Perry Mason on HBO?

So MeTV sends two emails a week, one on Wednesday and one on Saturday. I thought for sure they would include a tribute to Richard in their Saturday email, as they have for other actors when they have passed. They didn't. I was hopping mad and went to their site to see if they'd even written one for him. They had, thankfully, even though they apparently didn't deem it important enough to include in their email. They also had a tribute for Richard by airing episodes of shows with him today, which I was glad of. And while I was on the site, I learned a very important piece of Perry news.

Remember how Robert Downey, Jr. wanted to make a new Perry movie? Apparently he's still interested in rebooting Perry, but now he's switched his sights to television. According to the article I found, it will be on HBO and now it's definite that it will be happening, instead of just a vague possibility in the future. This was apparently also being planned for a year and I somehow missed the news, I guess because MeTV also didn't deem that important enough to include in their emails.

I have mixed feelings about this. I do like the idea of the characters possibly becoming popular again and being introduced to a new generation. But is it worth it? Most reboots are not very good. HBO has high production values and they're highly acclaimed, but that doesn't mean Perry on HBO is a good idea.

Another question is, will it still be a period piece or will it be present-day? HBO certainly isn't a stranger to period pieces. I, of course, prefer the idea of updating to the present-day, but really only for the technology and because then I don't have to think that the characters would be dead now. However, if it brings present-day topics and values into it, then I'm not terribly pleased. Although even in our classic Perry there was certainly plenty of immorality going around, at least we didn't have to see bedroom scenes or hear blue language. And there wasn't gratuitous violence, and unfortunately with HBO, I'm sure we'll be seeing that no matter what time it's set in.

My guess is that it will be a period piece. Downey also, as I recall, wanted to specifically adapt the books, so I imagine the characters would be sticking closer to their book roots if that is still his plan. I'm also not sure what I think of that, since I'm not crazy about Perry in the books and don't like that he and Hamilton never form a friendship.

Overall, the article was pretty vague and just assured us that HBO Perry is coming. So, what do we all think of this?

In Memoriam: Richard Anderson

It is with a heavy heart that I bring the news that we have lost another classic movie and television great and Perry star. Richard Anderson passed away last night at age 91. He had just celebrated his 91st birthday on the 8th of August. An anonymous reader on the blog let me know the sad news earlier tonight and I immediately looked up the news articles posted so far. Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner have both delivered moving tributes to Richard and I imagine there will be many more over the coming days, each one completely deserved. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Richard was a kind, gracious, dignified man and a highly talented actor. He very often stole the show with his multi-faceted characters, even if he didn't have much screentime in a particular production. For both me and my mom (and many more), he was the best thing about The Student Prince, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman and many others. And he was certainly one of our favorite elements of Perry. As the genuinely friendly yet by-the-book police lieutenant Steve Drumm, he added a fascinating presence to the final season of our show.

The end of August has long been a time for me to think about and honor several great character actors who passed on succeeding days. Simon Oakland died on the 29th, while both William Talman and Wesley Lau died on the 30th in different years. It gives me pause that the actor who succeeded Wesley on Perry has now passed on the 31st.

I've been aware of Richard most of my life, first encountering him in The Student Prince and loving him and his character. He brought a definite sweetness to the role of Lucas that I picked up on even at that young age. I knew he was something special. I rediscovered that every time I watched him in the years since. Of course, I love watching him play good guys the most, but he was adept at playing the most nefarious villains as well. And yet, even with some of them, there was sometimes a very three-dimensional and human aspect that made them very complex and not completely unsympathetic. Others, however, were indeed absolute cads without any apparent redeeming qualities. Richard could do it all!

Richard was often asked why he didn't write a book about his life, to which he would reply, "Why? I'm still living it!" I'm so glad he finally agreed to write one and share the experiences of his wonderful life that he was indeed still living. His memoir is such an invaluable treasure for his loved ones and fans alike, a beautifully narrated piece that feels like an intimate fireside chat. Add to that his legacy of movie and television roles and he will always live on.

We love you, Richard, and we miss you. Thank you for giving us so much through the years.

The ups and downs of Perry fandom in 2017

It has been a sad year for Perry fans. The last surviving member of the original Core Five, the beautiful Barbara Hale, passed away near the end of January. Last week, she would have turned 95. It was an amazing honor to have her with us for so many years, but still very sad to lose her. She brought so much to Perry, truly making the role of Della Street her own. No one else has ever or could ever portray the character as did Barbara Hale. For many, she is synonymous with the character. We miss her deeply and pray for her family.

Those wanting to see her in the Perry reunion movies have a far greater chance now, with the box set of all 30 films. The price is lower now; Amazon has been selling it for $22! Wal-Mart carries it in-store for about $32. Both are incredible prices for this many films! Those wanting complete and uncut copies of the Perry movies would do well to pick one up while these prices last.

And MeTV has announced a special Perry tribute throughout the month of May, with theme weeks for the nighttime showings. Those preferring to watch the episodes in order can still do so with the morning showings. Details on the episodes planned are here: http://metv.com/stories/this-may-is-perry-may-son-on-metv

Many episodes I like, a couple I don't, and a few I'm more or less indifferent to. But either way, it's awesome to see MeTV planning something like this to keep the series fun and fresh and maybe introduce viewers to episodes they don't see as much (or ever). It's a very nice tribute to Raymond Burr's 100th birthday next month as well.

I know updates here have been scarce (what an understatement!) but I still love Perry and the characters and the actors and all the wonderful things and people that made up our show. And I still reply to comments whenever they come. I love hearing from the readers and viewers.

The Killer Kiss and more MeTV news!

So, The Killer Kiss. I missed some of the beginning of it while I was taking care of some things, but maybe I’ll catch up with that on the taped copy. I saw pretty much everything after the murder happened.

It was interesting that the defendant was a ward of Perry’s. It was fun seeing their interaction and getting a snippet more information about Perry’s backstory in the movie verse, even though I don’t consider it canon.

Della was pretty much adorable, finally getting some more decent screentime and being a soap opera buff. (And I was highly amused by Perry’s tale of a judge he knew also being a soap opera fan.) I’ve never been into soaps, but I could relate to Della’s excitement about the cast and being there to see an episode filmed.

As with most Perry-related show-biz things, many of the guest characters are a bit over the top and the plot pokes fun at Hollywood tropes, such as how they explain the dead guy’s character being played by someone new.

Lieutenant Brock was slightly obnoxious, but I like how friendly he’s gotten with Perry in these later movies. It’s some nice character development. And totally an improvement over there not being a steady police character in the earlier films.

I was slightly amused by the girl of the movie this time, and by Ken ending up locked in the men’s bathroom and her rushing right in to help him without thinking of or caring about the awkwardness and general impropriety of it. Sometimes exceptions must be made in drastic situations, after all!

And their experience in that small-town was horrible! Crooked lawmen are one thing that tends to irritate me, and that sheriff was the mother-lode of horrid. It was so, so satisfying when Ken and the girl managed to orchestrate a break-out and locked the sheriff in the cell. I also loved when Perry showed up to help them just as the jam got worse again. And the deputy being a good guy was definitely a nice touch. It’s always enjoyable to see that even in a corrupt place, you can find good people.

It was interesting viewing it all along as the last proper Perry movie, which actually included Perry. As a send-off, it wasn’t bad, especially since they didn’t know at the time it would be the last. The plot was intense and related strongly to the main characters in the form of the defendant’s connection with Perry, there was some good action with Ken, and the ending was rather adorable. I loved Perry grabbing Della and Chris and posing for a picture. It was slightly bittersweet, knowing it was the final shot, but it was a lovely last moment.

I wasn’t expecting the memorial screen for Raymond Burr, but in retrospect it makes sense to have had it, since the movie didn’t air until after his death. It was sobering and sad, and Mom hadn’t realized it was the last one he’d filmed, so it was a bit startling for her.

I’ll probably keep my taped copy of it, too, unless I end up desperate for a tape for some reason. I had a hard time finding one tonight for The Lady in the Lake, but I finally turned up something suitable without erasing The Killer Kiss.

It’s been nice watching those two movies I never got around to seeing, and re-watching The Lady in the Lake and The Heartbroken Bride was quite fun. I have to admit, I still honestly find it hard to believe that they really weren’t trying to say that Perry was the father of his friend Laura’s child. They certainly seemed to be laying on the implications heavily. But it’s nice that, according to a reader here, they apparently didn’t mean anything by it and Perry and Laura were meant to have a close friendship instead. It’s always nice to show that guys and girls can have really deep friendships without romance entering into the picture.

Oh! And I see that, according to Sitcoms Online, there have already been changes made to MeTV’s Fall schedule. It looks like now they will not be removing the morning Perry episode! It looks like it’s moving to an hour earlier instead. Also, now they’re saying the Mystery Movie will continue to air directly after the nighttime Perry and not later. We’ll see how this plays out in the coming weeks, but I won’t be surprised if that is how it will go. MeTV knows viewers love their Perry fix twice a day!

Perry Movies and Fall News

MeTV is running Perry movies this week. This time, they are all ones that MeTV has shown before, so I guess that answers the question as to whether they will replay things. However, if anyone missed them on the first round, perhaps now there will be a chance to catch them again.

Last night was The Fatal Fashion. I have a review of it around somewhere here. I recorded it the first time it was on and have kept it, since Scott Baio is the prosecutor in it.

The rest of the week will be, in order:

The Glass Coffin

The Heartbroken Bride

The Killer Kiss

The Lady in the Lake

I find it pleasing that they will show the two movies I recorded long ago to watch, but still have not got around to. Also, I did miss the first ten minutes of The Glass Coffin, so now when I see it tonight, it will be the whole thing. And I am very excited to get the chance to record The Lady in the Lake. It was probably my favorite of the movies for the surprise twist near the end and I regretted not having recorded it for keeps at the time I was originally watching it.

Also, MeTV has made their first announcement about their Fall schedule. I was very surprised; I was just thinking about it and wondering what it would be and figuring there would not be any news for a while yet. The full schedule is not currently available on their site, so I only have the most preliminary information, as reported by the Sitcoms Online blog.

The schedule will affect Perry. The morning showing is being booted again, this time for Matlock. Hmm, that seems a little recent for MeTV. I would think it would have been more likely to have found a home on Cozi TV. But I suppose MeTV wanted it because of Andy Griffith starring.

The Mystery Movie will remain on the schedule, but be pushed way down until 1 A.M./2 A.M., depending on your time zone. The Twilight Zone will be back, this time after the late-night showing of Perry.

So far, the only news I'm really pleased about is that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. will now air twice a week. I am not, however, too pleased that it will move to 1 A.M. on the weekends. A lot of people will find it difficult to watch it then. It seems like a really ridiculous move to put it on that late when the movie is coming out and there will probably be a new influx of interest for the series.

I also like that Wagon Train will be back, as I wasn't finished recording episodes I wanted. I hope that they won't only show seasons 1 through most of 4 and 7 like before, however. There are some episodes from season 5 that I wanted, including one with Wesley Lau. I also want the Simon Oakland episode from season 6. And they stopped their season 4 episodes before they reached the one I'd been looking forward to with H.M. Wynant.

It kind of looks like The Mod Squad, Mission: Impossible, and The Saint will be leaving the schedule, but at this point I can't say. They might just be shifting to other times.

Their comedy block is going to be the same every night, with Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and Hogan's Heroes. I liked when they aired something different every night.

It will be interesting to see the full Fall schedule when MeTV releases it. Overall, I'm not terribly impressed at this point and I wonder why they haven't been adding many shows this year. I worry a bit wondering if they're in financial trouble.

At least the late-night airing of Perry is staying, but I'm annoyed by the departure of the morning episode, since that's when a lot of people watch. Oh well, though, as we've seen from past experience, the morning episode never seems to be gone for long. People like it there and in the past, MeTV has listened to that.

The Summer of Me: Perry is safe, but schedule is underused

Well, MeTV’s summer information is in, and I must say, for drama fans who were hoping for something new on the schedule, this is probably the dullest Summer of Me they’ve had. They’re getting rid of a couple of their dramas to make way for some more comedies. The only real changes on the schedule are that Star Trek is leaving the weekday schedule to make way for a double dose of Emergency!, CHiPs is being booted in order for Gilligan’s Island and Hogan’s Heroes to move up on the schedule, and the evening comedy block is changing every weeknight. Most of the shows in the evening block are changing; most are comedies being switched out for other comedies, with the exception of The Twilight Zone, which they’re taking away again. 

Those are literally the only schedule changes I can see. Thankfully, nothing affects either showing of Perry. And interestingly, the Mystery Movie is staying. I wonder if they’ll possibly add some other detectives to the line-up, though.

I also wonder why they keep messing with The Twilight Zone. Not only is it a consistently popular series in general, but it’s made it to the final rounds of their Me Madness twice in a row now. Obviously people want it. So why on Earth not let them have it?

It would seem that MeTV doesn’t want to listen to their fanbase. It took them a year to get Star Trek on more than once a week, even though it won last year’s Me Madness. Now they’re already sending it packing to once a week again. Not to mention, they can’t even add one drama but instead have to let one of their existing shows get a two-hour block? And The Twilight Zone has bounced on and off their schedule so much in the last couple of years it’s dizzying.

The only other explanation I can think of for at least part of what they’re doing is that their Me Madness is not an accurate representation of the entire fanbase, which is what I’ve felt for a long time. If so, why even do it? Just as a gimmick, I suppose. I had thought maybe they were using it to figure out what the fans liked best. While they keep some of that in mind, it doesn’t seem like they keep all of it in mind.

I’m glad both Perry showings are staying right where they are. But I’m really disappointed that they’re not adding anything other than more comedies. Usually they try to have a mixture of genres represented. I look forward to their seasonal changes each time, hoping for returning favorites or new favorites. Usually there’s something I’m excited about. But I can’t find myself too chuffed about Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days, and even more of The Brady Bunch than they already show. Also, they’re doing their evening comedy block as a two-hour thing. That’s four episodes of one single show every weeknight. I thought at least they’d do two episodes of one and two of another.

Overall, this seems like a very uncreative and wasteful way to run a summer schedule.

This isn’t the 300^th blog post I expected to write, either. But we can certainly celebrate Perry’s continuing presence on MeTV. That’s an exciting and pleasing thing.

The Case of the Sinister Spirit

A quick note: Richard Anderson’s book is finally out after a two-month delay! I am very excitedly waiting for my pre-ordered copy to arrive. It can be ordered here: http://www.bearmanormedia.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=802 There’s also a hardcover version, but that’s $10 more.

So last night MeTV aired an absolutely mangled copy of The Fatal Fetish that I have never seen them air before. It was so bad, it looked like one of Hallmark’s 43 minute jobs. They put back the scene where Larry Germaine barges in on Brady Duncan’s home, but they took away the scene where Hamilton watches Mignon’s dance, the bit where the nurse talks to Mrs. Duncan about magazines while Larry sneaks past her into Carina’s room, the scene where Paul goes to get Mignon from New Orleans, and it seems like there were some other cuts I’m not remembering at the moment. It was cringeworthy. Previously, MeTV has aired a copy that was almost complete, with only the scene of Larry barging in on Brady Duncan, and the bit of Hamilton’s introduction to what Perry was going to do in the courtroom, missing. I hope this other one isn’t going to be the copy they’ll air all the time now.

Following that, they aired The Sinister Spirit, one of the early Perry movies that was a lot of fun. Ghosts haunting a big old hotel? Yes, please!

David Hall was certainly one of the most sadistic and cruel characters we’ve seen in any Perry media. The things he did to those poor people, especially Robert Stack’s character! And then when the final revelation came in court, that the secretary was really David and the person who died had been the real secretary . . . wow. Not to mention that David really murdered him in cold blood, apparently mainly just because he wanted to kill “himself” off in the public eye and start over secretly. That was twisted. I suspected for some time that perhaps the “secretary” was the murderer, and that maybe the death had been an accident, so the revelation of the twist was a complete surprise to me.

The things being done to torture Susan and make her think the hotel was haunted were really freaky. Crying pictures have always been something that makes my skin crawl, and being chased by what looks like a character from a portrait would be absolutely terrifying. I think they could have made it look scarier, though, by not having the guy be solid. It could have been a ghostly hologram chasing her instead of a real person in costume. When Paul Jr. found the door behind the picture, it seemed a little hard to swallow that in reality Susan apparently saw the door open and the guy step out of there, even though it seemed to her that the guy came out of the picture.

I was slightly disappointed it was the handyman torturing her. I knew it wouldn’t be a real ghost, but I guess I thought it might be a more prominent character, one of the other guests. But it was very eerily done and enjoyable in any case. Also, the little bit where Paul Jr. removes a washer from the sink so he can call the guy to come fix it? Heh.

I loved the surreal opening of Perry wandering through a room and seeing the chandelier, which then descended. Perry promptly woke up from a nightmare induced by the book he was reading, in which that very thing happened. I think that may be about the only time a Perry character is seen having a nightmare, let alone one influenced by the last reality they were exposed to. And the dream almost seems to have been an eerie warning in some way, since the scene played out for real when Perry discovered the actual room in the hotel.

Della didn’t really have much screentime, which was disappointing. But she got to do some very cool stuff while she was there, especially saving Perry from the falling chandelier by seeing it start to come down and calling to him just in time. She and Perry also share a nice scene late in the movie when something she does inadvertently tips Perry off to the solution of the crime, just like what happens several times in the television series.

As usual, Paul Jr. managed to do something stupid. When he arrived and saw a frightened girl fleeing down the hall, why didn’t he call out to her instead of walking slowly and silently after her? He certainly could have saved a lot of headache for himself. On the up side, I liked how protective he was of Susan and how upset he was by Perry picking her apart on the witness stand when he hadn’t realized Perry was going to do that.

It was great seeing Michael Reston prosecute, as always, and as an Untouchables fan, a lot of fun seeing Robert Stack as the defendant. I did think maybe there should have been a little more about the character’s wife Carol, an earlier scene with her or something, but I loved the little bit at the end where Perry had called her and she came down to reunite with her husband at the end of the hearing.

It was really nice to have a change of scenery from the usual Perry movies. I loved the creepy old setting of the hotel and all the secret passageways and mysterious things inside them. And it was nice, for once, not to have the usual subplot of Paul Jr. chasing an uncooperative witness. That gets a little monotonous when it happens over and over. It seemed to happen more frequently in the movies than it did on the series.

Perry gave off an Ironside vibe at the end, when he teases Paul Jr. about the picture talking, but that was definitely an amusing close.

Overall, it’s definitely one of the movies I’ve enjoyed the most.

Popular blog posts

So one of the steady readers here has informed me that MeTV will already be doing another week of Perry movies next week! Starting with May 4^th (Star Wars day), there will be another mixture of early-era and later-era Perry movies after the nighttime showing of Perry.

That is really neat, although I wonder why they’re doing another week so soon after the large gap between the first and second weeks of Perry movies. It makes me wonder all the more if they’re not going to keep the Mystery Movie feature come summer and perhaps they’re hurrying to show all the Perry movies before then. It seems like with this upcoming week, combined with the past weeks and the times they showed Perry movies on Friday nights, they will have practically shown them all.

And for months I’ve been pondering on one of the curiosities about this blog. I think the post that has the largest number of comments that still continue to come in from time to time is the very first tribute post I made for Wesley Lau. I’m not sure why that particular Wesley post is so popular; perhaps it comes up higher than other Wesley posts if the posts appear in Google searches.

In any case, it certainly goes to show how loved Wesley is by much of the fanbase. I think that’s awesome, especially since he wasn’t one of the original cast members. Oftentimes the cast members who come in later aren’t so well-accepted by longtime fans.

A lot of the comments that come in are from people wanting to know more about Wesley. I really wish I could provide more information. Wesley seems to have been a very private person who rarely gave interviews. And naturally I want to respect his privacy, if that is what he wished and his family is keeping quiet for that reason. However, some of the comments coming in are even from extended family members or other people who knew him or knew someone who knew him. Some of them are looking for information too.

I think it’s important for family members to know about each other. Although I would love to know more information about Wesley for myself and for the other fans, I would love even more to help these extended family members learn more about him and give them a resource to go to where they can.

Two of my newest projects are a website and a blog, both connected, to celebrate many of the character actors I love. The blog is open and available at http://thepathofthestars.blogspot.com and will focus largely on character musings and episode reviews. The website will focus largely on interviews from the actors and from people who knew or worked with them. It isn’t open yet, but I am in the process of preparing it and it’s perhaps halfway ready to completion.

Most of the interviews, naturally, are dug up from old newspaper archives and linked to. It is very cool to find these gems and be able to read what the actors actually thought and felt back in the day. I imagine a lot of people won’t have ever seen these interviews, so I’m happy to bring them all together on the website via links. And then every now and then I run across a really awesome person who wants to further the information on one of the people and is willing to give an interview to me. I am really excited to open the website and share those interviews especially.

So I’m putting this out there in the hopes that someone connected with Wesley who has information to give will see it. Would any such people be willing to conduct an interview about Wesley for the website? Please note that my preference is email or private message interviews, because I have a lot of trouble with my phone and I’m afraid a telephone interview wouldn’t go over so well. I want to make sure that any interviews I do get are captured properly and not misheard or mis-transcribed on my part. Thank you in advance for any help you can give!

Well, that was an epic fail.

I thought I was doing pretty well at keeping up with MeTV's mystery movie schedule, but apparently I didn't see this week. It's another week of Perry movies!

I am so sorry I didn't realize this sooner. Those on the Pacific coast, if any are still up and possibly glancing at this blog, can still see/record tonight's movie, The Shooting Star, in its entirety. Hopefully the majority of those interested in the movies already knew of this week's events via other sources. I am unable to watch the movie myself, as Cozi is airing an episode of The Lawyers with Joseph Campanella during part of the time the movie is on, and that takes precedence. Hopefully, all of us who have been unable to see the film tonight can catch it on DVD (or on YouTube, if the movies are still up there).

I am rather curious about this movie in particular, since it's one with David Ogden Stiers as the prosecutor and Joe Penny is one of the guest-stars. He seems to keep popping up in my life lately; he's in the film Lifepod (the 1981 film, not the 1993 one), and he's one of the stars of Riptide, which I'm just starting to get into thanks to a wonderful guest-spot by Christopher Cary.

It's rather neat that MeTV is airing a week of Perry movies this week, as the week will end, I believe, with Barbara Hale's birthday. What a nice tribute, intentional or not.

A new round of MeTV Madness?

So today MeTV sent me an email about their upcoming “MeTV Madness” in a couple of weeks. Just like last year, they’ll have people vote on their favorite MeTV shows over a period of six rounds.

I kind of rolled my eyes that they decided to do that again. If the real purpose of the contest is to try and figure out what shows to keep and what shows to put on hiatus or get rid of altogether, it seems that it doesn’t fairly represent the entirety of the MeTV viewing population. Many viewers likely don’t bother with the Internet at all, and many that do likely don’t bother with the contest.

I wasn’t even sure whether last year’s votes were accurate. While it’s believable that Star Trek and The Twilight Zone are among the channel’s most popular shows, I doubt that they are the most popular above all others.

Why?

Because if they really were, why would they remove The Twilight Zone from the schedule for six months or more (unless they were having a problem keeping hold of the distribution rights)? And why would they continue to only air Star Trek once a week? (Perhaps because it only ran for three seasons, but they’ve aired more than one series every weekday that only ran for four.)

It seems to me that in actuality, MeTV’s most popular shows may very well be Daniel Boone, The Rifleman, and our own Perry Mason.

Again, why?

Perry is the only hour-long show that MeTV airs twice a day. When they tried to remove one of the showings for The Love Boat, it apparently was an epic fail. Perry was back before long.

The same thing happened with Daniel Boone. That time, the duration it was booted in favor of The Love Boat was even shorter than it had been with Perry. Even though Daniel Boone still aired on Saturdays, people apparently still really wanted it on weekdays too and balked at having The Love Boat stuck in its place.

The Rifleman airs six days a week on MeTV. When they wanted to put another show in its previous weekday slot, they moved The Rifleman up by three hours and sent The Big Valley packing to Saturdays only. Apparently people are okay with that; they want their Rifleman. And in addition to the six days, they also air The Rifleman online, rotating episodes each week. It, and Wanted: Dead or Alive, are the only shows they have online that they air on the network more than once a week. Wanted does not have the charm of The Rifleman, however, and it is not hard to believe that The Rifleman is the more popular of the two.

Of course, one could argue that perhaps if shows other than The Love Boat had been stuck in Perry’s and Daniel’s timeslots, the viewers might be okay with that. Maybe they just don’t like The Love Boat. But it would seem to me that it’s a combination of both that and the fact that they especially love Perry and Daniel.

It would be interesting if MeTV ran a most popular/most favorite show contest and it really was all-encompassing, taking in every viewer everywhere. I wonder how the results would end up then?

Also, speaking of Star Trek, I must take this moment to acknowledge the sad passing of Leonard Nimoy. A Perry alumnus, he played the bad guy in season 6’s The Shoplifter’s Shoe. MeTV aired it again on Friday night in honor of him. I had missed the airing when they showed it chronologically, so I was happy to tune in on Friday. I had been looking forward to The Decadent Dean, but I half-expected they would alter the aired episode that night, so I really wasn’t surprised when they did.

I am very sad that he’s gone, but I’m happy he led such a rich, full life and left such a legacy for his fans. And I’m glad that he is, in some way, part of the Perry family.

Quick Post

A little reminder that MeTV's week of Perry movies kicks off tonight following the nighttime Perry! Set your VCRs or DVRs! (Or stay up and watch, if you are so inclined!)

And another Perry-related reminder: you can still pre-order Richard Anderson's book, which releases next month! http://www.bearmanormedia.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=802 It seems to only be available to purchase from the publisher, and pre-ordering will allow free shipping, which is an awesome thing.

Richard's book will be a treasure for every classic movie and television lover, as well as Richard fans in specific. And he's bound to talk about Perry somewhat, something I am eagerly looking forward to!

William Talman: Belated Birthday Tribute and Movie News

I really wanted to get a post up on Wednesday. I really did. And I thought and thought and thought . . . and couldn’t seem to come up with a very original way to say Happy 100th Birthday to the awesome William Talman. I still can’t, after all the posts I’ve already made for him and Hamilton, but I wanted to acknowledge his milestone birthday before we get any farther removed from February 4th!

A local station is going to show the movie The City That Never Sleeps this coming weekend. I’ve been debating whether to give it a try. I know William plays the bad guy in it, but it’s still a movie I haven’t seen him in yet. And he’s so amazing at whatever he does that I know it will be an incredible performance.

MeTV is currently showing the four season 6 episodes with guest lawyers. I’ve been enjoying re-watching them again; two of them are among my all-time favorite episodes ever (The Libelous Locket and The Two-Faced-Turn-A-Bout). Hamilton has a lot of great scenes in all the episodes, and the one coming up tomorrow is the one where he and Della have that intriguing “hostile witness” exchange.

I’m always impressed by how he conducts himself in the Bette Davis episode, Constant Doyle. Back in the 1960s, it would have been so easy to have had people giving a female lawyer a really hard time. But Hamilton is so perfectly professional and gracious and never looks down on Constant because she’s a woman (or because of any reason, really). Even when he’s absolutely bewildered by her trenchcoat display, he sounds baffled when he objects instead of argumentative.

I still don’t agree with Perry’s comment that Hamilton called him ten times exclaiming that he wants Perry to get well so he’ll have someone easy to face off against. I think Perry was probably joking. Hamilton may have called once, and said something like that jokingly, but I can’t feature him doing it ten times. Nor do I think Constant was harder to beat than Perry. But it was a fun case and it was awesome to see a female lawyer appear (for the only time in the series proper).

I never fail to get the giggles in The Libelous Locket when Professor Lindley pins Andy down on his joke about the Martian nine feet tall. Hamilton does a brilliant facepalm right then and his expression is classic. He’s sure that’s not going to help the prosecution’s case one bit, despite Andy’s exclamation that he was only kidding.

Any time Hamilton is in a scene, it can never be dull. He always has some perfect expression or comment to make. Even when he isn’t the focus of a scene and is only present in the background, such as while watching Perry conduct an examination of a witness, he’s very involved in what’s going on. I always like watching to see what William Talman does at those moments. Sometimes he observes Perry. Sometimes he writes or makes notes on a piece of paper. It always looks very natural and logical. The fact that he always knows how to handle those moments when he’s on camera, yet isn’t the focus, is one more sign of what an impressive actor he was.

How wonderful to think that the world has had knowledge of William Talman’s existence for 100 years. What a treasure! Happy birthday to a great actor and noble man!

And some news on the movie front: Next week, starting with the 16th, MeTV will finally have a week of showing Perry movies for their nightly Mystery Movie thing at 12:30 A.M. (or 11:30 P.M., for Mountain and Central timezones), right after the nighttime Perry. It’s no problem for night owls like me, but those going to bed at more decent hours had best have VCRs or DVRs ready. The lineup will be as follows:

The Notorious Nun
The Murdered Madam
The Lethal Lesson
The Musical Murder
The Maligned Mobster 

None are movies that MeTV has previously shown, so it’s doubly important to grab the chance if you’re interested. I will definitely be watching, although as always, I will be missing those of the cast who are sadly absent. I wish they could have at least recruited Richard to come onboard and play Lieutenant Drumm again (maybe as a Captain by then or something). I know it would be the wrong locale if everyone relocated to Denver within the storyline, but still, it would have been such fun. And it would have given the police character more of a role again. One thing that surprises me about the movies is that the police characters rarely have a decent-sized part or are even well-rounded characters at all. That was a big part of the Perry series proper. I wonder why they felt it was not important enough to transfer to the movies as well?

Birthday post for William Hopper and news

I wanted to make sure to get in one more post in January. As an anonymous reader hastened to inform me, I neglected to put up a post for William Hopper’s birthday on Monday. This year, it wasn’t for lack of remembering, but lack of physical capability to make the post. I was feeling miserable all that day. Then Tuesday was rather busy, as has been the rest of the week, but I decided I must make sure to get William H. acknowledged before the month is out.

This is a real milestone birthday for our William H.; he would have been 100 this year! (William Talman and Simon Oakland celebrate the same milestone this year as well.) It’s really quite incredible to think that it’s been that many years. I wish I really had a decent tribute to give, but I haven’t seen any more of his movies yet, nor have I gleaned new insight into Paul-centric episodes or scenes since the last time I posted on that matter.

The best I can do is mention my geeky excitement when I was watching The Stars and Stripes Forever, the biopic for John Philip Sousa, and they mentioned the actor DeWolf Hopper was going to star in a musical play Sousa was writing the music for. I figured that must be William H.’s father, considering his full name is William DeWolf Hopper, Jr., and looking him up, I find that is true. So it was fun to find a little Perry-related connection in that film.

Also, looking up things further, it says that William H. first appeared in one of his father’s silent movies, Sunshine Dad, as a baby. That’s pretty adorable.

William H. had a very illustrious career in the motion picture business during the late 1930s and off and on through parts of the 1940s and 1950s, before he became Paul Drake on Perry Mason in 1957. And it wasn’t just B-grade movies, either; he has quite the impressive resumé—even though many of his early roles were bit parts. Among other well-known films, he appeared in Stagecoach, The Maltese Falcon, Knute Rockne, and Yankee Doodle Dandy! I knew about his later role in Rebel Without a Cause, but I was unaware of these earlier roles. I am excited. It’s been years since I’ve seen The Maltese Falcon; it looks like it’s time I saw it again. And on the B-movie circuit, he was in two of the Bonita Granville Nancy Drew movies. While I did not care for her version of the character, I would definitely be interested in seeing those films to see William H.

I still find it interesting that William H. originally auditioned for the role of Perry Mason himself when they started putting the show together. I really enjoyed his screen test when I saw it on the 50^th Anniversary DVD set, but he just didn’t give off a Perry vibe to me. I guess the producers agreed, since they determined he would be the perfect Paul Drake instead. That was definitely a bit of casting genius!

While I’ll admit that I didn’t think Albert Stratton in The New Perry Mason did a poor job as Paul, it will always be William Hopper’s Paul who is the iconic version of the character. He’s ideal! Smooth, intelligent, always with an eye for a beautiful lady and bewilderment over some of Perry’s desires (“A couple of dozen flies?!”), William H.’s Paul delivers many classic lines and hilarious expressions. And of course, he often brings in the evidence Perry needs to cinch a case just in time.

I love whenever the show devotes a bit more time to showing Paul operating, instead of just having Paul tell Perry things about the investigation after the fact. Every now and then the show would allow some spotlighting of Paul’s work, something that became more prominent later on as Raymond Burr grew tired of always carrying the majority of the show. Mid-series episodes such as The Barefaced Witness, The Impatient Partner, and The Glamorous Ghost are excellent Paul investigation vehicles. Later ventures such as The Bullied Bowler, The Feather Cloak, and The Carefree Coronary also involve Paul as a particularly key figure.

When out-of-town investigating needs doing, Perry often sends Paul instead of going himself. Sometimes Paul’s adventures are off-screen; other times, we see him in assorted locales such as New Orleans, Boston, and Mexico. It would make a good post just to focus on Paul’s travels sometime. I’ll have to start collecting information for such a post.

Paul is such a ladies’ man that another good post subject would be all the times he’s mentioned having dates, shows interest in particular ladies, or is actually shown on dates. Then again, that could take volumes. Paul has an interesting social life, when given the chance to have it.

Paul always adds so much spice to the show. I always enjoy seeing more of his investigations and would have liked to have seen more. There could never be too many private-eye series! Lately I’ve been enjoying a lot of Darren McGavin’s private-eye vehicle Mike Hammer, and it occurs to me how much fun it would have been had there been a series focusing more on Paul’s investigations than on the legal elements. But I love Perry Mason for what it is, and I love Paul for being a part of what it is. There is certainly a big, lonely gap in the reunion movies where Paul should be. No actor could quite fill it.

Happy belated birthday to a wonderful actor and a wonderful man, William Hopper! 100 years of being aware of his existence in the world is a milestone indeed.

And now for a bit of news. I probably shouldn’t have this in the same post, but I’d like to get it out here before any more time goes by. I still wish that there was a Perry video or computer game with all the latest graphics. It would be so fun to see the cast rendered in 3D, possibly even controllable for levels. Imagine playing out investigation levels as Paul! Going to court as Perry and Hamilton! Playing mini puzzle games with Della or Tragg, Andy, and Steve sorting through information! There are so many possibilities.

The old DOS text-based computer game remains the one time Perry ventured into such media. There may be some nice pictures of Paul in that; I’m unsure, as I’ve only seen the first 16 minutes of game play. All I recall is some nice renditions of Hamilton and Tragg. However, for anyone who understands how to work a text-based DOS game, it is now possible to find out the answers to this and any other questions revolving around said game! The Internet Archive has been adding old DOS games to be legally played online for free, and the 1985 Perry game The Mandarin Murder is among them! My friend Crystal Rose (who runs the Simon Oakland blog with me) discovered it here:

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Perry_Mason_-_The_Case_of_the_Mandarin_Murder_1986

I’m looking forward to giving it a try, although I don’t know how handy I’ll be at playing a text-based game.

Also, I do have what appears to be news on the Perry movie front. There is a promo running for MeTV’s current Mystery Movie feature on weeknights, and Perry as he appears in the 1980s and 1990s movies is part of that promo. It looks like at some point, MeTV will indeed air some of the Perry movies as part of their line-up. They seem to rotate each week, so we should get a whole week of Perry movies sometime soon. That should be interesting: a late-night Perry episode followed by a Perry movie.

MeTV 2015 schedule changes

So reader Susan Clark alerted me to the fact that come next month, MeTV’s schedule will alter in a way that will affect Raymond Burr fans. Yes, Ironside will be off the schedule once again. Sigh. I managed to get one of the Joseph Campanella episodes I wanted, but there were still the other three. And in any case, it’s such an enjoyable, suspenseful show and there were still some episodes I hadn’t seen. They just put it back in September; it really shouldn’t be gone again already.

Both Perry episodes, luckily, will remain. They’re insistent on trying The Love Boat on weekdays again, but it won’t interfere with the morning Perry. And at night, they’re running something called the MeTV Mystery Movie right after the nighttime showing of Perry. Apparently, among other things, they’ll be borrowing some of the shows from Cozi TV that run ninety minutes.

I am excited about them bringing Quincy, M.E. to the schedule. There are quite a few episodes that I am very interested in catching, including four with Perry guest-star Simon Oakland and two with H.M. Wynant (although they might not show one of them, since it was one of the pre-series movies). And Ironside guest-star Joseph Campanella appears six times, I think!

I am sad that Dragnet and Adam-12 are leaving the schedule, but since MeTV has been so sloppy about which episodes they air lately (sometimes airing certain ones again after only a couple of weeks), perhaps it's time for them to take a break from showing these fun crime shows. I wonder if Antenna TV will pick them up again? (Oh! Correction: Cozi will get them. I'm glad they'll still be on somewhere, but Cozi is notorious for being sloppy about showing episodes in order. Sigh.)

This is probably the only check-in before Christmas, so Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all readers! Hopefully the new year will bring an end to such sporadic posts and we can get back to a regular schedule.

Richard interview, and an attempt to use Sergeant Brice more

I’ve just finished listening to this awesome interview Richard did last week: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/richardrossi/2014/12/03/hollywood-movie-star-richard-anderson-aka-oscar-goldman-writer-al-doshna-1 It’s definitely a treasure. I loved listening to him all the way along, and it was fun to hear what some of the fans had to say. Perry is only briefly touched on, but it was great to hear it mentioned.

I blushed a little when the topic of Oscar Goldman and Jaime Sommers as a romantic pairing came up, but whatever Richard may have thought of the idea, he was very gracious and kind about it (as he was throughout the whole interview) and mentioned that people were asking him about that even back when The Bionic Woman was first on.

I have to admit, I can never fully get away from being rather fascinated by the idea of the pairing. I feel a bit guilty for that because of Steve Austin and Jaime’s epically soap opera romance, but I remain intrigued anyway. I pretty much love looking at Oscar and Jaime’s relationship in every way possible: friendship, familial, or romantic. And I think it’s time I saw the Deadly Ringer episodes they were discussing at one point. Due to me not liking when main characters end up in prison, I still haven’t seen those yet, but I’ve planned to since I’ve been sure there are some awesome Oscar scenes in them.

It’s so very exciting that Richard’s book is coming out! It’s a treat for all Perry fans, Richard fans, and classic movie and television fans. I know Richard will have many exciting things to tell.

And as season 4 of Perry wound to a close and season 5 begins to unfold, I observe first Sergeant Brice’s expanding role and second, the apparent search for someone else to help take some of the acting strain off of Ray Collins, whose health was starting to fail.

It’s obvious that they first tried the idea of Sergeant Brice becoming more talkative and involved. In late season 4 episodes such as The Grumbling Grandfather and The Guilty Clients, Brice has a lot more to do or say than in most episodes, even taking over completely for Tragg in some scenes and episodes.

I definitely like the idea and wonder why it didn’t work out. Was Lee Miller uncomfortable having more to say? Did they determine that the quiet, understated Sergeant Brice just wouldn’t be able to carry things by himself very often and a more forceful character would be needed?

On that, I probably agree at least somewhat. Brice is so calm and gentle and not bothered by Perry and company hanging around and investigating. The show would have certainly taken on a different dynamic with the more permissive Sergeant Brice being more in charge of things. He probably would have become much more of an ally to Perry and company, freely allowing them their investigations and perhaps letting Perry or Paul be right with him to look into questioning suspects and the like. In later episodes, on one occasion he shows definite amusement over his superior blowing his stack at Perry’s interference, and on another, indicates to Paul that if it were up to him, he would let Paul stay and look around a crime scene.

I can’t say I would have minded at least seeing what the show would have been like with that changed dynamic. But I’m not sure it would have worked out for long, since it seems Gardner and the crew wanted it to stay with the police sometimes assuming great opposition to Perry’s investigations, and since amusingly frustrated exchanges are often a big and important part of Perry’s interaction with the police. Brice just isn’t the type to engage in such exchanges. Hence, they definitely needed someone aside from Brice to be there.

Thus began what seems to be a bit of a search. Although they try Wesley Lau very early in season 5, playing Lieutenant Anderson in a great couple of scenes in The Malicious Mariner, he doesn’t immediately become part of the main cast. They also try Med Flory, another actor from late season 4, who in The Crying Comedian plays Lieutenant McVey, twin brother to Captain McVey of the United States Air Force. . . . (Just kidding, but I still find it bewildering that both of his Perry characters are named McVey! I am definitely going to make them twin brothers in my stories.)

Then we have a couple of episodes in a row that do not feature the regular city police cast. The next time we get back to them, Tragg is there again (with faithful Sergeant Brice silent in the background). The next episode after that, Andy is back and this time stays.

I would be curious to know in what order the early season 5 episodes were filmed and whether Andy’s first episode was filmed after Lieutenant McVey’s. Perhaps they had already decided on Wesley Lau before any of his police episodes aired, although I would then wonder why they showed the McVey episode after Andy’s first one.

I am very glad they ended up choosing Wesley, but I love Med Flory as Captain McVey in The Misguided Missile and I know he could have made Lieutenant McVey a great character too.