New Plans

Gah, I feel terrible about the lack of updates last month. I think I'm going to have to stop doing birthday/tribute posts in general unless I actually have something new to say. It gets very overwhelming to have so many tribute posts to make while not knowing what I can even say that's unique or new. I really do want to keep this blog going, so I'm still hoping to find some new topics to touch on. I'm certain there are many unexplored roads I haven't traveled yet!

One thing I've wanted to post about is the news that a complete set of the Perry television movies is being released. The most exciting thing is the price. Amazon's price is fluctuating between $35 and $45, depending on the day, and for all 30 movies, that is pretty incredible. That's a better price than the half-season sets of the television series or the six-movie collections that were previously released! The movies are still not "canon" to me and never will be, but I do enjoy them and I am very excited for this affordable way to get all of them, hopefully uncut, in one gulp. I don't know if the ones MeTV has shown are edited, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are. Perhaps at some point I will buy this set.

I'm also starting a new Perry story. I've posted several times about my dissatisfaction with how Andy was written in season 8. He was so much more stressed, short-tempered, and intolerant of Perry and company's antics, sometimes understandably, sometimes when it didn't make as much sense. I have that idea I've touched on in my stories that Lieutenant Tragg was seriously hurt in the line of duty around the time he vanished from the series and Andy's greater stress came from trying to take over Tragg's duties in the squad as well as his own. It seems to fit with the characters and with what we see on-screen, and it helps soften the blow of Andy's bizarre behavior, at least for me.

I never actually planned to write a story all about Andy's feelings during the time of season 8, partially because I don't like writing stories where a character I like a lot behaves rather unlikably for most of it. But on Sunday I had a dream of watching a non-existent Perry episode taking place during that time, where the problem comes to a head and Andy absolutely snaps during a particularly stressful situation that pushes him over his limit. I often use dreams to get story ideas, and I knew this one should be a story. After tinkering with two different versions of it, I put up the first chapter today.

I don't plan that this will be a particularly long story, but we'll have to see how things go. It takes place between seasons 8 and 9 and will hopefully tie them together in a way that makes sense. In addition to dealing with Andy's canonical problems in season 8 and fleshing them out, it will also spotlight Sergeant Brice a lot, as he is the main stabilizing factor in Andy's life during that time. His different view on how to handle Perry will prove to be a source of increasing tension between them, however. And the story will show the arrival of Lieutenant Drumm, as I am very curious to know how he arrived on the scene. Season 9 opens with him already there and already friendly with Perry and company. There's a story in that too. And I'm looking forward to contrasting Steve's by-the-book attitude with his friendliness towards Perry and Paul and how Andy reacts to that balance.

If anyone is interested in reading, it's at: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/12035088/1/

The Case of ... what was I watching, anyway?

So I probably won’t have a chance to see The Shooting Star until next week. As for last night’s movie, which I missed the first few minutes of (and hence, the title) . . .

Man, the murder victim was definitely among the top sleaze of Perry villains. I couldn’t feel too sorry for the guy, if any, when he was dead. Even less so when the truth finally came out. He just drew his gun and fired on the General’s friend without even letting him speak! No wonder the killer reacted fiercely to disarm him and ended up killing by accident. It certainly wasn’t good of him not to speak up when an innocent person was then arrested, but I wonder what would happen to him since it was an accident and there most definitely was provocation. I’m also not entirely sure he had all of his marbles, judging by some of what he said in his confession and moreso, how he said it.

Overall, the mystery was mostly unremarkable and not a standout to me. Paul Jr., as usual, bumbled his way through things and managed to get beat up, punched, and attacked by a car. It was interesting to see him interact with the defendant, though, and the scene where he exclaims about his mother enjoying the tabloid rag was amusing. But it would definitely hint again that Paul Sr. is probably dead, even though they’re so careful not to say. If Paul Sr. were alive, it would seem Paul Jr. might have mentioned him too and not wanted him to see or hear about the trumped-up picture and article.

It was slightly amusing when Della noted that Perry likes getting on Paul Jr.'s case and he agreed. He liked doing that with the boy's father as well, although that was never outright noted in the series as it is here. I still think that sometimes he takes it too far with both of them.

Della’s secret admirer subplot was sweet. When there didn’t seem to be any candidates around that were introduced for the movie, I figured it was Perry doing all those things. And after just watching part of that recent interview with Barbara Hale where she mentions how much she loves roses, the gift of the roses in the film takes on even more significance. I’m sure the shippers are delighted by that element of the film, and especially the ending scene.

It is quite delightful. How nice to see Perry so thoughtful, especially after everything he asks of Della throughout the movies and more especially the series. Sometimes it seems like he takes Della for granted, just as he does Paul, but then there’s a nice epilogue where he thinks on his own of taking Della for lunch or dinner after a big case. This is sort of an extended version of that.

And although the victim was a true slimeball, I imagine shippers also delighted in him telling them he had gathered plenty of evidence that they were having a romantic relationship.

Those are the most standout scenes to me. And of course, it was enjoyable as always to see Michael Reston prosecuting.

I look forward to seeing what tonight’s movie will be like. But I look more forward to watching my uncut copy of A Place Called Midnight. I finally have the season 8 and the latter half of season 9 DVD sets, and I’ve been watching the season 8 ones as the episodes progress on MeTV, in order to finally again see (or see for the first time, in some cases) the uncut versions. So far, most episodes have only been missing a little bit, save The Bullied Bowler and The Grinning Gorilla, the latter of which I watched when I first got the set instead of waiting for its arrival on MeTV. There are many scenes missing from those episodes on television, so I’ll need to do posts on them soon. And, I suspect, there is also a great deal missing from A Place Called Midnight. It’s always looked like a very chopped-up episode to me.

MeTV Schedule Changes

First off, Happy Mother’s Day!

MeTV will air a Perry movie on the 23^rd. Be sure to catch it; MeTV’s summer schedule takes effect on the 26^th and the Friday night movie will be off the schedule, at least for now.

I’ve been trying to find out if any other schedule changes will affect Perry­-related goings-on on MeTV, and if my research is right, the morning Perry episode will be affected. I can’t find the full summer schedule online yet, but unless they move Perry to another time, he’s going to get booted for, I think, The Love Boat. What? Sacrilege! The Love Boat is cheesy 1970s goodness, but replacing Perry is not acceptable. I certainly hope the nighttime showing will be unaffected. I usually only watch at night these days, but I know some people are only able to watch in the mornings. Hopefully they will be able to record the nighttime showings to watch the next day.

Also, they’re adding The Mod Squad to their line-up, which is great, but it tentatively looks like it may be booting Ironside. Perhaps Ironside will move to another time as well; we’ll have to wait for the full schedule to see. Perhaps they’ll move Ironside to air after Perry at night! That would be fun. And considering how they like to plug the shows as Raymond Burr back-to-back, it’s rather possible.

I wish MeTV would add Garrison’s Gorillas and Mannix to their line-up. Garrison’s Gorillas is a one-season show, so it would do well to air once a week, as they do for some short series such as Mr. Lucky. The premise of having convicts do secret missions is silly and not accurate to American forces, but the show is like a WWII-era Mission: Impossible. And it has cheeky British darling Christopher Cary (who totally should have guest-starred on Perry, oh my goodness). Any show with one of my favorites in a starring role is sure to be adored by me, even if it’s a genre I don’t often watch, such as war. And Mannix is totally the best private eye show ever.

One problem with adding Mannix, however, is that I’ve heard that rerun packages completely omit season 1. That is not good at all. Season 1 is an important part of the series too. I’ll admit, I wasn’t enthused about it before I saw it because I didn’t like the absence of secretary Peggy and wasn’t sure I’d like Mannix and his boss being at odds. But when I finally saw season 1 episodes, I was in love. Season 1 is just as intense and gripping as the other seasons, and Mannix actually has a beautiful rapport and friendship with his boss. The actors are friends in real-life, and it really comes through in the characters.

But enough about other classic television shows. Back to Perry, the late-night airings have moved into season 9. And I have to admit, I feel bad about it, but the last two or three times I’ve watched season 8, including this round, I’ve ended up becoming really anxious for season 9 before the end of it. After the first such time, I wondered if I would feel different on another showing of season 8. But it seems my feelings on it are here to stay.

I really don’t like the way they wrote Andy in season 8, as I’ve ranted many times. It seemed like they completely lost track of the amiable, fairly intelligent character they started out with. Andy is often little more than a cringe-worthy joke in season 8. It’s painful to watch such a good character be run into the ground by bad writing. And with that being the case, it was totally time for someone new.

Steve is such a breath of fresh air. I am thoroughly enjoying seeing him again and am forever impressed by how, even the times when he’s wrong, the show does not try to make him look like an idiot. I really wish the show had continued and we could have seen more of him. But I’m grateful for the episodes we have.

One thing I noticed: while in season 8 and even some of season 7 Andy is so very scarce many times, in season 9 Steve assumes a role that Tragg enjoys during the early seasons—that of having many scenes and much screentime. The first couple of season 9 episodes don’t feature Steve much, but by The Candy Queen it’s all different. I’m really happy they went back to having the police character play such a large role again. That’s part of the formula that never should have been changed.

Various Perry thoughts

Well, alas, Perry lost to The Twilight Zone. I really figured that would happen, but it was still sad to see it happen. The finals are The Twilight Zone versus Star Trek, so I’ve thrown my support to The Twilight Zone. A very strange and eerie show, but a very intelligent show that has a lot of good morals in their episodes. Star Trek is likewise, but since I’m more familiar with the movies and The Next Generation series, I voted for the show I know better.

The past week was a bit oddball, as I missed most of Monday night’s episode and there were two out-of-town episodes. I felt like I was suffering from Hamilton withdrawal! So I watched Saturday’s episode on my local station. They’ve been running seasons 1 and 2 for some time on Saturdays, and I haven’t devoted much time to watching the Saturday night sessions for some time, since I’ve seen those episodes more than some others. But I greatly enjoyed seeing the characters this Saturday, so I may get back into the habit of watching then as well as on weekday nights.

It was interesting watching the out-of-town episodes, however. I always like catching A Place Called Midnight, since it’s so unique. Not only is Perry in Europe for the duration of the case, there are no court scenes. The mystery is resolved out of court. And I always get a kick out of Werner Klemperer playing the police lieutenant and working with Perry to solve the case. I think I saw that episode uncut just once, and I would like to do so again.

The other out-of-town episode, The Reckless Rockhound, I don’t recall ever seeing before. I wasn’t fully sure what to make of the Reba character. She could be so cold and hard, even with some people who were her friends. But then she would occasionally open up and show this other side of her personality and she was quite likable. I also found it interesting to see the actor who played the nutcase Dan Morgan in The Misguided Missile playing a good guy here. I found it sweet how much he cared about Reba and how he knew her secret about the diamonds already being spent, but covered the loans himself. And I was actually fairly surprised by the murderer. I was afraid it was going to be him, but then it was his young assistant instead. I hadn’t suspected him at all.

Something very bizarre I’ve noticed is how stations seem to have more than one print of certain episodes, with each print different and both prints getting airtime. Recently I mentioned MeTV airing a differently cut print of The Ugly Duckling. I’ve also seen my local station air two cuts of The Stand-In Sister. Now I’ve seen MeTV air another print of The Missing Button!

This time the report is positive, as one of the things I was most upset about was their prior cut of that episode, which eliminated almost all of the scene where Perry and Paul find Button on the boat and see that she’s safe. Instead it went right to Perry bidding Button farewell, which really looked preposterous since the last thing shown was that she had apparently been kidnapped. But the print that MeTV just aired restored the rest of that scene. I can’t tell whether they have two separate prints that they air or if people wrote in upset about the cut scene and MeTV got the other print then.

I wonder why stations have two different prints anyway. If they had one, wouldn’t they always air that one? How do they end up airing the other one? Is it an accident or on purpose?

Generally, when I see two different prints of an episode, it’s at two different airing times. The uncut Stand-In Sister aired on Saturday night on my local station, with the cut version airing on a weekday. The print of The Ugly Duckling with William Boyett’s scene aired in the morning on MeTV, as did the print of The Missing Button with most of the boat scene eliminated. The other prints of those episodes aired at night. I don’t know if the different airing times have anything to do with the truth of why the different prints exist, but it’s interesting to note, at least.

Also, of particular note is that I am very happy to learn that what I wondered about in the Perry movie The Heartbroken Bride isn’t true. It wasn’t intended to have any double-meaning remarks about the daughter, according to a recent commenter. From emails to director Christian Nyby II and one of the scriptwriters, Perry was meant to be exactly what the script said, a dear friend of the family and a surrogate uncle, not the girl’s real father. The crew said that they wouldn’t have had Perry do anything scurrilous. Very happy to hear that. Thank you, commenter!

Speaking of Perry movies, another will air this coming Friday. Looking forward to seeing what’s happening in that one. While the movies are not the series, and never could be with only two original cast members, I find them a lot more enjoyable and fun to watch than I ever thought they would be. I think they basically do an excellent job adapting the Perry format to the (relative) present day.

Musings on the "later episodes"

One thing that seems to be a constant source of disagreement among fans is the later episodes. And I’m never quite sure what is meant, by and large, by something as vague as “the later episodes.” Some people seem to mean season 6 on. Others refer mainly to 8 and 9. And others probably have other meanings.

Personally, when I use the term, I generally mean season 6 on. Although maybe season 5 on would technically be better, since that is when Lieutenant Anderson first appeared, I believe it’s really season 6 when things begin changing the most. The difference is, I am thrilled with the changes. And many fans I encounter are not.

I suppose the great majority of the complaints I hear are actually about seasons 8 and 9. And said complaints run the full gamut, from the plots are either weak or complicated to Raymond Burr was getting tired of the role and it shows to there’s not enough scenes between Perry and Della! And probably many others.

My main complaint about season 8 is, as mentioned before, the strange way the writers treat Andy. The plots seem fine to me for the most part, save for one or two here and there. The outrageously ridiculous scam in The Blonde Bonanza boggles my mind (although I’m okay with the episode overall). The Sad Sicilian irritates me because of the eponymous character’s behavior and the way Della is so gosh-darn fond of him. And The Avenging Angel (from season 9), while interesting at first, takes such a long time telling us the ins and outs of the music business that the murder doesn’t even happen until there are around fifteen minutes left. I was pretty restless and impatient by that point.

(Then there’s also off-the-wall cases like The 12^th Wildcat, which I’ve already ranted about plenty. But for me, the screwy episodes are always an exception, not the rule. Yes, even when it’s season 8 or 9 being discussed.)

Since I’m not an active fan of the Perry/Della romantic pairing, any lack of scenes between them has mostly gone unnoticed by me. Anyway, I thought they had some very nice scenes in the last two seasons, from their interaction in The Paper Bullets, The Twice-Told Twist, and others.

And as for Raymond Burr being tired of the role and it showing, well, maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. I’m starting to think it’s a personal preference, as I’m not the only one who doesn’t really observe this and/or be bothered by it. I realize he was getting tired of the role; that’s pretty much a fact. But I can’t say it’s a fact that it shows.

I’ve been hearing a lot lately that some people don’t appreciate the characters growing more serious as the seasons go on, changing from the happy-go-lucky, more impulsive characters they were at first. This also must be personal preference and not an out-and-out proof that the series was going downhill. I have definitely noticed the increased seriousness over the seasons, and honestly, I love it! I don’t consider it a sign of the actors wearing down, but of the characters maturing. In real-life, I believe many, if not most, people do not remain as happy-go-lucky at some later points in their lives as they were at earlier points. As life goes on and things happen, both good and bad, it changes all of us, and I believe a lot of us do become more serious. If the characters had remained static throughout the series, always happy-go-lucky, I think I would find that irritating. I like that they change and develop all along the way.

Anyway, it’s not as though they completely forget how to laugh (which is the impression some people give). They still have humorous moments in the last seasons. Perry and Della have a good-natured chuckle over Paul ending up riding in the race car at the end of The Runaway Racer (a callback to similar scenes in earlier years). Paul has a ball imitating Perry’s double in The Dead Ringer. And they often hang out at Clay’s having a grand old time with Clay and Steve, and sometimes with Hamilton.

I won’t deny that I enjoy the fact that the series was always contemporary as it went on. The show kept up with the times; it wasn’t just stuck in a permanent season 1 atmosphere. I suppose some people wish it would have been. Certainly if it had, it would be a period piece. And I love period pieces—make no mistake about that. But I honestly don’t love the thought of Perry as a period piece. I love for it to always be contemporary. For me, it makes it far easier to relate. And the show is always Perry to me, as long the writers don’t lose track of the mysteries and the characters and the high moral standards of said characters.

They certainly didn’t lose track of the latter; in fact, I think they become better with that as the show went on, since Perry dropped a lot of his early, rather eyebrow-raising tactics. And as far I’m concerned, the mysteries and the characters themselves were rarely tampered with. They changed, but that doesn’t mean they stopped being enjoyable or in-character. To some people, it seems to. But not to me.

I doubt that the later seasons will ever not be a controversial topic among fans. The opinions on them are extremely varied. Some people dislike everything after the first few seasons. Some only dislike 8 and 9. Some largely dislike the later seasons but still find some here and there that they like.

I have to be honest, it is difficult to find people who actually like the later seasons, and who like them as much or possibly more than the earlier ones. And I have to be honest that for those looking for intense, twisting plots similar to the books, season 1 is their best bet. Many excellent plots came out of season 1.

But there are those fans among us who really don’t care so much about that, who prefer character interaction and who think that the later episodes provided us with fine interaction, just as good or in some cases, better than early on. We also think the plots of the later seasons are exciting and valid, even if they aren’t quite like the books.

There are also people who feel that the show was always solid and the quality never really waned, even as all the changes happened. I am in that category, as well as in the category of especially loving the later seasons.

I love every season of Perry. Every season has its faults, its ups and downs, and every season has episodes I’m not that keen on. Some seasons (such as 7 and 2) have far less of those than others, as far as I’m concerned. I do judge the episodes mainly on character interaction but sometimes on plot, and on the fact that the character interaction I’m most interested in is generally not what many fans seem to be interested in. A great number of my favorite episodes would probably only rarely, if ever, be found in other fans’ lists.

To some extent, the diversity is part of the fun of any fanbase. But it is nice to not be the only one who likes certain things, and I’m proud both to enjoy the later episodes and to know some others who enjoy them too.

Last post of the year

Well, that was an epic fail. I didn’t even make it in for so much as a notification post yesterday. I’m so sorry.

As the year draws to a close, the next promises for new Perry topics and continuing re-runs. The second half of season 8 will be out soon, although for the life of me I can’t figure out why Amazon is refusing to come down more than a few dollars on the price. People are complaining loudly, and someone mentioned finding it somewhere else for $10 cheaper than Amazon is insisting on selling it. Why? Amazon is usually the best! And yet they seem to be about the worst for buying the last fifteen episodes of season 8. There’s no way I’m going to pay Amazon’s price for it. $35 is already steep for only half a season, and that’s about as high as I’m willing to go, give or take a couple of dollars. I bought the entire season 6 set of The Virginian for a few cents less than that, for Heaven’s sake!

It’s been interesting, watching season 8 on MeTV. Since those episodes showed up around the same time as the first half was released on DVD, I’ve been holding off on buying the first set (and still don’t know what to do about the second at all). Some episodes are chopped horribly; The Missing Button horrified me with its important cuts, including most of the scene where Perry and Paul find Button safe with her father on the boat. Others don’t seem to be missing anything too serious, such as The Tell-Tale Tap.

We’re moving into season 9 at the end of this week. And I have to confess, I’m looking forward to it. There’s a lot to love about season 8, but also a lot that makes me cringe. As previously explored, in some ways the production style is starting to feel very worn-out by season 8. The writers seem to be floundering on some aspects. Most exasperating to me, they just can’t seem to make up their minds on what Andy is like.

Maybe that’s the reason why he sometimes has such a reduced role in 8. I think it’s mainly only in season 8 where you’ll maybe see him for two minutes in a speaking part and then only sitting silently in court for the rest of his screentime. And the few times the writers decide to do something more with him, it often isn’t that flattering.

Take The Lover’s Gamble, where Andy is apparently responsible to some extent for some serious errors in the police investigation. The Mexican police were sloppy in their handling of their own investigation into the highway crash, and the American police didn’t learn this for some time. Either their investigation was sloppy too, with Andy either as supervisor and his men fouling up, or Andy with a more direct involvement and fouling up personally. It’s much nicer to think that maybe it wasn’t his fault at all and that someone on the Mexican police force lied through their teeth about their below-par investigation, and that Andy was actually a hero for uncovering the lies, but the writers don’t say one way or the other. The end result is that Andy just looks very, very bad.

There’s The Careless Kitten, where he just seems to be in a bad mood throughout. Although admittedly, with no one even being arrested yet and hence, needing a lawyer, it must be frustrating to find an amateur detective like Perry always ending up ahead of the official police investigation. In some ways, however, The Careless Kitten almost seems for Andy as The Final Fade-Out is for Hamilton—complete loss of patience. Andy’s method of losing patience is very different, however, with a smoldering glare, his lips pressed into a thin line, and his proclaiming of “That. Does it.”

Actually, I think angry Andy is more frightening than Hamilton’s yelling and blustering in The Final Fade-Out. Hamilton is known for having a bit of a short fuse. Andy is not. It’s always the quiet ones. . . .

The Mischievous Doll is just cringe-worthy, as Andy is made to look like a total fool during the whole cross-examination on the driver’s license. Perry’s solution is so far-out that it would not be usual to come up with it, of course, but the fact that he does and the police don’t seems a lot more groan-inducing here than in most episodes, due to the way it’s presented. Sometimes the police actually do apparently think of Perry’s possibilities, and even try to investigate them, but dismiss them for lack of evidence. Here, it outright seems that they did not think of it at all and it’s heavily implicated that they should have. Not that the series doesn’t often present things that way to some extent, but with the extended shaming of Andy it seems a lot worse here.

It’s really no wonder that poor Wesley Lau was growing frustrated, as he expressed in an interview around that time. What makes it worse is that seasons 6 and 7 were doing quite well with Andy by comparison. Since I’ve been buying those DVDs lately, I’ve been actively and recently comparing those episodes with season 8. 6 and 7 usually depict Andy more fairly. There may be an occasional slip, but it doesn’t seem as bad. Then 8 comes along and turns everything on its head.

To be fair, Andy does have some good moments in season 8. The Deadly Debt is one of my favorite episodes ever, where we see that Andy must be quite a well-respected officer on the force. In addition to being part of the Homicide division, he heads up a special taskforce investigating crimes that end up connecting with the current case. Andy is depicted as mature and serious and knowing his job well.

The problem with season 8 is that, unlike Andy’s other seasons, it goes from one extreme to the other, making him look very bad as well as very good. There’s definitely a higher ratio of unfavorable Andy scenes in season 8 than in 6, 7, or even 5.

I do get the sense that no matter how amiable Andy may be, he must be somewhat insecure in being around Perry and company, since there’s that noticeable lack of him being around in social settings. Steve, by comparison, seems very confident and perfectly at ease both with his job and with being friendly and social with Perry and the others.

I wonder what it would have been like to have had Andy and Steve interact, instead of that abrupt change from one to the other. Seeing Andy impart his knowledge and wisdom to the younger Steve, as Tragg did for Andy, would have been so interesting and intriguing. And the writers probably would not have done this, but it could have opened the way for thoroughly fascinating discussions, such as what each thought of Perry and company.

Since by season 8 the writers honestly don’t seem to know what to do with Andy and have been running his character into the ground a lot more than before, I look forward to season 9 to immediately see Steve again and see how my opinion contrasts with the season 8 episodes I’ve just come from watching.

One thing that’s changed lately is the way I list my favorite seasons. 8 has overall gone down on the scale, while 9 and even 5 have come up. 9 and 8 haven’t switched places, however; 8 is certainly not my least favorite season, as 9 once was. Since for me, character interaction and not storyline is the most important thing, and overall I prefer seeing the characters more mature than impulsive, I would probably rank 1 at the bottom of my list. They’re young and dashing, true, and that’s pleasant to see, but for me I’d far rather they were older and wiser, given the choice. And anyway, they’re still very handsome in the later seasons, as I see it.

7 is my most favorite season at the moment, with 2 and 6 immediately following. They were all at the top before, but with 7 below the others. I’m still trying to sort out where everything else currently ranks.

Contemporary season 9

I saw an Andy Griffith Show calendar in Wal-Mart last night. It made me think: there are calendars for almost everything. Was there ever a Perry calendar? If not, there should be one! The television series is 55 years old and still going strong. I’m sure a calendar would be highly popular.

As much as I love some things in season 8, there are other things I don’t love so much. Season 8 definitely starts to show the strains of a mixed bag, with Andy’s sometimes-changing, stressed personality, wonderful Perry and Hamilton friendship scenes, some awesome episodes, and some that are an honest puzzle. Something somewhere in season 8 seems to feel worn-out, as though the writers aren’t always quite sure what to do and feel that they’ve stretched things as far as they can go.

If the feeling is real and not just my imagination, some of it may have been brought on by Raymond Burr’s restlessness with the role and his desire to do something different. And maybe the writers and crew members really were wracking their brains for new twists for the series.

I started realizing—no matter how many season 1 influences season 9 has, it also has many unique elements. Somehow it feels more contemporary, more fresh, as though the show is getting a new lease on life.

Bringing in the previously spoken-of Clay’s Restaurant was an excellent move, I think. It enables Perry and company to have somewhere to discuss the cases where they will be around other people, instead of just being isolated in Perry’s office. The office is a beloved location, and still is in season 9, but altering the main meeting place allowed for the exploration of new possibilities. In the restaurant, they run across Hamilton, Steve, and Clay very frequently, who all provide their own takes on the cases.

Steve also feels very contemporary and forward-thinking. As previously expounded on, he is given a great deal of development just in his few episodes. Tragg and Andy were never given the level of thought and consideration that was put into Steve's characterization. If they had been, it would have been incredible. Tragg and Andy remained fairly predictable throughout the series, with both only given occasional moments to show other facets of their personalities. But, perhaps because of Wesley's displeasure or perhaps because of the changing times around them, the writers at last did something different with Steve and allowed him to be both the most no-nonsense and the most three-dimensional of the main police characters. While Tragg's falsely friendly facade and his investigative slip-ups were intended to be, and were, laughed at, Andy was much less that way, and Steve, far less so. Aside from having to arrest the wrong person to keep the formula going, Steve rarely ever made ridiculously cringe-worthy or amusing slip-ups. Perry simply could not make a fool out of Steve as he did Tragg and even occasionally Andy. It's hard to feature laughing at Steve at all. And that's the way I prefer my police characters. I don't like making fun of the police.

In personality Steve is partially a cross between Tragg and Andy, but largely his own person. I half-wonder if at least some of his inspiration is the fact that Tragg was closer to being Perry's contemporary in the books (although Steve seems younger than Perry, rather than near the same age).

As I’ve mentioned, adaptations of Perry always kept up with the times. And within the television series, each season went with the flow, changing just enough to stay up-to-date while not changing the format much, if at all. Hence, each series of episodes feels like Perry, unlike with some shows, where they change so much over time that they’re barely recognizable.

Season 1 mostly feels very much like the noir series so popular in the late fifties. Seasons 4 and 5 embrace the arriving Space Age of the early sixties. Season 9 still has that special Perry feeling but also sometimes brings with it a feel similar to other dramas of the era, including an acknowledgment of the younger generation’s plight and the rising problem of teenage delinquency. Had there been a season 10, it would have been in color, we’re told, and it likely would have felt as contemporary as The Twice-Told Twist does.

I still wonder what a season 10 would have been like. I imagine it would have been fun, particularly in color. On the one hand, it almost feels like Perry needs to be in black-and-white, to preserve the mysterious atmosphere. On the other hand, both The Twice-Told Twist and The New Perry Mason present the series in color very well. It does not detract, but simply offers another angle, another way to look at it. And it’s very nice to see the characters and locations in color at long last.

(I just like to think that if there had been a season 10, they would have redone the colors of the courthouse. I can never picture things being so green and gray and blue. It’s interesting, but doesn’t feel much like a proper courthouse. I still envision the wood as being wood-colored, no matter what The Twice-Told Twist presents.) 

If it hadn’t been for Raymond Burr wanting to move on, and CBS wanting to end the series, I think it would have moved quite nicely into a season 10. Whatever new things it would have brought to the table, a tenth season would have still remained, firmly and faithfully above all else, Perry.