Happy Birthday to Raymond Burr and Lee Miller!

So far it has been a very sad year for classic television fans. We've lost Patty Duke, Joe Santos, Alan Young, and our own Perry alumnus William Schallert. I dread to know who will be gone by the year's end. I'm still reeling from Alan Young's death in particular; I just learned of it today and he was so important to my childhood. And I'm really struggling with the browser tonight, for some unknown reason. I can barely do a thing with it. So I'm afraid this post is really short. (I'll do better next time. I promise!) But I couldn't let the day pass without some recognition!

Today we should turn our thoughts to happier things and celebrate the birthdays of Lee Miller and Raymond Burr, who were both such quintessential parts of Perry Mason. Raymond played our beloved lead as no one else could, and Lee was his stand-in of so many years. How many times did we see Lee from afar and not know it, I wonder? He was most likely more greatly involved with Perry than we even know.

Of course, Lee also played Sergeant Brice throughout many episodes, and while he usually interacted with the other police and suspects, he did occasionally interact with Perry as well. In episodes such as season 7's The Ugly Duckling, where they walk together and discuss the case, you can see how similar they are in body structure. It's easy to see how Lee was Raymond's stand-in for so long.

While he was Perry from a distance, however, only Raymond could be Perry in voice and personality. I find it both intriguing and ironic that I've been told Monte Markham put Raymond's portrayal down and insisted he could do so much better, yet when I've watched The New Perry Mason it is obvious that he is drawing from Raymond's portrayal and even downright copying it. Raymond's Perry is perfect. Even without meaning to, other people gravitate to it because he is Perry. No one else could bring the character to life as amazingly as he did.

Let's celebrate these classic birthdays by breaking out our favorite Perry episodes in which they both appear. I've been told that Lee Miller sadly died several years ago, unlike what IMDB reports. If this is true, I'm sure that in the afterlife, Raymond and Lee are still friends and perhaps even continue to act together. Here's to two wonderful people who made Perry Mason memorable!

In Memoriam: Raymond Burr

So The Romantic Rogue is the first episode in which Lee Miller is officially called Sergeant Brice within the series! I like that Lieutenant Tragg introduces him to Harry West; it’s as though he’s introducing Brice to the audience, as well.

It seems like Brice wasn’t usually introduced in the episodes. I’m trying to recall other times when whichever Lieutenant present introduced him to someone in the guest cast. I believe each Lieutenant introduced him at least once, but I hope there were more occasions than just three!

Last week I was curiously looking up Lee Miller’s credits and I discovered something that I knew I would want to save to talk about today. There was only one occasion listed where he was credited as appearing as himself, in a documentary about Raymond Burr called The Defense Rests. I went to YouTube hoping I’d find it, and I did!

I’m probably a latecomer and everyone else knows about and/or has watched this tribute, but just in case there are those who are not aware: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT0HiHEWOHY This is the link to Part 1; it was broken up into six segments. I believe each one should either automatically follow the previous one or appear in the sidebar.

Some people may find it a little hard to get through in this day and age, as Bill Cosby is one of the co-hosts, and there are certainly reasons to not find it appealing to watch Bill Cosby these days. But I watched the whole thing and greatly enjoyed and was moved by it.

It came out very soon after Raymond Burr’s sad death on September 12^th, 1993. They didn’t spend a lot of time discussing either Perry or Ironside, but they did manage to discuss both series as well as an overview of Raymond’s movie career. All of it was very interesting, but what I enjoyed the most were the parts about Raymond’s life and his personality. Barbara Hale was the other host and she delivered very touching information about Raymond. Also exciting was getting to see people in Raymond’s family.

Lee Miller talks at several different points throughout the production, giving little snippets of adventures he and Raymond had while filming things. The part about the Godzilla movie was particularly intriguing. I had no idea Raymond had appeared in one of those! Lee expressed sadness over Raymond’s passing and said how much he would miss him.

There were definitely things I would have liked to have learned that weren’t mentioned, such as how Raymond and Lee met in the first place (and how Sergeant Brice was cast; I’d like to know if Raymond had anything to do with that!), but overall I really loved the documentary and found it a very touching and poignant tribute while the wounds were still fresh from Raymond’s death. On this, the anniversary of that sad day, I find it fitting to share the documentary and encourage fans to have a look. Even if you’ve seen it before, it’s good to see again and reflect on. It’s an excellent and powerful glimpse into the life of the man we see as Perry Mason and Robert T. Ironside.

It’s hard to believe that Raymond Burr passed away 22 years ago today. It was very sad to lose him, especially so soon after they finished the movie The Killer Kiss. The information told about that experience in the documentary was something I hadn’t heard before. It was very moving how determined Raymond was to film that movie in spite of his illness because the proceeds had already been promised to charities. And it was very bittersweet and sad that Barbara Hale had a premonition that it would be the last movie.

However, as sad as it was to lose this wonderful actor and compassionate man, it can definitely be said that he lived a rich, full life and left valuable legacies behind. How many people were helped by Raymond throughout his life? Perhaps even posthumously by the charity money from the final Perry movie? It is staggering to think of the possible numbers. Raymond did so much good in his life through his charity work, as well as by bringing people joy with his famous and beloved roles on television and in the movies.

It was said in the documentary how much Raymond loved to act. I’m sure he’s continuing that love in the afterlife. Here’s to you, Raymond. Keep on shining. I know that won’t be hard for you to do.

I hope to have another chapter of The Nefarious Necklace up later today in further honor of Raymond Burr. With Della as the central figure, naturally Perry plays quite a big role in this installment. By now I have four chapters posted; the story is moving along very well.

The first Sergeant Brice, and a new story

As the readers know, I adore Lee Miller’s Sergeant Brice. He is quiet, loyal, dedicated, and friendly. In episodes such as The Grumbling Grandfather and The Borrowed Baby he testifies in court and gets some pretty decent screentime. In later seasons, he sometimes talks with Perry about cases and has a mysterious teasing exchange with Della, certainly indicating that there’s at least one untold story there.

They were using Lee Miller all the way in season 1, playing unnamed policemen who usually worked with the L.A.P.D. Once or twice he played other law enforcement officers, such as a Highway Patrolman in The Rolling Bones. Even then, he appeared with Tragg. Back in season 1, I don’t recall they ever used the same person more than once to accompany Tragg, until they started using Lee Miller.

By season 2, they continued to use Lee in many episodes, but his character still didn’t have a name and only rarely, if ever, said a word. Meanwhile, someone came up with the name Sergeant Brice and it was applied to another police character. He appears in two episodes, to my knowledge—once in an episode that Lee is also in (The Glittering Goldfish)! That gave me a start the last time I watched it, to see the “real” Brice around yet have someone else get credited as the character!

MeTV showed the first of the two episodes the other day (The Fancy Figures) and I studied the character as played by Chuck Webster. Instead of younger, quiet, and closer to Raymond’s build, the first Sergeant Brice is older, slimmer, and quite talkative. While I suppose the idea is that both actors are really playing the same character, I have an urge to make this first Brice a completely different character, since he is different in every way except in his loyalty to the police department, and when I hear “Sergeant Brice”, it’s impossible for me to picture anyone other than Lee Miller. Perhaps the first Brice is a relative? Chuck Webster was only eleven years older than Lee Miller, and even though some actors sadly do look much older than their age, this character didn’t look old enough to be the other Brice’s father. So maybe an older brother, cousin, or an uncle instead.

Also curiously noted is that while the first episode has him and Tragg both calling him “Brice”, the second episode only lists him as such in the credits. Within the episode itself, Hamilton addresses him as “Officer.” I wonder which episode was filmed first? If Goldfish was, then we could say that perhaps they only thought of the name after it was filmed, so they quickly inserted it in the credits and then addressed him by that name within the other episode. If the other episode was filmed first, then I have to wonder if they were already considering making Lee Miller the Brice character by the time they did Goldfish later, so they didn’t want Chuck’s Brice addressed onscreen by that name again.

I may address these mysteries in a future story, or maybe even in the one I’ve started now. I finished putting up the Steve Drumm detective parody and decided it was high time I start writing the story idea that one of my steady readers, Harry2, brought to me three years ago when I was writing The Malevolent Mugging. It heavily involves Della and a mishap with a supernatural necklace. I was interested, but felt I needed to finish Mugging before I started it, and of course, that didn’t get finished until about a month or so ago. So finally it is time to tell Harry’s story.

Since I have been wanting to explore Brice and Della’s apparent friendship for some time, a story starring Della would be a good place to start. I am tentatively planning that Brice will play a large part in it, especially as the mystery deepens and it becomes clear that not all is well with Della.

Also, as per my love of bringing back characters from the episodes I enjoy most, this one features Gene Torg and Pearl Chute from The Bogus Books. They were part of the original outline from three years ago, being the first to encounter the necklace and then desperately wanting to get rid of it. Gene may end up falsely accused of a crime and need Perry’s help; I’m still unsure if I will do that angle.

I have also had ideas of writing a story about the Stuarts from The Decadent Dean and I decided that this would be that mystery. Perry is trying to solve a new series of weird events at Aaron Stuart’s new Manzana Valley Prep School while Della begins to act strangely. The mysteries will connect. And I’m also planning that this will finally be the mystery with scenes at a masquerade ball. The ball will be held at the school.

Does anyone know if Manzana Valley/County is a real place or something the show made up? I’ve been trying to look it up without success because I wanted to figure out how close it is to Los Angeles. Tentatively I’m assuming that within the show, it’s the next county over in some direction, since Tobin Wade seemed to be living at his cabin in Topanga Canyon (which is, I think, part of the Los Angeles area?) and probably wouldn’t want to be driving a long distance to work each day.

I’m a little nervous to do another supernatural mystery for my first big Perry story since The Malevolent Mugging, but I really wanted this one to be next, so I hope it will be enjoyed. I have the first chapter up and am in the process of writing the second. If anyone is interested in following this new adventure, it’s at: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/11485312/

Double Birthday Post!

I wanted to post this on one of the in-between days so it would seem more evenly balanced, but it didn’t work out that way. Ah, work. So, Happy Birthday to Raymond Burr and Lee Miller!

I still find it fascinating and intriguing that they were born the same year, only three days apart: Lee on the 18^th, Raymond on the 21^st. They had such a lasting connection through the years, with Lee serving as Raymond’s stand-in for both Perry and Ironside and appearing on-screen in both series as well as in the first Perry movie. They must have had a very special friendship. That’s an angle I wish we knew more about.

Apparently they must have met even before Perry, since Lee appeared in Raymond’s film Please Murder Me. I wonder if that was their first meeting or if they knew each other before that as well?

I watched The Candy Queen several weeks ago and somehow mistakenly got it in my head that Sergeant Brice was the one who snapped at the apartment manager about getting towels. I was surprised to think of it being him, as he’s such a quiet sort. Watching the episode again tonight, I saw that it wasn’t him, but the uniformed officer bending over Wanda. That made more sense.

Of course, had it been Brice, he would have just been worried about Wanda’s condition, as the other officer was. But I think out of all the main police characters, Brice is the only one who actually never so much as snapped or lost his temper. He’s always easy-going and observant, the quiet one in the background.

Naturally, now I’ve talked myself into the idea of a story where Brice is pushed to losing his temper. That would be a very frightening and heartbreaking thing, as it would take something extremely serious to make Brice snap, perhaps one of the other policemen being hurt right in front of him by a heartless criminal. Everything would be alright in the end, but what a ride to get there.

I haven’t forgotten my idea of wanting to do a story to show more Brice and Della interaction, either. And I think it would be fun to also have more Brice and Perry interaction. I love the scenes they have together, which are more plentiful in the later seasons. Brice is open with information where he can be and would probably say more if not for his superiors’ objections.

It’s interesting, too, to see them standing next to each other. You can definitely see the similarities in build and how easy it must have been for Lee to serve as Raymond’s stand-in. I wonder what scenes he was in instead of Raymond? I suppose that information is down somewhere or some fan has spent time observing things closely enough to tell when it’s Lee.

I also wonder what prompted them to decide to let the police lieutenants have a steady partner instead of continually having different ones. It’s certainly more logical for there to be a steady one. And I wonder how Lee got chosen? Perhaps because he was already on the payroll and they didn’t feel they could hire someone else at that point, and then his portrayal was so great that they left it at that, even if they could have hired someone else later.

It’s always nice to see Sergeant Brice accompany the lieutenant, whichever one it is. Even as they change, Brice is always there, a bit of lasting familiarity.

And of course, Perry is the perfect leading man for the series. Another great decision by Erle Stanley Gardner was to cast Raymond as Perry, especially after Raymond had actually auditioned for Hamilton’s part! It’s almost impossible for me to imagine the roles reversed, but I would really love to see footage from those auditions. I wish they had included those screen tests on the anniversary set.

I’ve delivered a great deal of praise for Raymond’s portrayal of Perry in past posts, so it’s a bit difficult to think of something new. But the series certainly would have been something much different without Raymond at the helm. I wonder if it even would have been anywhere as successful. There are many brilliant actors who could have attempted to carry the show, but Raymond was just so ideal as Perry. And not only that, but he helped to make the set such a happy place, including everyone and considering them part of the Perry family. Not every actor would have done that.

One of the things Richard mentions in his book is a failed pilot for a series that he and Raymond would have both appeared in. It’s a pity the pilot didn’t get picked up, although on the other hand, I believe he said it was right around the time that CBS was putting together the Perry series. If the pilot had been picked up, I wonder where that would have left Perry? Interesting, how things turn out.

So here’s to Raymond and Lee, and to their special friendship. They both made the series so memorable in their own, unique ways.

Happy Birthday, Raymond Burr and Lee Miller!

Happy Birthday to Raymond Burr tomorrow, born May 21^st, 1917! And to Lee Miller, born a few days earlier on May 18^th, 1917!

A couple of readers have been finding a treasure trove of fun things with Raymond. In the comments on the previous entry, there are links to an Australian interview in 1961 and clips from appearances on shows such as Jack Benny! I am planning to watch the clips to celebrate. Meanwhile, I have heard the interview and Raymond is his usual lovely, charming self. It’s truly a delight to listen to!

One thing I find very curious is that Lee Miller was born in Scotland. He certainly has no trace of a Scottish accent when playing Sergeant Brice or other characters. I wonder whether he ever had an accent and disguised it or if he moved to America before he really picked one up? There’s just so little information on this fascinating man. And in later years he has certainly dropped off the radar. According to IMDB.com, he’s still alive. Is he? Isn’t he? I do wish someone knew what has happened to him.

It also says he was Raymond’s stand-in on Ironside as well as Perry. That’s neat. He pops up occasionally on Ironside in cameo roles, but doesn’t have a steady role like he did with Sergeant Brice. I wonder if that was by his choice?

It’s unfortunate that my suspicions about MeTV’s schedule are now confirmed. The complete summer schedule is online and the morning Perry episode is gone. Ironside is completely off the schedule. Instead of doing anything different on Sundays because of The Love Boat and The Rockford Files moving to weekdays, those shows are going to keep their Sunday slots too! Good grief! And following the nighttime showing of Perry will be a block of Dragnet and Adam-12, the latter of which will also have an hour block on afternoons.

MeTV seems to test a lot of things in the summer. Things that work continue into the big schedule changers in autumn. Things that don’t work are abandoned. Case in point: Last summer they thought it would be interesting to take The Twilight Zone off the schedule and only keep Night Gallery. Apparently people didn’t like it at all; come autumn, The Twilight Zone was back.

So if enough people don’t like the removal of the morning Perry episode and Ironside, there’s still hope. One or both may return after summer. I’ll certainly be sending emails to MeTV on what I think of the schedule changes. I’m totally in favor of adding The Mod Squad, but not at the expense of Ironside. I’m not that crazy about removing Hawaii 5-O for The Rockford Files, either! And I’m disappointed about the removal of the morning Perry episode, since some viewers were only able to watch in the morning. I thought it was really cool that Perry was the only series to air twice a day, other than some of the half-hour shows.

Again, remember about the Perry movie this Friday! It’s the last television movie on MeTV for a while. I don’t like that they’re stopping the feature for the summer or longer, but it’s kind of neat that it will go out with a Perry flare!

Perry Mason Returns

Well, I finally bit the bullet and watched Perry Mason Returns today. My feelings are, as I expected, mixed.

To be honest, overall the movie was largely what I expected from it, in plot, tone, and execution. There were few surprises for me.

Featuring a newly recorded version of the theme was wonderful. It added a feeling of “this is so right/this is really a Perry Mason movie.” It was the perfect opening and closing.

The set-up, with a murdered boss and his estranged family all suspect, seemed like classic Perry. I really got the vibe of “this is like a Perry episode” when we met the suspects and saw and heard their reasons for disliking the victim.

Della was absolutely adorable. I always liked her fine in the series, but I think I like her even more in the film. She blossomed into such a sweet mother/grandmotherly type. I love that she smiled for her difficult boss and was so close with Paul Jr.

I was glad that there wasn’t any mention of Paul Senior being dead, but not including any line about what had happened to him felt sad and like a glaring omission. It almost seemed like they were deliberately trying to avoid the topic, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the actors, indeed, were.

Paul Jr. having to let all the other operatives go also seemed really sad, especially when thinking back on the agency when Paul Senior ran it. There were so many operatives then!

I loved the touch of Paul Senior’s picture on Paul Jr.’s desk.

I was surprised that wasn’t even one scene of Perry serving in the capacity of a judge at the beginning. I thought maybe he’d be in a court case and someone would deliver a note about Della being in trouble. Instead, we don’t see him until he arrived following a phone call from Della about being arrested for her recent boss’s murder.

Perry certainly became gruff through the years. I definitely picked up on some Ironside-ish traits, particularly his refusal to tell Paul Jr. that he was doing a good job until the very end. I suppose the idea was that Perry was growing older and a bit more aloof, but I wasn’t sure I liked that change to the character. Perry and Ironside should be two different people. Perry is a lot warmer in the original series, especially to younger people. I can’t see the Perry of the original series being so standoffish where praising Paul Jr. (when he warranted it) was concerned.

Richard Anderson was absolutely adorable too, speaking of adorable people. I loved him through the film and just wish that he hadn’t been the Big Bad. I also thought his relationship with the victim’s daughter was very sweet—or it would have been, if his character hadn’t been married.

His character was familiar with both Perry and Della, and they had some fun scenes together. When he was friendly and kind with them, it reminded me so much of Lieutenant Drumm, and I wished again that Richard had brought that character back.

The police Lieutenant they did have was very generic and forgettable. Paul Jr.’s Sergeant Stratton friend was more memorable, although Paul Jr. was certainly proving a pest! All in the line of saving Della, of course, but poor Sergeant Stratton.

Paul Jr. was very right about having his own style of being a P.I. He seemed to fall back on the clichés of a private eye constantly passing himself off as someone else. He pretended to be an insurance agent, among other things, and his utter gall in trying to remove the evidential wig from the hitman’s hotel suite was appalling. Paul Senior would have totally had a fit! I can just imagine him lecturing Paul Jr. on his conduct.

I wasn’t totally sure what to make of the character. I love the adorableness of him being played by Barbara Hale’s son; you could see the bond between them in their scenes and even when they spoke of each other while not being in the same scene. But I guess I feel like how a lot of fans feel about David Gideon, in the respect of feeling he was there mainly to cater to a younger fan base.

The original series didn’t need to fall back on such stunts; I’ve run across many Perry fans who say they started watching when they were kids. If the series could hold the attention of young people during its original run, it could hold the attention of young people in the 1980s, too. My interest certainly proves that it can continue to grab the attention of the youngest generations. It doesn’t need a character from my age bracket to make it more interesting.

That said, since they really needed a P.I., I thought it was lovely to have it be Paul’s son instead of some random guy. I adore that Perry said that he had known Paul Jr. all of his life. I have an image of Paul Senior making Perry the godfather and Della the godmother. Lots of family and friendship squee.

The prosecutor being a woman was fun to see. That’s something I would have enjoyed seeing in the original series. But I wasn’t sure what to make of her, either. While Hamilton always works for the ends of justice above everything else, and is happy when the real murderers are exposed even if he has to lose a case, this lady seemed to be quite upset about losing even with the murderer uncovered. Her facepalm when the judge ordered a dismissal was rather eyebrow-raising. (Or perhaps, I suppose, she was just upset that she hadn’t uncovered the truth herself, rather than that she had lost.) On the other hand, I really liked that she pushed her feelings aside and went over to congratulate Perry on winning.

The movies are extremely popular with Perry/Della relationship fans, and it’s easy to see why. They had some lovely scenes together in the movie; the part where Perry was introduced and Della went to him and cried is very moving and emotional. They had quite a good deal of interaction throughout, and of course, their interaction in this and in the succeeding movies is probably in large part why the television movies were such a success.

It was apparent that there were deliberate nods to the original series, even slipping in a mention of Hamilton by the current district attorney and the aforementioned picture of Paul Senior. But, try as I might, when all was said and done, the movie was not Perry as I know and love it. I knew the television movies never could be, with only two original characters returning. It’s a treasure that Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale reprised their roles, but everyone is needed for it to really feel like Perry Mason, not just Perry and Della.

It’s so sad that for all the absent characters except Steve (and Sergeant Brice), the actors were dead at the time the film was made. I wonder what a Perry reunion movie would have been like if more of them had still been alive and willing to take part as the characters they played on the series.

I have to admit, I’m now wondering all the more what to think where MeTV’s showings of the movies are concerned. I don’t know if I want to use as much tape as it would take to record the ones they’ll show, especially since tapes are so expensive these days and there are other things I want to record far more (such as Cannon). Nor am I sure that I even want to take the time to watch the movies. I was growing fairly restless by the time we reached the one-hour mark of this one.

I guess what I’d really like would be to just pick out the Perry and Della moments in the other films and view those, because even though I’m not an active fan of the romantic pairing, I love their interaction and am very interested in their shared scenes in the films.

Actually, I am very interested in any of Della’s scenes, too, but I imagine most of her scenes are shared with Perry. While I adored her in the movie even more than in the series, I think I prefer Perry in the original series. Things like him exhibiting Ironside-ish behavior turned me off a bit on his portrayal in the movie.

While I am glad that I finally got around to watching this film, I honestly can hardly wait until I see my next episode of the original series (which will hopefully be tonight if not right now).

As a parting note, I saw Lee Miller’s name in the credits. He played a security guard, but try as I might, I can’t think where he was in the film. Can anyone enlighten me? I love that he was involved with Raymond Burr’s projects all the way into the 1980s!

And to everyone who will be watching the Perry movie on MeTV tomorrow night (it’s the All-Star something, I think), I hope you enjoy it! (Especially if you’ve never before seen one of the films.)

Lee Miller and Raymond Burr

Yesterday was Lee Miller’s birthday and this Tuesday is Raymond Burr’s birthday. I’ve been pondering on exactly what I could say for them.

Usually I try to do episode recommendations if I’ve exhausted biographical information (or have little to none). But I have to admit, it’s hard to recommend something for poor Lee Miller, whose Sergeant Brice character is so often silent. He has a nice little speaking part in The Ugly Duckling, and even interacts with Perry, and there are some episodes in the third season where he’s given some dialogue, but in general Brice is a voiceless presence, investigating crime scenes, bringing evidence to the Lieutenant, and standing by, observing. Sometimes he only has one line per episode, if any. I do remember him having both lines and things to do in The Candy Queen, one of my favorite season 9 episodes.

Lee Miller also has a small part as a policeman in Please Murder Me, a pre-Perry court drama with Raymond Burr. I find it interesting that he popped up in that with Raymond shortly before Perry Mason began.

As I’ve mentioned, I would have loved to see Brice spotlighted in an episode, perhaps showing what an essential member of the police team he is and how the others would have trouble trying to handle their cases without him. A bit of a clichéd plot, perhaps, but I have confidence that the cast could have made it all seem new.

It’s actually also very difficult in some ways to give episode recommendations for Perry, since being the main character, he’s naturally featured prominently in almost every episode (except the ones where Raymond Burr was unavailable). So perhaps my focus should instead be episodes that I feel bring out the best (or in any case, the most interesting) aspects of the character.

One thing I love is seeing the development of characters throughout the series. To that effect, I feel that the very first episode, The Restless Redhead, is an excellent one to begin with. View the beginnings of television Perry in all his raw, sometimes rebellious, sometimes shocking behavior. Someone noted that in season 1, Perry seems more cynical and not as likely to believe in all of his clients. I have noticed that, in this episode and others, such as The Fan-Dancer’s Horse.

There’s the season 2 episode where one of Perry’s childhood friends appears. I think it’s The Married Moonlighter? It’s fun to get a slice of that rare background information on Perry (he’s from Oregon and the girl proposed to him at age 7. Aww). And it’s unique to meet someone from before Perry was an established lawyer. I think about the only other time that happens is in season 5’s The Promoter’s Pillbox. We meet a lady who, with her husband, helped Perry while he was a struggling law student.

While The Prudent Prosecutor is, of course, largely a Hamilton episode, I feel that it’s very good for Perry as well, showing how far he and Hamilton have come and what Perry is willing to do to help his friend and rival.

The Singing Skirt, while not a favorite episode by any means, is intriguing in how it shows an extremely overconfident Perry. He’s certain that his plan won’t fail and that the gun he gave the eventual defendant will be proven to not be the murder weapon. Not that he has a real reason to believe otherwise, but instead, he discovers that it indeed registers as (one of) the murder weapons. Yikes. Poor Perry.

Another episode where Perry ends up being wrong through most of it is The Woeful Widower. He’s convinced that the titular character is the guilty party, an idea he latches onto for what seems to be the great majority of the episode. It’s very interesting to me to see it shown in canon that Perry is not always right, since in general it seems like he’s usually depicted as being on the right path to solve the case, and when he isn’t, it isn’t strongly emphasized the way it is here. Usually Perry doesn't have one particular (wrong) suspect that he zeroes in on so much. To me, it makes Perry a more realistic and interesting character to show him really seriously suspecting someone who isn’t the murderer.

I love the episodes where Perry is faced with serious moral dilemmas and it’s an important part of the plot. The main ones, if not the only ones, that I can think of are season 7’s The Capering Camera and season 9’s The Misguided Model. Both episodes, I feel, show a Perry who is much more mature and wise than the Perry of the very early episodes. While Perry in The Restless Redhead has no qualms about firing extra bullets around the murder scene, I can’t imagine Perry in The Capering Camera or The Misguided Model going to such lengths. Nor do I think Perry in the later episodes would juggle guns around as he does with confusing results in both The Long-Legged Models and The Singing Skirt.

Of course, even in the later episodes, Perry is sometimes depicted with the behavior of the early Perry, same as what happens with Hamilton. The Golden Girls particularly comes to mind, as Perry seems to be trying to escape the police in order to keep the murder weapon from being discovered (at least at that point). I think when that happens, though, no matter which character is involved, it’s mainly the writers simply trying to keep the original concepts of the characters alive, forgetting the character development, or else the writers not realizing the development happened at all.

By contrast, there are certain positive behaviors that Perry usually depicts in all seasons at some point or another, especially how he will take on all kinds of strange cases even if the people can pay little or nothing. It's definitely one of my favorite things about him, whether he's pretty much forced to accept a little old lady's calculations so he isn't rude or whether he deliberately agrees to help even if the client is destitute.

Whatever Perry is up to in a particular episode, Raymond Burr is always more than capable of handling it and depicting it as believably as possible. He’s a delight to watch, the true quintessential Perry Mason.

Double Birthday Post!

Tomorrow is Raymond Burr’s birthday! He was born on May 21^st, 1917, in New Westminster, British Columbia. I have a reason for posting a day early, contrary to my original plans, and I will reveal that further on.

I’ve been pondering on exactly what to share in this post in honor of him. Usually on either the birth or death date posts, I’ve tried to give a bit of biographical information for the actors. But so much about Raymond seems to have been tall tales that I’ve all but given up on figuring out which is fact and which is fiction.

I’m rather amused by the stories he spun about himself. If he was trying to keep himself a near-complete mystery to the general public, he certainly succeeded. I can imagine him being amused himself as he thought of the various tales to weave.

EDIT: Okay, so the above would seem to be, from all known instances, incorrect. I won't change what I wrote, because then the comment session that follows below the entry won't make much sense.

Raymond seemed to not want to call a lot of attention to himself. He didn’t even want his vineyard named after him. I believe I read that he thought that would be too pretentious. After his death, his partner did rename the vineyard after him. I think it’s a nice memorial touch. But it impresses me that Raymond didn’t want that during his life.

From all that I’ve read, he was a friendly, compassionate man. As I’ve mentioned, I love how he made the Perry set such an enjoyable place. He was also quite a practical jokester. In addition to the brick wars and other amusing nonsense he had going with William Talman, he was often pranking Barbara Hale. According to her, once he even nailed her shoes to the floor of the courtroom set!

I haven’t seen anything else that he has been in since I made that post about the film Please Murder Me sometime back. However, I don’t think I ever mentioned that prior to that I saw a movie he made with Errol Flynn, Maru Maru. It was an adventure flick, with them in search of a jeweled cross. Raymond plays the bad guy, as he typically did in many of the films he did before Perry, and he is excellent, of course.

. . . And he was in Love Happy?! The same Love Happy that was the Marx Brothers’ last film? I think it’s time to dig that film out again. I haven’t seen it for years, probably not since I really became aware of Perry Mason.

I have seen some of his TV appearances, including the very first episode of Dragnet. He played the police chief. It was a very intense episode as it was, and Raymond made it even more interesting.

I have also watched more of Ironside. While I think Perry is my favorite of the two crime-solvers, Robert Ironside is awesome too. My favorite of the episodes I’ve seen so far is probably the one where it’s revealed that he had a relationship with a woman who can’t seem to stop being a thief. That caused them to part in the past, and when they meet again in the present, it isn’t able to last long then, either. It’s a very well-written and bittersweet episode. Raymond portrays Ironside’s conflicting feelings to perfection. My only complaint about the episode is that Wesley Lau is in it but they never arranged for him and Raymond to interact. What a missed opportunity. I hope they had a nice reunion off-screen, at least!

We lost Raymond on September 12^th, 1993. While he is buried in Canada, I believe there’s a memorial to him in one of the Los Angeles cemeteries. It’s nice when that sort of thing is done.

Raymond is still highly missed. He made the character of Perry Mason his own. Robert Ironside, too. And many assorted oneshot characters on television series and in movies.

On the 50^th Anniversary DVDs, Barbara Hale reveals that she met Raymond in the 1940s, sometime before Perry. In fact, it was partially Raymond being a part of Perry that made Barbara decide to give it a try (that, and she thought they were only going for 17 episodes. Ha!). She says that she and Raymond were dear friends for fifty years. And that is a beautiful thing. Friendships often don’t last even half as long as that. She also mentions that her kids all called him “Uncle Ray.” Adorable!

On Perry and also Ironside, Raymond’s stand-in was actor Lee Miller. Eerily enough, Lee was born May 18^th, 1917! (And from the scant information I’ve found, he may still be alive. That is awesome!) Born just three days apart? Wow. This has just come to my attention now, and I feel badly that I didn’t know in time to have dedicated Thursday’s post to Lee. I think Raymond would be happy to share this post with Lee, who most likely became one of his friends after so many appearances. So I have decided to post it today, between their birthdays, and dedicate it to them both.

Us Perry fans should be very familiar with Lee, as he appeared many times on-screen as Sergeant Brice (and a few times in other small parts). Although credited only 50-plus times, he was in many episodes uncredited. This may be because of Brice’s customary silence. He was often seen and not heard. I was actually surprised the first time I heard him speak!

There are several episodes where he has some interesting interaction with Tragg or one of the other Lieutenants. Brice was there through it all, with them all, from Tragg to Andy to Steve. He is an unsung hero, largely forgotten in the overall picture, yet he is so often there for those willing to look.

Usually Brice is a background character, content to let the Lieutenant take the lead. One season 3 episode I saw in the past week or two had Tragg expounding something in the crime scene to Brice. That happens in several episodes, but in this one they had more conversation than they typically do, so I found it especially memorable.

I just saw one again the other day where he has a more expanded role. In The Ugly Duckling, Brice calls Perry to tell him about his client’s car going over a cliff. Perry arrives at the scene and continues to converse with Brice until Andy shows up moments later. I found that one particularly interesting. I wonder what prompted the writers to give Brice more lines than usual?

Although Brice was almost always played by Lee, there were a couple of times early on where someone else took the reins. It always gives me a bit of a start to see another man called Brice wander on-screen. I like that the role later became Lee’s alone. It adds a nice bit of continuity, which is especially refreshing for a fairly minor character such as Brice.

It’s a pity the writers didn’t do more with him. He could have been very interesting in scenes with the Lieutenants, developing both his and their characters. But I am happy that the writers at least occasionally ventured out and gave him more to say and do than usual. The rest, well, that is up to fanfiction writers.

To Raymond and Lee, happy birthday from the fans who love and remember you both!