywhere from $180-250
dollars for the whole series. Now you can buy the entire series in this single
boxed set for $180 retail or $150 at amazon. The set is nicely put together in
three cases that hold the discs well and keep everything together in much less
space than the previous individual seasons held.
For fans this is the perfect way to have the collection on
hand. It will offer hours of entertainment and puzzle solving for the arm chair
detective. It is family friendly rather than the current spate of law shows
that seem intent on delving into the worst cases of sexual deviant or scenes of
blood drenched corpses. Mind you I’m not slamming those shows but if you enjoy
series like this and have kids the odds aren’t great that you’ll be able to
watch these shows while the kids are awake. The same isn’t true for this series
which all ages can watch. The clothes might seem funny to the kids but the
stories are still captivating.
This is a set that the collector will want to have on hand.
I got rid of my split seasons with this one here to add to my shelf. My guess
is that Perry Mason fans will want to do the same. While the price may seem
high it is actually quite a bargain. Even more so when you consider the
entertainment value as well. This one is worth owning.
Click here to order.
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