The Case of the Unknown Parentage

And so we arrive at March 11th, the anniversary of Erle Stanley Gardner's death in 1970. He gave us the wonderful characters who made up the original Core Five and wrote all the original novels first bringing them to life. He lost control over his characters for the 1930s films and the 1940s radio series and demanded better for the television series. Whether or not one agrees with every decision he made for the television series (and I don't always), I am thrilled for him that he finally had and kept control over his beloved series and characters for the best-loved media adaptation. Regardless of whether one wishes the show had tried some other paths every now and then, Mr. Gardner apparently knew what he was doing by making and keeping his rules; the formulaic nature of the series remained the same for nine popular seasons.

I wonder what he would have thought of the idea of The New Perry Mason, had he lived to see it. Much of the crew was still the same, and they tried to be faithful to the original series in both the scripts and the characters' behaviors, but some of the performances still fell very flat. (I find it both amusing and terrible that Monte Markham reportedly jeered at Raymond Burr's portrayal of Perry, yet clearly tried to imitate his speech pattern in the episodes!) I like to think Mr. Gardner would have complained about some of the casting, at least. But who knows. Maybe he would have liked it all. Or maybe he would have disliked it all.

In any case, I am, as always, very grateful to him for his imagination, his skill at weaving mysteries, and his intriguing characters. Because of Mr. Gardner's writings, we have the wonderful Perry Mason television series to watch and enjoy and the characters are still fondly remembered decades later. All thanks to whatever inspired Mr. Gardner to start writing The Velvet Claws. Thank you, Mr. Gardner.

I have fallen very far behind in watching my Perry DVDs, even though I was trying to keep up with MeTV's nighttime schedule. I'm in season 6 and am picking and choosing my way through the season by mainly selecting episodes I rarely watch. I suddenly discovered something very odd. While every season of Perry has at least one episode where a child's parentage is questioned, kept secret, etc., season 6 has an explosion of such episodes!

To demonstrate my point, here is a list I've compiled of all such episodes I can pick out from a titles-only episode guide. If anyone else can think of more, feel free to remind me in the comments!

Season 1

The Baited Hook (Daughter's true parentage was the reason for the murder.)

The Empty Tin (The initial mystery revolves around trying to find a man's real daughter.)

Season 2

The Stuttering Bishop (The mystery involves a girl being told her parentage is not what she thought.)

Season 3

The Watery Witness (The initial mystery concerns a girl trying to find out if she is the daughter of movie star Lorna Thomas.)

Season 4

The Wandering Widow (A woman tries to keep her son from learning about his horrid real father.)

The Nine Dolls (Perry tries to find a young orphan's identity.)

The Duplicate Daughter (Twins separated at birth.)

Season 5

The Borrowed Baby (Perry tries to find the family of a baby left in his office.)

Season 6

The Unsuitable Uncle (A girl's true father's identity is kept secret from her.)

The Stand-In Sister (Confusion over which man's daughter survived a car crash.)

The Polka-Dot Pony (Two girls are discovered when searching for a woman's long-lost child.)

The Bluffing Blast (A young woman shows up claiming to be the daughter of a man who supposedly didn't have any children.)

The Skeleton's Closet (A woman tries to prevent the news of her children's real father leaking out.)

Season 7

The Nebulous Nephew (Confusion over whether a boy is really a long-lost nephew or a con artist.)
The Simple Simon (A large part of the mystery stems from the fact that the defendant has a son somewhere and believes him to be one person when he is in actuality another.)

Season 8

A Place Called Midnight (A girl is distressed over being an orphan with no known family name. Not a major plot point, but since it is there and it's a large part of the character's emotional makeup, I'll include it.)

Season 9

The Fugitive Fraulein (Trying to retrieve the correct granddaughter from behind the Iron Curtain. This one may be stretching it a bit, but there is an attempt to confuse the girl's identity.)

Wow. So why was that such a popular plotline in season 6? It's the only season to have more than three such episodes, unless there's others I've forgotten about.

One possibility would be that the same person wrote them and it's a plot device they like. Well, among the five season 6 episodes, two were written by Robert C. Dennis, two by Samuel Newman, and one by Robert Leslie Bellem. Every episode is thankfully extremely different in the plot details, which is why I assume this was allowed to happen and every script greenlit, but it's still rather curious to suddenly realize that so many episodes had the concept of unknown parentage in one season!

In the end, I suppose there's no real answer as to why. For some reason, the writers' inspiration just traveled on that path that year. Most of the season 6 episodes with that plot device are not among my favorites or semi-favorites, aside from The Polka-Dot Pony, but I've liked the others a lot better on this viewing.

Birthday Tribute: Barbara Hale

Perry fans may want to check out tomorrow night’s Love Boat movie on MeTV. Raymond Burr is one of the main guest-stars! He delivers an amazing performance ranging from comedic to dramatic as a gruff, alcoholic theatre teacher. We even get to hear him sing! (He’s quite good, too.)

I happened to see it recently and by accident, as it was on the same disc as the wonderful Richard Anderson episode (which I’m hoping to record some Sunday if it hasn’t aired yet). It was definitely a surprise treat to see Raymond and well worth watching, even if you’re not a Love Boat fan. (Me, I kind of like the wonderful 1970s cheese and adorableness of the show, and how it deals with serious issues in a respectful way, even though at other times the mushiness makes me roll my eyes.)

And for once let’s do this early instead of late! Tomorrow is Barbara Hale’s 92^nd birthday! Oh my goodness. It’s so wonderful to still have some of the original Perry cast members alive and well with us, especially as we’re losing more and more of the last remaining Golden Hollywood greats (R.I.P., Mickey Rooney).

This is a lovely fansite for Barbara: http://www.barbarahale.com/index.htm I had previously thought that Barbara either had some affiliation with it or that she was aware of it and came to look at the Guestbook comments. The website owner has a notice that says it’s an unofficial fanpage. That doesn’t mean Barbara isn’t aware of it and perhaps sometimes sees the Guestbook comments, however, so it might still be a nice thing to leave a birthday wish for her there. In any case, it’s a very nice place to visit, clearly a labor of love by a devoted fan.

Over the past year I have enjoyed seeing Barbara as Della on the main Perry Mason series as well as finally discovering her revival of the character in the television movies. I really love how the character grows through the years and how Della is depicted as so motherly in the movies. Della has always had that motherly, protective streak, as shown on the series whenever children are present or when she encounters someone else that she develops a certain fondness for (such as the defendant in The Sad Sicilian). And she serves as Perry’s conscience during those times when Perry is getting too swamped with work or too eager for a vacation to take a particular case. On the one hand, I feel sorry for Perry never getting to have a proper vacation. But when the people genuinely need help and Perry is likely the best one to give it, it is nice of Della to be thinking of their problems. Della doesn’t get much vacation/downtime, either. Many are the nights that she works far later than most other secretaries. Once she asks Perry if they will ever be able to leave earlier than midnight. (I think that’s the one with the amusing ending where they keep trying to hurry out the door before the clock stops chiming midnight and they keep having to run back because of forgetting to close the balcony doors or turn off the lights.)

Della is absent from only a handful of Perry episodes. While I often still enjoy them for their plots or favorite guest-stars (or for Hamilton being present, if they’re in-town episodes), Della’s presence is definitely missed. She’s an integral part of the cast, certainly made so by Barbara Hale’s amazing performance.

I still have to wonder why anyone thought a remake of Perry Mason would work so soon after the original stopped airing new episodes. Perhaps if they had waited longer people would have been more accepting, but only seven years later, the comparisons between the two series and their casts were inevitable. The show itself was very good, plot-wise, and I will forever praise Dane Clark and Harry Guardino, but some of the other casting choices bewilder me. Sharon Acker is a fine actress, but she just wasn’t a believable Della Street to me. Perhaps if I see more of those episodes I’ll change my mind, but of course I’ll always feel that Barbara Hale is the quintessential image of Della Street.

Happy Birthday, Barbara Hale! I hope it will be a lovely day spent with your family. The fans remember and love you and I also hope for still many more birthdays for you.

Various News and Musings

Wow. The Perry sale at Amazon.com the past week was a smashing success! I knew it would be, but I don’t think I expected so many of the volumes to sell so well they would go out of immediate stock and take several weeks to ship. Hopefully that has gotten Amazon’s attention. Perry has been one of the best-sellers in their DVD departments the past few days. Now if they would just realize how many people would pounce if they’d bring the price of the second half of season 8 into a reasonable range! I don’t understand what the problem is and why it has to be so expensive. People are still mad, insisting they won’t buy it on Amazon and that they’ve found it cheaper elsewhere. I can’t buy it on Amazon either, not at their price.

Also, long ago I got a giggle out of the fact that Richard Anderson plays a character named Ray Norman on The New Perry Mason, when Wesley Lau plays a character of the exact same name on Cannon. (And I write for Wesley’s Ray Norman in a Wild Wild West time-travel story that includes Perry characters.) I idly wondered if the scripts were written by the same person, since it seems odd for that name to appear twice in two shows around the same time period.

I finally got around to looking it up. And guess what? It really is the same writer! Robert W. Lenski did both The Telltale Trunk for The New Perry Mason and Hear No Evil for Cannon. I am finding this hilarious. I really expected it to just be a weird coincidence and that the writers would be different. But with this information, I’d say that either Mr. Lenski really liked the name Ray Norman or he was just bored or in a hurry and couldn’t think of another name. Or he even forgot he had used it recently.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0502225/

Last night I made a few updates to that Perry website I work on now and then. (http://sites.google.com/site/perrymasoncontinued/) I have been getting story inspiration for the Perry mystery scheduled to come after The Malevolent Mugging. I’d really like to try it out, both because the ideas are so strong and because I think and hope it might be fairly popular, with Della in a central role. (Also present would be Gene Torg and Pearl Chute from The Bogus Books.)

But at the same time I’m concerned about trying to juggle two Perry mysteries at once (and the Wild Wild West story). If the new one takes off, updates for The Malevolent Mugging will come even less frequently. If I wait to finish it first, however, I’m nowhere near the end and I might start rushing it. I know for a fact that The Malevolent Mugging has readers, even if they’re often quiet, so I don’t want to disappoint them by having this story take even longer to finish. Or by rushing it and lessening the quality.

But when inspiration calls, it’s hard to make it be silent. Maybe the best thing to do is to just start trying to write the first bit and see what happens. Tentatively the story is to be called The Nefarious Necklace (or something similar) and involves plot ideas both from me and from a reviewer and friend.

And NPR’s Perry-related piece involving Hamilton is this Tuesday, the 15th, on their Morning Edition show! If you haven’t already, look for your local affiliate or plan to listen online.

http://www.npr.org/templates/stations/stations/

General Series Tribute - 55 years of Television Perry

Eeeee! This news may be old-school now, since it’s a couple of weeks old, but I just learned of it a day or two ago thanks to Amazon. And it’s wonderful news to kick off a general series tribute post.

Even though the second half of season 7 should be out in a month (yes!), Amazon.com is already listing the first half of season 8 for a month after that! Here is the article on it, and some possible cover art: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Perry-Mason-Season-8-Volume-1/17446

This is very exciting news! Maybe CBS has finally realized that they’ve been moving too slow and need to pick up the pace. I thought it would be another year before the season 8 DVDs would arrive. I hope they don’t end up pushing the date along.

I just have one nagging question: Who is the fellow standing next to Perry in one of the top pictures? I’d almost be tempted to say some moron colored Andy’s hair black (possibly confusing him with Richard Anderson?), but he doesn’t exactly look like Andy. Yet in another way, he does. And continues to the more I stare at it. He has the same hairstyle, the same face shape, even the thicker eyebrows. He’s just . . . very improperly colored.

Oh goodness, if that’s supposed to be Andy, someone had better fix it! I was just silently complaining to myself about Andy not getting on any of the DVD boxes. It would be cringe-worthy indeed if they put him on one only to color him wrong. His hair is so very blond, easily seen in black-and-white and perfectly verifiable in any of Wesley Lau’s color appearances on other shows.

Ah, Andy. Steve. Perry, Della, and Paul. Hamilton and Tragg. Sergeant Brice. Gertie. It’s kind of mind-boggling to realize that it was 55 years ago yesterday, on September 21^st, 1957, that television viewers were first introduced to Perry and company on our classic show. (And hey, maybe that’s the reason for the expedited DVD releases? The special anniversary?) That’s over half a century of Perry on television! And of course, some of the characters were known for about 24 years prior to that!

I read that some of the reviews for The Restless Redhead, the first episode, were lukewarm. I’m not sure myself if I like it as the one to begin with, but it certainly establishes many important and key elements of the series, from Perry’s desperate and frightened (and innocent) clients to the lengths Perry will go to protect said clients. Although I’m glad things were mostly toned down from his antics with the gun in The Restless Redhead.

The series changed over time; no two seasons are alike. It’s hard to exactly pinpoint and describe many of the changes, but some lead to others, and others after that.

Season 1 is raw and experimental. But it also has very intricate plots. That’s definitely an upside of being book-inspired. The downside would be some of Perry’s borderline (and occasionally crossing the line) illegal ventures. And there were definitely more wild accusations flung at Perry in season 1 than in any other season. Despite not wanting to change the basic formula, the writers did smooth out and mostly rid themselves of some aspects of it later on.

Season 2 is mostly television-exclusive plots. They’re still very watchable, as all the seasons are, and overall season 2 focuses more on the budding friendship between Perry and Hamilton that season 1 only hinted at. This continues in season 3, up to the point where William Talman was dismissed in real-life and Hamilton becomes absent.

Season 4 continues to deliver exceptional (and mostly television-only) mysteries, with the glaring omission of Hamilton. It could never feel right without him, and when he finally returns, all is right once again. But season 4 has a different feeling than any of the seasons that preceded it or succeeded it. It doesn’t feel like season 2 any more than season 3 feels like season 1. By this point everyone is quite comfortable with the series and has figured out more about the characters’ personalities. Perry and Hamilton’s friendship continues to develop, when Hamilton is around to help see to it.

Season 5 is an odd change of pace in many ways. Tragg’s screentime is starting to be reduced. Andy is coming in, albeit without much individual dialogue. David Gideon briefly pops in from season 4.

And the more book-inspired plots are back. There are more book-inspired goings-on in season 5 than there were in 2, 3, or 4 put together. The plots have a certain intricacy that the others, no matter how excellent, just don’t have. But it also means setbacks in character development. Perry pulls stunts the likes of which he hasn’t dared since season 1. He and Hamilton seem a lot less friendly again, with only a couple of episodes as exceptions.

It’s season 6 that really switches gears again. Much like season 2, the episodes’ plots are again mostly all television-exclusive. The book-inspired ones are more like television adaptations and don’t ignore the established character development.

Tragg is around when he can be, but by this point Andy is being given real personality. It’s increasingly clear that he is here to stay. As is Perry and Hamilton’s friendship, which has many chances to shine in season 6.

Season 7 continues the pattern. Tragg is quietly (and sadly) bowing out, but Andy is well-established by now. (And I still like to think that Tragg is still there, even if we don’t see him onscreen after The Capering Camera.) Perry and Hamilton still often disagree in the courtroom, but are clearly very close friends. Hamilton even admits, in The Ice-Cold Hands, to losing his temper and making a fool of himself. Oh, what a long way he has come from the young and impulsive Hamilton of season 1, whom I can scarcely picture admitting such things.

Season 8 is starting to show the signs of being a mixed-bag. There are many classic episodes, still mostly television-only, but some season 1 elements are creeping back in. Paul is threatened (not unreasonably, mind) with the loss of his license. Andy is sometimes tense, very unlike the calm fellow he has been prior to this. Perry and Hamilton’s friendship, thankfully, is still strong.

And then season 9, a full mixed-bag. The plots are still very good, but by now it’s clear that someone thinks the show needs to go back to its roots. There are season 1-type antics with Perry and more serious conflicts between him and Hamilton. They re-adapt some of the books that they already adapted in the past—and usually not as well as the first time around. They even bring in Clay’s Restaurant, a location mentioned in season 1, and finally show us the previously elusive Terrance Clay.

Andy is gone, with no explanation, and this time no easing out, as there was with Tragg. Instead we have Steve, someone very different from both Tragg and Andy. The writers seem to have figured out that the police character needs some good development, as Steve is given many glowing opportunities to show the varied facets of his personality. With Steve it makes sense, whereas with Andy his personality changes around season 8 seem more haphazard and unplanned.

You know, I have to wonder. After both season 1 and season 5, very book-inspired seasons, there were excellent seasons that were not so book-inspired. If there had been a season 10, would it have carried the tradition? My, it would have been a lot of fun to see Steve take part in a season similar to 2 or 6!

But I am very grateful for all that we received. Nine amazing seasons and 271 episodes. That’s quite a record! And there really are very few duds. The writing is basically very good all the way along, including in season 9. While I wish Gardner had allowed for some more breaking of the formula, I will always be grateful for what he did allow. The television series brought us some incredible characterization for Hamilton and a marvelous friendship between him and Perry that clearly deepens throughout the seasons. The friendships between Perry and Della and Perry and Paul are also very well-done. For people who love romantically pairing Perry and Della, many of their moments can also be interpreted as unresolved romantic tension. In any case, their interaction is gold.

And all the characters are so memorable and endearing, from Perry right down to Steve. Every one of them worked to bring the series to us in their own special ways, and every one of them added something. That is why I try to bring them all into my stories and will continue doing so.

I want to thank everyone involved in bringing the characters to life, from the actors to the crew to the writers, and to Erle Stanley Gardner for the blueprint, so to speak. The characters, while perhaps not the only element that has kept this series alive above some other series, are certainly a grand part of it. I can’t help noticing that the original books are currently out-of-print (minus the recent CD dramatizations of some of them), while the television series is very much in-print. And I can’t help wondering if the interest in the characterization and development on the series is a big part of that. Or more specifically, the original actors' interpretations of the characters and the development.

I know it was definitely a large part of why the 1970s remake failed. The plots, honestly, are not bad at all. They're very Perry-like. And some of the cast, even, is very, very good. (Dane Clark and Harry Guardino, I'm looking at you.) But, regrettably, some of the cast is not as good, and in any case, there simply isn't the same rapport between any of these versions of the characters as there is in the original series. There couldn't be, no matter how good some of them are. People wanted the versions of the characters they knew and loved. Without them, and with it being impossible to have them without the original Perry actors, The New Perry Mason flopped.

So here’s to 55 more years of the original Perry on television! And many more after that.

The New Perry Mason: Really as bad as all that?

Along with the majority of the world, I detest remakes. (In fact, that's probably one of the few things I agree with other people on.) Every now and then one comes along that’s passable (can’t think of one), and even more rarely, one that surpasses the original. (The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Desert Song.)

I have steadfastly refused to even bother with The New Perry Mason. Apparently, so did the great number of TV watchers, since after 16 episodes it flopped. It was only seven years after the end of the original Perry Mason. Most people still remembered the original cast too fondly to be able to enjoy watching newcomers try at playing the same roles.

But is it really as bad as all that?

Good question.

The only episode I’ve really been interested in seeing is The Ominous Oath with Simon Oakland. Unfortunately, that appears to be one of a couple of episodes that is almost impossible to track down. So ironic. But, after some encouragement from a friend, I finally decided to buckle down and give some other episodes a chance. The ones I tinkered with were The Violent Valley, which was his recommendation, and The Telltale Trunk. My conclusions?

Well, they’re not all bad. In fact, just watching on their own merits, they’re not so bad at all. They’re very . . . 1970s in their feel. The issues, the outfits, the hairstyles, the film coloring, the people. . . . And I enjoy the 1970s.

The show had a lot of people in the crew from the original Perry, so that probably helped a lot towards keeping the plot format the same. And the scriptwriters, I believe, were also people from the original. The dialogue made me very happy. It was dialogue I could easily imagine our beloved original cast using. Every time they spoke, almost, I could imagine Raymond Burr or William Hopper or one of the others saying their words.

And the actors themselves. How were they? Well . . . I’ll be honest, I kind of agree with someone else’s assessment about robotic delivery, at least on Monte Markham’s part. I got the impression that he was trying too hard to be Raymond Burr and failing miserably.

I haven’t got much of a feel for the new Della Street, played by Sharon Acker. She’s very 1970s, blonde, and younger than I can ever imagine Della being in the series. She’s sweet and nice from what I saw, but I couldn’t tell if she really has much personality.

Paul Drake, played by Albert Stratton, was fine. His dialogue delivery was among the best and reminded me a lot of William Hopper. His build was similar too.

Lieutenant Tragg is interesting. Dane Clark is certainly younger than Ray Collins was when he got the original role, but he still appears to be older than the rest of the cast. His dialogue is, perhaps, the most different, but that may only be because Ray Collins himself had such a distinctive and memorable speech pattern. Dane Clark doesn’t try to imitate that, most likely for the better.

And Hamilton Burger? Well, Harry Guardino shows up looking more like Erle Stanley Gardner’s original vision of the character as described in the books. Hence, he has a moustache. Strange to picture. But I enjoyed his delivery. He seemed at ease in the part.

And as for character interaction. . . . The Telltale Trunk absolutely thrilled and delighted me. There was one of those scenes in Hamilton’s office between him and Perry as they discuss elements of the case. They seemed to be very friendly towards each other and their dialogue was much like that of Raymond Burr’s and William Talman’s from the original series.

One thing that made me blink. Hamilton made no objections during the court scene at all, and there were several places where I thought William Talman’s Hamilton would have objected. I don’t know if this is normal for The New Perry Mason or if Hamilton just didn’t have any objections that day. Actually, the judge was the vocal one, sometimes scolding Perry a bit.

And another thing that kind of excited me. Just a little thing, but I loved what it implied. Dane Clark’s Lieutenant Tragg still sits on Hamilton’s desk the way Ray Collins’ Tragg sometimes did. (And while they were questioning a suspect, no less!) For him to do that certainly indicates the characters are close friends in this version too. You don’t sit on the desk of a mere associate unless you’re trying to be very brazen!

On the downside, they spent very little time in the courtroom in The Telltale Trunk. I'm not sure if that was an isolated incident either. Some of the original Perry episodes were the same way; it all depended. I'd have to watch more to judge for sure. And there wasn't much of an epilogue sequence. It ended as court let out, with just a few scant words in closing. That was disappointing, considering the fun epilogues of the original.

I didn’t have time to fully watch both episodes all the way through, so I intend to go back and see what I skipped over at a later date. I may also tinker with other episodes.

The Telltale Trunk also made me happy because of the guest-stars. Both Richard Anderson and Keenan Wynn were there! It was a very pleasant surprise. Keenan Wynn has long been a favorite of mine, ever since I saw him in his string of Disney movies. And Richard Anderson, of course, is our Lieutenant Drumm.

In The Telltale Trunk he plays the defendant, a hapless man who made a joke about murdering a creep and randomly came up with a plan for how to do it. He emphasized to his associates that it was a joke. Unfortunately, someone bugging the place heard and decided to do it for real. And Richard’s character got the blame.

It was so surreal every time he said “Perry.” It was just like Drumm used to say it, only now he was talking to a completely different Perry.

When it comes to the main stars, I believe Dane Clark is the one with whom I’m the most familiar. I’ve definitely seen him in things before; I recognized him immediately. I just never had a name to go with the face. And I still can’t think of what I watched that he was in.

Monte Markham, oddly enough, I can only recall from that off-the-wall comedy The Second Hundred Years. Someone whom I would like to think of as a friend showed me the trailer for it several months back. Apparently it made such an impression that it became hard for me to imagine Monte in anything dramatic. But I have seen him in other things before and just don’t remember. I’ll take greater stock in the future. IMDB.com says that he was in an episode of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, which I remember seeing, but I don’t remember beyond the name (The Mystery of Pirate’s Cove) and an episode of Diagnosis Murder entitled Dead in the Water. I’ve seen just about every episode of that, so I probably saw that one too, but it’s been years since I’ve seen anything other than season 1 (which I bought last year).

Harry Guardino, well, who hasn’t heard of Dirty Harry? He played a police lieutenant in that. Probably his most widely viewed role, although I’ve never seen the film. I have probably seen him in things, however, and just can’t recall at the moment.

Della and Paul’s actors I honestly don’t remember much. According to IMDB.com, Albert Stratton was in The Last of the Belles, a very strange movie that I did have occasion to see. And Sharon Acker was in the Mission: Impossible episode Trapped, which I saw a couple of weeks ago for the second time. She was also in an episode of The Wild Wild West that I believe I saw.

My ultimate conclusion is that, while of course The New Perry Mason can’t compare to our beloved original, and I can fully understand why it flopped, it is worth a try. There’s definitely some good stuff in there. (And I still want to find that episode with Simon. . . .)