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Perry Mason / Me-TV (1 Viewer)

Raider Nation

Raider Nation

Devil's Advocate
I don't know how many of you get Me-TV, but I find myself watching it most of the night when there aren't any games or current must-see shows on. They run all old programs like The Odd Couple, Cheers, Taxi, The Honeymooners, Thriller, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Mission:Impossible, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, Mr. Lucky, M*A*S*H, etc.

Anyway, that brings me to the topic. Perry Mason. I had never seen the show before Me-TV was available. Well before my time. Some of the dialogue is corny, of course, but the stories are pretty good. I'm honestly surprised that each episode holds my interest, but they do. I guess good plots don't have an expiration date.

Carry on. :unsure:

 
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As a youngster I was smitten with Della Street the same way I was with Ms. Landers from "Leave It To Beaver".

On a sidenote, Della's real-life son is William Katt--"The Greatest American Hero".

 
The granddaddy of the procedural. Next to listening to ballgames with me ma as she ironed, the greatest media memory of my youth is competing with her to figure whodunit first (and feeling strangely warm when Della would give Mason a "wholuvsya" wink). I wrote pilots for two procedurals a year or so ago and cant count the number of times i referred to the old master to keep the right drama pitch as my stories unfolded.

Ironsides dont compare - those Quinn Martin-type shows wear nowhere near as well. A show i'd like to see again or have them bring back was "Ellery Queen". Tim Hutton's dad Jim played the sleuth and would actually break the 4th wall to discuss the clues with the viewer halfway thru. DUG that.

Loves me some MeTV, but Boston's affiliate blacks out the best two hrs (late evening - Cheers, Taxi, TZ) for infomercials. Pisses me off. Love cooking dinner to Rockfish bustin' heads & hearts, tho.

 
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The supporting cast on the show was stellar as well... Paul Drake and Hamilton Burger were classic.

 
'wikkidpissah said:
The granddaddy of the procedural. Next to listening to ballgames with me ma as she ironed, the greatest media memory of my youth is competing with her to figure whodunit first (and feeling strangely warm when Della would give Mason a "wholuvsya" wink). I wrote pilots for two procedurals a year or so ago and cant count the number of times i referred to the old master to keep the right drama pitch as my stories unfolded.Ironsides dont compare - those Quinn Martin-type shows wear nowhere near as well. A show i'd like to see again or have them bring back was "Ellery Queen". Tim Hutton's dad Jim played the sleuth and would actually break the 4th wall to discuss the clues with the viewer halfway thru. DUG that.Loves me some MeTV, but Boston's affiliate blacks out the best two hrs (late evening - Cheers, Taxi, TZ) for infomercials. Pisses me off. Love cooking dinner to Rockfish bustin' heads & hearts, tho.
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Luckily we don't get infomercialed here. The show I catch most often is the Rifleman. Lucas McCain is one of the top TV dads IMO. I like Ironsides but I would agree Perry was the more iconic role and the better show overall.
 
'NCCommish said:
'wikkidpissah said:
The granddaddy of the procedural. Next to listening to ballgames with me ma as she ironed, the greatest media memory of my youth is competing with her to figure whodunit first (and feeling strangely warm when Della would give Mason a "wholuvsya" wink). I wrote pilots for two procedurals a year or so ago and cant count the number of times i referred to the old master to keep the right drama pitch as my stories unfolded.Ironsides dont compare - those Quinn Martin-type shows wear nowhere near as well. A show i'd like to see again or have them bring back was "Ellery Queen". Tim Hutton's dad Jim played the sleuth and would actually break the 4th wall to discuss the clues with the viewer halfway thru. DUG that.Loves me some MeTV, but Boston's affiliate blacks out the best two hrs (late evening - Cheers, Taxi, TZ) for infomercials. Pisses me off. Love cooking dinner to Rockfish bustin' heads & hearts, tho.
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Luckily we don't get infomercialed here. The show I catch most often is the Rifleman. Lucas McCain is one of the top TV dads IMO. I like Ironsides but I would agree Perry was the more iconic role and the better show overall.
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Rifleman was great! Perry > Ironside
 
'bubba191919 said:
'NCCommish said:
'wikkidpissah said:
The granddaddy of the procedural. Next to listening to ballgames with me ma as she ironed, the greatest media memory of my youth is competing with her to figure whodunit first (and feeling strangely warm when Della would give Mason a "wholuvsya" wink). I wrote pilots for two procedurals a year or so ago and cant count the number of times i referred to the old master to keep the right drama pitch as my stories unfolded.Ironsides dont compare - those Quinn Martin-type shows wear nowhere near as well. A show i'd like to see again or have them bring back was "Ellery Queen". Tim Hutton's dad Jim played the sleuth and would actually break the 4th wall to discuss the clues with the viewer halfway thru. DUG that.Loves me some MeTV, but Boston's affiliate blacks out the best two hrs (late evening - Cheers, Taxi, TZ) for infomercials. Pisses me off. Love cooking dinner to Rockfish bustin' heads & hearts, tho.
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Luckily we don't get infomercialed here. The show I catch most often is the Rifleman. Lucas McCain is one of the top TV dads IMO. I like Ironsides but I would agree Perry was the more iconic role and the better show overall.
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Rifleman was great! Perry > Ironside
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The best part is as soon as someone messes with his son they may as well have beamed down in a red shirt. They are done. Wikkid mentioned Rockford I catch that one sometimes and I think that's a great show. I watched a lot of these shows as a kid and it's fun to see them again.
 
There is a reason that the shows hold up so well, Erle Stanley Gardner, who created the Perry Mason character, negotiated having final script approval. How that happened was that Perry Mason was a successful radio show in the late 40's (with William Conrad as Mason) and CBS wanted to move it to television in the early 50's but Gardner wouldn't agree. They kept offering him more and more money and he kept refusing. Finally they offered him something outrageous (for the time) like $5 million and he still turned them down. They asked if it wasn't money what exactly did he want, and he said that he had had some bad experiences in the 30's with some Mason novels that were made into films and as a result - he wanted complete creative control over the series including final script approval. They agreed and the show finally went on television in 1957.

All of the stories have a similar plot line: Mason meets a client who is having some problems. Mason investigates. Client is wrongfully accused of murder. Mason investigates further. Finally, in court Mason exposes the real murderer who usually confesses on the stand.

And the show was perfectly cast. Gardner himself said Raymond Burr looked and acted like the Mason character he envisioned when the created the character in his books. Barbara Hale was a great Della Street, as was William Hopper as Private Investigator Paul Drake (who only seems to have Mason as a client). Ray Collins (who once had been one of Orson Wells Mercury Theatre players) was quite believable as the crusty but always fair Lt. Tragg. And the part of Hamilton Burger could not have been better cast than with William Talman. Erle Stanley Gardner said what he liked about Talman was that "He always seems to think he can win the case," even though he inevitably would be bested by Mason.

 
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'wikkidpissah said:
Loves me some MeTV, but Boston's affiliate blacks out the best two hrs (late evening - Cheers, Taxi, TZ) for infomercials. Pisses me off.
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Taxi is also one of my favorite shows. They had it in an early evening time slot for a couple of months, but replaced it with The Bob Newhart Show. :X Thanks to everyone for educating me about Perry Mason. Good to see others enjoy it as well.
 
:blackdot:

Haven't looked these up in forever, though I did stumble across a couple episodes of the Rifleman the other week! All good shows; gonna hafta get back into some retro tv...

 
'wikkidpissah said:
The granddaddy of the procedural. Next to listening to ballgames with me ma as she ironed, the greatest media memory of my youth is competing with her to figure whodunit first (and feeling strangely warm when Della would give Mason a "wholuvsya" wink). I wrote pilots for two procedurals a year or so ago and cant count the number of times i referred to the old master to keep the right drama pitch as my stories unfolded.

Ironsides dont compare - those Quinn Martin-type shows wear nowhere near as well. A show i'd like to see again or have them bring back was "Ellery Queen". Tim Hutton's dad Jim played the sleuth and would actually break the 4th wall to discuss the clues with the viewer halfway thru. DUG that.

Loves me some MeTV, but Boston's affiliate blacks out the best two hrs (late evening - Cheers, Taxi, TZ) for infomercials. Pisses me off. Love cooking dinner to Rockfish bustin' heads & hearts, tho.
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Very good show. Tim did an homage in one of the Leverage episodes. :thumbup:
 
Me-TV, Me-Too and This are all very good. I find myself watching more movies on This than I do the various HBOs.

 
Originally, Raymond Burr tried out for the role of Hamilton Burger, and William Talman tried out for the role of Perry Mason. Then Gardner (I believe) switched their roles and was instantly sold on both.

Perry Mason trivia

 
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Been watching Dragnet a lot, which airs right after Perry Mason now. Never really watched it before.

My God, every character talks fast on this show. It's like they are having a competition to see who can complete a sentence the fastest.

 
This channel is fantastic, BTW.

Twilight Zone, Honeymooners, M*A*S*H, Adam-12 (good to watch again, but hasn't aged well at all), Night Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Thriller, etc.

Nice to have old programs on in the background when you're trying to get some work done.

 
Raider Nation said:
This channel is fantastic, BTW.

Twilight Zone, Honeymooners, M*A*S*H, Adam-12 (good to watch again, but hasn't aged well at all), Night Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Thriller, etc.

Nice to have old programs on in the background when you're trying to get some work done.
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Never got into Mash. TZ and Honeymooners are good stuff though. Haven't seen Honeymooners since I was a kid though, but I bet it holds up.

 
I suppose it's an individual thing, but there are no belly-laughs for me watching the Honeymooners. What was funny in 1956 doesn't always translate to today, but it's more of a feel-good thing to watch. It still has its moments though.

"Okay, now address the ball."

"HELLOOOOO ball."

 
Raider Nation said:
I suppose it's an individual thing, but there are no belly-laughs for me watching the Honeymooners. What was funny in 1956 doesn't always translate to today, but it's more of a feel-good thing to watch. It still has its moments though.

"Okay, now address the ball."

"HELLOOOOO ball."
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I used to watch reruns with my dad. I suppose he felt the same nostalgic fondness. I thought it was funny without any contextual relevance. Now I suppose it would have the same nostalgic pull...like the Marx Brothers movies- which I should rematch sometime soon.

 
If you get MeTV, Adam-12 is just starting now. Every bit of it is terribly dated, yet I still enjoy it for some reason.

 
Raider Nation said:
Ilov80s said:
Raider Nation said:
If you get MeTV, Adam-12 is just starting now. Every bit of it is terribly dated, yet I still enjoy it for some reason.
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I've never seen it, so I am assuming by your comments that it's worth keeping that way.
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Oh, you must be younger than me. This was a big show when I was a little kid.
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Must be, I don't even recall it showing up in the usual reruns I watched like Happy Days or Dragnet.

 
Raider Nation said:
Been watching Dragnet a lot, which airs right after Perry Mason now. Never really watched it before.

My God, every character talks fast on this show. It's like they are having a competition to see who can complete a sentence the fastest.
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And the constant nodding at each other.

Joe and Bill arguing with the hippies never gets old. Webb's five-pack a day cigarette voice ranting about the 60's counterculture is comedy gold.

I saw an interview with Harry Morgan where he talked about how when he first came to M*A*S*H everyone went out of their way to make him feel relaxed and comfortable. But, he said that after four seasons of dealing with Webb's rapid-fire dialogue, and Webb's insistence on only doing one or two takes to make the language seem authentic, M*A*S*H was like a summer vacation.

 
Encyclopedia Brown said:
Raider Nation said:
Been watching Dragnet a lot, which airs right after Perry Mason now. Never really watched it before.

My God, every character talks fast on this show. It's like they are having a competition to see who can complete a sentence the fastest.
Click to expand...
And the constant nodding at each other.

Joe and Bill arguing with the hippies never gets old. Webb's five-pack a day cigarette voice ranting about the 60's counterculture is comedy gold.

I saw an interview with Harry Morgan where he talked about how when he first came to M*A*S*H everyone went out of their way to make him feel relaxed and comfortable. But, he said that after four seasons of dealing with Webb's rapid-fire dialogue, and Webb's insistence on only doing one or two takes to make the language seem authentic, M*A*S*H was like a summer vacation.
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I used to watch as a kid so I do enjoy the Me-TV reruns. But yeah it is staccato dialogue. And I heard Webb really was quite demanding. He wanted it to be very realistic as to how they acted. That's why you see so few times where the actually use their guns or even take them out. IIRC the network made them add some scenes.

 
The whole lineup is fun for an old guy like me. I love the Rifleman. I mean really isn't Lucas McCain someone you would want running things? A little liberal socially, responsible fiscally, respectful of the environment and genuinely a good guy. I always enjoy MASH even though they sometimes they let Alda go over the top. However there were some very intensel shows in that mix. The one about the lady killing her baby to keep it quiet so they could evade the North Koreans? That was very powerful television. We don't see things like that on networks these days very often.

There is another station I think it's Antenna TV I get here. That has All in the Family, Good Times and those shows. Also really good TV.

 
NCCommish said:
The whole lineup is fun for an old guy like me. I love the Rifleman. I mean really isn't Lucas McCain someone you would want running things? A little liberal socially, responsible fiscally, respectful of the environment and genuinely a good guy. I always enjoy MASH even though they sometimes they let Alda go over the top. However there were some very intensel shows in that mix. The one about the lady killing her baby to keep it quiet so they could evade the North Koreans? That was very powerful television. We don't see things like that on networks these days very often.

There is another station I think it's Antenna TV I get here. That has All in the Family, Good Times and those shows. Also really good TV.
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You mean it wasn't a chicken????????

 
Christo said:
NCCommish said:
The whole lineup is fun for an old guy like me. I love the Rifleman. I mean really isn't Lucas McCain someone you would want running things? A little liberal socially, responsible fiscally, respectful of the environment and genuinely a good guy. I always enjoy MASH even though they sometimes they let Alda go over the top. However there were some very intensel shows in that mix. The one about the lady killing her baby to keep it quiet so they could evade the North Koreans? That was very powerful television. We don't see things like that on networks these days very often.

There is another station I think it's Antenna TV I get here. That has All in the Family, Good Times and those shows. Also really good TV.
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You mean it wasn't a chicken????????
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Sorry I should have put up a spoiler alert.

 
NCCommish said:
arrow1 said:
pablito said:
The supporting cast on the show was stellar as well... Paul Drake and Hamilton Burger were classic.
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Wait...Ham...Burger?
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Yes. The worst DA in history and an unfortunate name. Well when the books were originally written by Gardner it wouldn't have been probably but now yeah.
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People made the connection at the time and Gardner was asked about the Ham Burger name, but denied he was trying to make a joke or be funny. However he had worked as a trial attorney before becoming a full time writer and reportedly had a low opinion of the DAs he worked with, so it is believed that the name is not just an unfortunate coincidence.

 
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They need to move this show from its current time-slot way early in the morning to later in the evening. I used to watch it on the Hallmark Channel, but they have replaced with some awful show starring Rob Petrie and Chachi.

On a sidenote, MeTV has started airing a show called "McMillan & Wife". I didn't recall it, but reading up I see that it was in the NBC rotation with "Columbo". Rock Hudson punches bad guys and flirts with a lot of ladies--authentically in both instances. I had a crush on Susan Saint James during her "Kate & Allie" days. I didn't know she was on a previous show.

 
Encyclopedia Brown said:
They need to move this show from its current time-slot way early in the morning to later in the evening. I used to watch it on the Hallmark Channel, but they have replaced with some awful show starring Rob Petrie and Chachi.
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It's on a night too. 12:30am EST usually.

Encyclopedia Brown said:
On a sidenote, MeTV has started airing a show called "McMillan & Wife". I didn't recall it, but reading up I see that it was in the NBC rotation with "Columbo". Rock Hudson punches bad guys and flirts with a lot of ladies--authentically in both instances. I had a crush on Susan Saint James during her "Kate & Allie" days. I didn't know she was on a previous show.
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Oh hell yeah. She was absolutely beautiful. I love the M*A*S*H episode where she comes on strong to B.J.

 
Encyclopedia Brown said:
They need to move this show from its current time-slot way early in the morning to later in the evening. I used to watch it on the Hallmark Channel, but they have replaced with some awful show starring Rob Petrie and Chachi.

On a sidenote, MeTV has started airing a show called "McMillan & Wife". I didn't recall it, but reading up I see that it was in the NBC rotation with "Columbo". Rock Hudson punches bad guys and flirts with a lot of ladies--authentically in both instances. I had a crush on Susan Saint James during her "Kate & Allie" days. I didn't know she was on a previous show.
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M&W was in a rotation with Columbo and McCloud in what NBC called Sunday Night Mystery Theater or something - a combination i think some of these short-run series networks should try again.

Very pretty gal, SSJ. She was a regular on the Maaaatha's Vinyid party circuit the same time i was in the 70s. There were parties kind of informally strung between JTaylor's house (where only the As went inside) and his brother Liv's down the hill and i remember a fight in JT's back yard between Belushi and some guy i didn't know over St James which resulted in Belush carrying her out of the party over his shoulder. My date said they were an item and whispered that the affair began when the SNL star virtually assaulted her on the bedrrom floor at another party. *crosses himself for libelling the dead*. She was very preppy but cute as lace pants.

 
Me-TV has been showing a lot of Banacek lately. An episode is starting now, in fact.

Private investigator show starring George Peppard. Not too bad. Fred Dryer must have watched a lot of these episodes. His character in "Hunter" seems to be a Banacek clone. Smarmy, confident, sarcastic, etc.

 
Raider Nation said:
Me-TV has been showing a lot of Banacek lately. An episode is starting now, in fact.

Private investigator show starring George Peppard. Not too bad. Fred Dryer must have watched a lot of these episodes. His character in "Hunter" seems to be a Banacek clone. Smarmy, confident, sarcastic, etc.
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Always thought he was going for a safe for TV version of Dirty Harry.

 
NCCommish said:
Raider Nation said:
Me-TV has been showing a lot of Banacek lately. An episode is starting now, in fact.

Private investigator show starring George Peppard. Not too bad. Fred Dryer must have watched a lot of these episodes. His character in "Hunter" seems to be a Banacek clone. Smarmy, confident, sarcastic, etc.
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Always thought he was going for a safe for TV version of Dirty Harry.
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Yeah, that's not bad. And Banacek smokes these too.

 
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