Assorted observations on the police characters

Oh dear, I was going to post about this in the last post but somehow forgot. I received an email from Amazon that their TV Deal of the Week is all of the Perry DVD sets combined! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ref=pe_172280_33054240_pe_row3_b2_t/?ASIN=B00CL1516E It still costs a pretty penny, and I imagine most of us have at least a few sets already and wouldn’t want to end up with duplicates of those, but just in case anyone has the spare cash on hand and wants to buy the whole series in one swoop, here’s a heads-up for you! The deal runs through Saturday, I would imagine, or possibly Sunday. (Now I can’t find the page that actually tells.) It seems to be doing very well in sales, judging from its overall placement in the entire Movies and TV section!

And just a note, since this seems to be of importance to some shoppers: These are all of the already-released sets. They are not different releases in a special boxset.

Last night I opted for my local station’s Perry, which was The Substitute Face. It’s one of my favorite season 1 ventures, but I remembered that I really should watch the uncut of it sometime soon; I think it’s chopped up particularly bad.

I spotted one very interesting thing in that episode: the mysterious voice on Hamilton’s intercom (probably Leon) is there again. This time he speaks more than he does in The Daring Decoy, and of course, there’s the added bonus that this time his bit is even kept in the cut version.

Also, this may be the earliest occurrence of Perry throwing an untrue accusation about Hamilton in court. Hamilton also throws some at Perry, which is pretty much par for the course in season 1, but seeing the scenario in reverse is unusual in the early episodes.

Moving on to the police characters, in both Perry and several private eye shows, I’ve noticed some interesting similarities and differences. I’m going to focus on four shows in particular: Perry Mason, The Rockford Files, Cannon, and Mannix.

All shows have in common that the main characters are not the actual police, but they’re out to solve crimes. To that end, they often have encounters with the police, which many times do not end well.

To some extent, the police’s reactions are both at least semi-realistic and formulaic. Especially in Perry and Rockford, the main characters are running afoul of the police and are accused of getting in the way or worse, committing illegal acts. Sometimes the police aren’t altogether unfair or wrong in their accusations. Other times, it seems like they just behave in certain ways for the formula’s sake or to be belligerent and sort of the “heavies” of a script.

In reality, I’m sure there are many police officers who become frustrated by the interference of private eyes, lawyers, and amateur detectives in their cases. There’s probably even some stereotypically so. But I think there are likely others who have a very nice working relationship with their fellow investigators into crime.

I’ve complained more than once about Rockford’s police often seeming to just be formulaically angry, while the police on Perry are more well-rounded in their emotions. That is generally true. Nevertheless, I have found an occasional venture where I really like the Rockford police; the two-parter To Protect and Serve is a very good example where the police characters really feel like three-dimensional people.

One interesting difference that’s actually in the Rockford police’s favor is that they don’t often seem to make the mistake of arresting the wrong person (except for those times when Rockford is arrested when he shouldn’t have been). To that end, they seem a bit more realistic and have a better track record than the Perry police. However, they are still stereotypical in their opposition to Rockford and in some of their general suspicions about him and others.

Cannon is a unique series where the main character actually was a police officer and quit his job to become a private investigator. He has things he still likes and dislikes about the police force, and he has both friends and enemies there. In one way, I’d think he might have less trouble with belligerent officers since he was once a policeman, and one thing I’m grateful for is that none of the police that I’ve seen feel that he’s betrayed them by becoming a private eye. But Cannon does have quite a few problems regardless, being accused of interfering and even being nuts with some of his theories. There are a lot of out-of-town police who think the latter. Some of them end up becoming friendly later on. Some are crooked. And others are honest but just remain disagreeable.

Overall, he has fewer problems with the city police (probably because he was one of them). But he does have his clashes with them too, occasionally surmounting almost to Perry Mason levels of accusations of interfering (interestingly enough, once by Wesley Lau). As much as I love Cannon for the intensity and adventure and drama, and even though I feel that it’s a better show than Rockford, I do get exasperated at times with the portrayal of the police.

Mannix takes a very different approach to all of these shows. While Joe Mannix does sometimes run up against a very disagreeable, antagonistic police officer (often out-of-towners, but not always), in general he seems to have the best working relationship with the local police. He has several close friends on the force, and they and others usually seem to be happy to work with him on cases instead of against him. They don’t usually run around trying to outsmart each other. And that’s definitely a nice change from all of the fireworks and the worry and fear over the police that’s prevalent especially in Rockford and Perry, even if those shows are arguably more realistic when it comes to the police’s attitudes.

When it comes down to why the attitudes are different, however, I don’t think it’s because characters like Jim Rockford and Perry Mason are not the police. While that may be part of it, I think the main problem is simply that those characters often tread into more gray territory and aren’t adverse to noticeably bending the law as far as they can in order to meet their goals and solve their cases. Characters such as Frank Cannon and Joe Mannix, by contrast, usually stick a lot closer to solving cases without going into gray areas (although they occasionally have done that as well). And most definitely, the police are not going to be realistically happy in dealing with people whom they know have been bending the law. Hence, Rockford and Perry often do not receive very warm welcomes, in spite of their efforts in fighting crime. It’s certainly understandable and I don’t blame the police for often feeling frustrated or upset. I have certainly felt exasperated by some of the things Perry does and wish that he would approach things in a different manner.

Even taking all of that into consideration, however, I still do not usually like the attitudes of Rockford’s police. Sometimes it seems like he runs into a lot of police characters who don’t even know him and rail against him pretty much just because he’s a private eye (although admittedly, it’s probably because they know a lot of shady ones). The Perry police might be reserved and cautious, but I don’t think they would behave in such uptight and angry ways when meeting a new private eye. I enjoy how the Perry police have such varied personalities (Tragg’s snark, Andy’s businesslike congeniality, and Steve’s outright friendliness and seriousness) instead of just being angry.

Also, it’s definitely obvious that Tragg and Steve respect Perry (and that Steve, at least, is also quite a close friend). It’s harder to tell what Andy thinks. At least once he comes to Perry as Tragg often does, wanting to know how Perry figured something out (in The Melancholy Marksman), but that’s before the writers really started writing him as his own person, so I’m not sure it counts. Once Andy develops his own personality, I don’t recall him ever coming around like that. Steve doesn’t either, for that matter, but he’s often around for other social reasons while Andy isn’t.

Regarding Rockford’s police friendship, it seems like Sergeant Dennis Becker does mellow over time. By seasons 5 and 6 he seems a lot less uptight than he did around season 3 and more comfortable with being Rockford’s friend (while of course still not upholding any of the gray areas Rockford sometimes explores). It’s nice to see that level of character development.

Sometimes I kind of wonder if at least part of the reason why Rockford’s police behave as they do is because that series seems to often be distrustful of the government and authority figures. They have many episodes with conspiracy theories and some claiming to show actual injustices of the government and/or the legal system. (And I should insert that where such injustices are real, Rockford should be applauded for daring to talk about them. It was certainly a unique approach that its fellow private eye and amateur detective series didn’t generally do.) But then something great in a positive way like To Protect and Serve comes along and I’m no longer sure what they’re thinking.

Perry sometimes feels like an interesting series of contrasts: it praises the good of the legal system and exposes the bad all at once. And while the police keep arresting the wrong person (only for formula’s sake), Perry is often commenting on their efficiency while investigating. Sometimes it’s a little hard to believe they’re really so efficient and it seems more like the writers were just trying not to get real police upset. Other times, however, the police are shown doing a lot of investigating, and the cases are definitely set up to make it look like the defendants really are guilty, so it’s hard to put too much blame on the police. I usually prefer to blame the writers for most of the screw-ups, rather than the characters, although it is impossible to not blame the police at all after so many false arrests!

In the end, all of the shows have their good and bad points in the way the police characters are handled. And there are things I like and dislike about each approach. If Perry and Rockford were not bending the law so much (and I would prefer they did not), they might be able to have as good of a relationship with the police as Cannon and especially Mannix do. However, the conflicts are intense and interesting (although I often sigh at them since they happen so much). If the Perry police had less trouble with false arrests, they would be more likely to seem as efficient as the police on the other series. Yet even as they are, they are very lovable. If the Rockford police were less uptight, they would be more likable. But at least they don't have trouble with making a lot of false arrests. The police on Cannon are often formulaic to some extent, but always colorful. And Mannix often has such a fun, symbiotic relationship between Mannix and the police.

Whatever one thinks of these assorted casts of characters, I find it very interesting how the angles are both similar and different in each series. Every show and each batch of characters brings something unique to the table.

You know, one other unrelated but still interesting thing: every one of these series takes place in Los Angeles. One thing I love about so many shows taking place there is that I can have the characters cross-over in stories and know or meet each other. Realistically, it seems like a very possible thing that could happen.

Has the mysterious Leon been heard after all?

I am rather exasperated that I forgot to address one other intriguing element in The Daring Decoy. It’s just possible that Hamilton’s supposed secretary Leon was heard sometimes, after all.

An unidentified man talks to Hamilton on the intercom in Hamilton’s office, letting him know of an arrival to see him. Hamilton thanks him and says to send him in. Was he talking to Leon? Unless he has more than one male secretary, or had a male receptionist at one time, it’s likely.

This fellow had a very deep voice, which is a bit difficult to equate with the image of Leon I designed in my mind. Actually, I had a different image of Leon before I tried drawing him, and when I drew him, I ended up with someone a lot younger (and with wilder hair!) than my original envisioning. And now that that character is an established part of my stories, I’m a bit unsure of what to do about this deep-voiced person in canon who may be the real Leon.

I guess it’s certainly possible that even the version of Leon I ended up drawing could have a deep voice, going against type. But it’s certainly going to be hard to start hearing him with that voice in my mind, since I’ve been hearing him with a much different voice. I wish I’d remembered (or that someone else had remembered and told me) about that bit in The Daring Decoy before I designed Leon. And I’ll have to look through other early episodes to see if Hamilton speaks with this person at any other times. I’m very curious now!

I had thought I was drawing nigh to the conclusion of The Malevolent Mugging. It was scheduled to launch directly into a sequel, possibly called The Gruesome Graveyard. Hence, a lot of loose ends were to be left open as it closed. But upon reading and re-reading the proposed final chapter for The Malevolent Mugging, I just couldn’t feel good about closing the story there and marking it “Complete”, even though I would be immediately starting the sequel to continue things.

At this current time, I have determined that, like some novels, The Malevolent Mugging will be one big story comprised of two parts. The chapter I just put up today marks the end of Part One, and the next chapter should be the beginning of Part Two. Since I have publicly announced these intentions in the story itself, I hope I won’t end up changing my mind and reverting to the separate sequel idea again.

Part Two will continue the threads of plot that have been left open, including one of the important writer-created character’s disappearance and the continuing aftermath of Deputy Sampson being attacked. Various clues and plot threads will also entangle Daniel Conway and his nemesis Warner Griffith from The Daring Decoy, and the characters will discover that those people’s problems will have a direct bearing on the case at hand.

Instead of further confusion with Daniel and Sampson looking so much alike (considering that there’s already the Amory and Andy thing), I have half a mind to have either them or people around them think that they do not resemble each other that much, and be perplexed when anyone suggests it.

Also present will be a mysterious woman named Virginia, who claims to be a distant relation of the Petersons’ and demands inclusion among the recipients of a departed Peterson family member’s will. She quickly becomes a fixture around both Amory Fallon and Daniel Conway, seeming to be trying to stir up trouble for them both while coming across as completely innocent and oblivious. Amory suspects she is trying to drive him mad by making it look like they’re having an affair, while with Daniel she appears to be attempting to frame him for illegal activities.

I’ve been attempting to write for Deputy Chamberlin, furthering my idea of him and Sampson being friends. I’m finding, however, that Chamberlin is difficult to get a voice on. While it’s true that both he and Sampson canonically spouted dialogue written for Hamilton, Sampson delivered it with more flair and personality and it was fairly easy to find a unique voice for him. Chamberlin still doesn’t feel very developed, no matter how I try to work with his character in scenes. I’m hoping that as it goes on, I’ll be able to figure it out.

Male secretaries: always the bad guys?!

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

It has been my increasing suspicion that male secretaries really get a bad rap on Perry. After seeing it confirmed for the third time, I decided it was time to make an official write-up.

Frankly, I am bewildered by the trend. Every time we’ve seen a male secretary, it seems that he’s a crook in some way, whether or not he’s the murderer. What’s the deal? Were they so rare in those days, perhaps even often misunderstood in a career position usually filled by women, that it seemed an intriguing thing to make them the bad guys? It doesn’t seem to have been confined solely to Perry, either; I saw another one in the Lady Beryl episode of the Ronald Howard version of Sherlock Holmes.

Of course, there were crooked women secretaries on Perry too, but at least with them we also saw many who were good. At this point I can only think of one good male secretary, and we never actually saw him! (For that matter, we don’t even know for sure if he’s a secretary, although it seemed to be strongly implied.)

Our first introduction to a male secretary was William Schallert’s character in episode 5, The Sulky Girl. Though not the murderer, he was aware of the murder and was an accessory. He called out the window, pretending to be the dead man in order to give the illusion that he was still alive, and allowed an innocent person to be tried for the murder.

Next there was a male secretary in season 2’s The Spanish Cross. Also an accessory, he stole the titular object and was aware of who murdered his boss, but said nothing. And he even said that he liked the boy who ended up accused of both the theft and the murder. Cheap wretch; he certainly had a brilliant way of showing it!

And just the other night I saw Charles Aidman play a male secretary in The Gallant Grafter. He was the actual murderer. He was also carrying on with the wife of his boss. That poor man, he had to deal with the double blows of both his wife and his friend and secretary betraying him! And when he was accused of murder, it was due to a frame those two set up.

All three male secretaries seemed like very likable people at first. I was disappointed in all of them, though perhaps particularly William Schallert’s character. Quiet and unassuming, he seemed a meek soul, not someone who would be involved in criminal activities. Of course, that’s often a type to watch out for in mysteries.

I’m unsure if there are any other male secretaries actually seen on the series. Can anyone here think of any? Were there ever any who were good guys? I suppose I could count the General’s trusty aide in The Positive Negative, but I didn’t think he was ever actually referred to as a secretary (although he likely handled many similar duties).

With so many rotten apples, it’s all the more reason why Hamilton’s supposed secretary Leon should have been shown. There should have been at least one decent male secretary to represent the profession.

Albeit, to get technical, we know so little about Leon that it’s possible he’s no good either. But it’s much nicer to think that he’s an honest person, for more reasons than one. Hamilton is put down so much in the series that he certainly doesn’t need another blow in the form of a dishonest secretary. And I really like the idea that Leon is as important and loyal to Hamilton as Della is to Perry, where work-related matters are concerned.

As a parting, I have always loved to make “fan art” for my favorite series as well as fanfiction. It’s difficult for me to illustrate any live-action show, but I’ve really wanted to try. Hence, several weeks ago I tackled the idea and fought to draw a decent Hamilton and my image of Leon. I had to re-draw Hamilton several times before it looked halfway good. Leon was much easier, but he didn’t come out exactly as I’d wanted. Further details on the link, for anyone interested:

http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com/art/In-the-district-attorney-s-office-302488403

Leon: Unseen and unheard, but important nevertheless

I’m not sure how or why it happened, but I’ve been especially intrigued by Leon of late, Hamilton’s unseen man Friday around the office. I still think his most likely position is that of secretary, rather than stenographer or receptionist or even assistant D.A. Many times Hamilton speaks over the intercom without saying to whom he’s speaking. I believe Leon is the only person Hamilton ever addresses by name on the intercom.

It puts us in mind of Perry usually talking to Della on the intercom. He only talks to Gertie, the receptionist, when she calls him, but with Della Perry calls her half the time and asks her to place calls or come in to take dictation and the like. It is this latter set-up that we see when Hamilton talks to Leon.

I have to admit, I find the idea of Hamilton having a male secretary quite cool. There’s only a handful of them on the series; at that point secretarial work was usually seen as a feminine job. The only other male secretary I can even think of right now is the character played by William Schallert in episode 5, The Sulky Girl.

I regret that I did not take greater stock of the particular episodes in which Leon is mentioned. Now I don’t remember most of them, and neither does anyone else! (Although most people don’t seem to remember Leon at all, so at least I can’t say that about myself.) I believe all the mentions were prior to William Talman’s suspension/firing, so I figured season 3 was probably the cut-off point. I haven’t seen most of season 3 for some months, however, and I can’t recall if there are even scenes in Hamilton’s office in season 3. Seasons 1 and 2 are plentiful with them. Then, unless I’m mistaken, those scenes sadly disappeared and did not begin to return until around season 7. On the other hand, those scenes could have continued and many were just cut from TV.

The only scenes I’ve re-located to date are both from season 2: The Romantic Rogue and The Bedeviled Doctor. In the former, the mention is indeed in a scene that’s apparently often cut. When the former Casanova’s partner shows up to tell all in Hamilton’s office, the scene is actually shown and not just talked about later, which is the impression that some prints give. In the scene, she wants immunity and Hamilton promises to give her the best break he can. She leaves, and he and Tragg discuss her testimony. Tragg isn’t sure he believes it, and Hamilton doesn’t seem so sure himself, and yet the facts she told added up. He presses the intercom button and asks Leon to step in for a moment.

In The Bedeviled Doctor, the people who have come to see Hamilton are still in his office when he asks for Leon. And that time he says what he wants, which is probably the best evidence that Leon is his confidential secretary: “Leon, would you come in here, please? I need you to take down a statement.”

I’m going to keep looking through season 2. Perhaps I’ll even try some season 1 episodes again, even though I didn’t think Leon was mentioned in those. And when season 3 starts up in a few days on my station, I’ll be paying very close attention.

In some ways, you can draw parallels between Leon and the unseen characters on series such as The Andy Griffith Show. On the latter, characters are often talking to Sarah the telephone operator and Juanita, a waitress at the local diner. Fans have expressed feelings that it would ruin things to hear or show them; not seeing or hearing them was a running gag, and the audience is then free to picture them any way they like. This is true, and somehow for The Andy Griffith Show, I agree.

For Leon, however, I wanted to see or hear him quite badly. He’s a character with close ties to Hamilton, so naturally I’d be interested in him. It is kind of fun, though, to have such a blank slate of a character to work with. We don’t know anything about what he looks like or what his personality is. As I’ve tried to tinker with him in some of my writings, an image of how I see him has been gradually forming.

The Leon I envision is faithful and loyal, always willing to do what Hamilton wants. Perhaps he highly admires Hamilton to the point of slight idolization, feeling that Hamilton is trying to work for justice (which he is, of course) and liking being a part of that.

He’s in his thirties, probably. (For the present day in my stories, Hamilton is in his late forties.) He’s quiet and mature, with straight and very dark brown hair that could potentially fall in his eyes if uncombed, the way Wesley Lau’s hair can, and glasses.

I’ve taken up curiously studying people in all of my shows, looking for anyone who resembles my image of Leon. Some come close, but no one has yet fit the mold exactly as I see it in my mind.

I’ve written a couple of experimental pieces posted solely on Livejournal, for the purpose of looking for Leon’s voice and determining how he and Hamilton interact. In my more “official” stories, Leon has been an occasional player and has also sometimes been mentioned and not seen. This resulted in an unfortunate “out of sight, out of mind” problem on my part and caused me to perhaps make a mistake in how I handled Leon’s role in The Broken Ties, the mystery story in which he previously appeared the most.

I determined that Leon has worked for Hamilton for some time. I’m assuming they have a definite closeness to some degree. And yet in The Broken Ties, nothing was really said or done towards Hamilton trying as hard to get Leon to remember the truth as he tried with the other main players. After discovering that Leon just did not remember and felt that Hamilton was overworking himself, Hamilton seemed to pretty much leave the matter alone. Leon is mentioned by Paul in a later chapter, wondering if they need to worry about him upsetting their plans. Hamilton says that Leon can’t reveal anything said in this office in confidence, but admits that they may have a problem if Leon is worried about Hamilton’s state of mind. At the end of the story, when everyone is trying to return to normal, Leon expresses bewilderment over what happened. Hamilton, still reeling himself and not wanting to concede to the supernatural ideas, tells him only the group hypnosis theory he’s developing to present in court. He decides to himself that he will tell Leon the other stuff if Leon keeps being bothered.

It presented a dilemma when I wanted to focus more on their interaction the past couple of weeks. If they were really close, something more should have been done. It was an oversight on my part, as at the time I wasn’t thinking strongly about Hamilton and Leon and assumed more that they probably were not especially close. But it’s more interesting to think that they are. Hamilton is a friendly, congenial person. And if Leon has indeed worked for him for some time, they surely did develop some kind of rapport. So, not wanting things to reflect badly on Hamilton, I decided to try repairing the potential damage.

In my current mystery The Denying Detective, which focuses largely on Paul but also a great deal on Hamilton, Leon appears extensively in chapter 3. I’ve promised that he will be an important supporting player throughout the story and that I will be developing his character. During one of Hamilton’s soliloquies, he muses that he did tell Leon the rest of the story concerning Vivalene’s spell before too much time had passed. He also mentions that he did try more than once to get Leon to remember the truth, but at the same time felt that since Leon did not appear to be one of Vivalene’s specific targets, he was safest staying in the office and away from the disastrous action. Hamilton and Leon are getting along swimmingly, and since this story relies partially on flashbacks, I may actually show scenes of him telling these things to Leon in the past.

Vivalene’s spell is coming back to bite them and everyone else in this mystery, as Hamilton’s group hypnosis theory is falling apart in the face of people all over the county confirming the bizarre events and he is having trouble getting two of the principle players in the mess convicted. Upon thinking about things, I realized that there were still loose ends such as that which needed to be tied up, and they’ll slide perfectly into the mystery’s main plot, which concerns why Paul suddenly and without warning flipped out and attacked Hamilton before disappearing for three months. And whose blood it was that Paul found on his hands when he came back to himself.

It would be neat if other Perry fanfiction writers decide to jump on my bandwagon and write about Leon. He’s a character who could have been more prominent in the series and might actually have been, had the show not generally followed the point-of-view of the defense team and had instead equally followed both sides. There is always more of that equality when both sides have scenes, but Leon still never had so much as one line. A pity, but a starting point for anyone wanting to explore this mysterious man. Leon, after all, is to Hamilton what Della is to Perry—as far as importance and usefulness in the workplace goes. And that certainly counts for something.

The Case of the Blissful Bachelors: Romance in the Series

She turned back, lightly tapping the brim of his white fedora with the edges of the envelopes. “I can’t see your eyes with that hat’s shadow falling over them,” she complained. “You always did have very nice eyes.” With that and a last smile she turned away, sashaying very deliberately up the hill.

---from The Macabre Mansion, chapter one

One of the most surprising, and dare I say amusing, factors of the series is that none of the main characters appear to be in a romantic relationship with anyone. In a world so seemingly obsessed with romance, this seems quite a unique thing. Of course, Perry and Della have their lovely scenes together, and it’s clear that they care about each other deeply, but even for them it’s never canonically established that they’re in a relationship.

Personally, I feel it’s better that way. It changes shows so much whenever long-time characters pair off, and usually for the worse. Perry and Della’s interaction is quite perfect as it is. Let the shipper fans imagine things going further if they wish, but don’t inflict it on everyone by making it canon.

Hamilton Burger and Lieutenant Tragg only rarely appear to have any inclination towards romance. In season 1’s The Baited Hook, Tragg shows interest in asking a woman on a date. This is a bit of a surprise. If any of the main cast were to be already married, I would most suspect him. But the scene in The Baited Hook convinces me that he is single, at least by the time of the series. It is of course possible that Tragg was married prior to the series and his wife either died or they were divorced.

To my knowledge, the only time Hamilton is ever seen on any semblance of a date is in season 9’s The Golfer’s Gambit. At the country club, he is shown dancing with a woman. They later observe part of the fight between Hamilton’s acquaintance Chick and another man. But it is most unclear whether Hamilton actually brought the woman to the club for a date or if they just met there by accident and did not know each other. I kind of think they were on a real date, however. This entire scene is silent on their parts; we don’t even know what the woman sounds like. And Hamilton never speaks of romance throughout the series, that I’m aware of.

There is at least one woman who is regularly in Hamilton’s life. But Mignon Germaine, from my favorite episode The Fatal Fetish, appears to be a close friend and nothing else. In Hamilton's words, they “have been good friends for a long time.” I never picked up on any hint that there was or had been a romance between them; neither seemed interested in such a thing.

We don’t even really know who Hamilton’s secretary is, to determine what his relationship might be with that person. There is an older Miss Miller in an early episode, but she might be a stenographer. In The Fatal Fetish there is an unseen girl whom Hamilton speaks with over his intercom, but she might be a receptionist. In many episodes Hamilton speaks with someone named Leon. This person seems the most likely candidate to be his secretary. He could be an assistant, but whenever Hamilton is in court a different person is with him. Hence, I don’t think he relies on any one assistant more than another. It’s more likely that Leon is a secretary.

In any case, I would really prefer that Hamilton not have any romantic relations with anyone who works for him. That would just be paralleling Perry and Della too much. One suspected office romance is enough for the series.

Paul is the ladies’ man. Even a show like Perry Mason felt it needed one, and it does add spice and amusing comments to many episodes. Paul often shows interest in various women passing through the cases. Occasionally he is depicted on dates, which usually seem to get interrupted by assignments from Perry. He certainly doesn’t have a steady girl, but I wouldn’t think it of him. He doesn’t seem ready to settle down, although when Perry described a girl he was looking for Paul quipped, “I’ve been looking for one like that for years.” Perhaps, if Paul found that right one, he would indeed settle down.

(I will refrain from even venturing into the territory of the television movies, where it not only is obvious that Paul settled down, but that he died. Too, too depressing. Those movies are not out-and-out canon as far as I’m concerned, but instead just one possibility of the future. I prefer to picture the characters on the original television series, largely unchanged, still having their adventures now as they had then.)

While Paul appears to actively be looking, the other main men seem to be quite content to stay bachelors. When Della makes remarks that sound as though she may want things to get more serious between herself and Perry, Perry worms his way out of it. Once he comments that Della is asking a leading question!

Andy’s feelings on staying single versus getting married are uncertain, although he oogles a pretty girl along with Paul in The Golden Oranges. And for Lieutenant Drumm, I doubt the subject was ever broached.

Of course, it was common for the characters in early crime shows to be devoted to their work and for that to be their life. However, even shows such as Dragnet had characters who were married, and they would sometimes talk about it even if the wives were never seen. Perry doesn’t even feature that. And that says to me that either these guys really like the single life . . . or Erle Stanley Gardner just didn’t want them bogged down with anything else. And either or both could very well be true.

I myself have no intention of straying from the show’s formula on that point. Perry and Della will continue their very close and deep friendship in my stories, and the readers are free to imagine that they’re romantically involved if they wish. Paul will continue to be a ladies’ man and will probably occasionally crush on various girls. Tragg is unmarried, but while I kind of think he probably was married at one time I don’t believe I’ll venture into an explanation of what happened. (Of course, that could change as time goes on. I do have a vague idea that I might expound on if I write a Christmas story.) And Hamilton will not be romantically attached to anyone. He may occasionally take a girl out, as he likely did in The Golfer’s Gambit, but I will likely not depict it, as I prefer to keep the focus on the mystery and the friendships.

The quote I chose to place at the beginning of this entry is in reference to my own character Vivalene, who appears at some point in stories for every one of my major fandoms. Here she is making her Perry Mason debut. As always, she is a criminal. In the story, Hamilton hopes to get her arrested and convicted. She flirts with him, despite the fact that he prosecuted her three years before. He means nothing to her, and since he knows that as well as what she is, he is unmoved by her attempt to soften him.