Multiple Perry Mason site search
Search this site, The Perry Mason TV Show Book and Bill Storrer's PMESG site.

 

Welcome to Big Dave's
Perry Mason TV Series Wiki

NEW on the Perry Links page:
Perry Mason: An Essay by Kirk Woodward
The Perry Mason Connection at American Film Noir

Wiki Recent Changes:

• CreditsPages.Show1 . . . October 11, 2008, at 10:48 AM by ?:
• TriviaPages.Show15 . . . October 09, 2008, at 10:24 PM by ?:
• TriviaPages.Show14 . . . October 09, 2008, at 10:24 PM by ?:
• TriviaPages.Show1 . . . October 07, 2008, at 12:42 AM by daveb:
• Main.PrincipalCast . . . October 05, 2008, at 10:07 PM by daveb:
• Extras.GroupHeader . . . October 05, 2008, at 10:01 PM by daveb:

This is a Wiki. That means you can edit and add content. Our topic is the Perry Mason TV series of the 50s and 60s. There is a page for each episode. With your help, these pages can be filled with interesting and useful information about the shows. I'll be adding material as time permits. You're invited to contribute as well. For information on how, please see the About page. There are also many closed pages here on a variety of topics. If you would like to contribute material for these pages, please send it to me at daveb@oz.net.

Note: Some links lead to pages outside of the Wiki. For these pages, please use your browser's back function to return to the Wiki page.

If you have a question about the series . . . try the search box at the top of the page. It will scan several sites for clues. You may also want to join and ask on the Perry_Mason and/or Della-Perry Yahoo! groups. You'll find many friendly and knowledgeable people on these lists, including me.

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The Backstory

I've been a fan of the original black-and-white (and one color episode) Perry Mason TV series since the show first appeared in the fifties. There was a lapse of many years whilst I toiled in various salt mines, but, after escaping to freedom, I reconnected with the show in 1985 via the TBS cable superstation. Alas, they stopped running the show in 1996. The last national airing was on The Hallmark Channel. Read about it in the Hallmark Log.

Where to watch. The show is still available on some local stations. Check your listings. The Retro Television Network (RTN) carries the show but is not available everywhere. CBS Video has the first two seasons online now. Fancast and Joost have some episodes as well.

Perry Mason on DVD . . . Paramount Home Video is releasing DVD sets of the series by half-season. Also, a special 50th anniversary collection. Available at the usual places.

Some of the shows were once available from Columbia House on tapes and DVDs by subscription. These were high quality recordings, mostly uncut and with no commercials. These tapes and DVDs can still be found at places like eBay and from some online vendors. For more information about the Columbia House tapes and DVDs, and other sources for the show, please visit Bill Storrer's PMESG site.

Many famous people have appeared in Perry Mason episodes, some before they were famous. It's fun to try and spot these people and then check the credits to see if you were right. This game led to my obsessive habit of collecting cast lists from the credits. I did it for years and have the casts from all 271 episodes in the database featured here. All the cast lists were taken from the trailing credits except for episode #218, The Case of the Bullied Bowler, which has only partial credits. The cast list for this episode has been recreated from other sources.

One reason the show holds up for me is because it's often set in the familiar territory of Southern California. It's like time travel. The very first episode, The Case of the Restless Redhead, featured a character who was living in my home town, Riverside, California. There are no actual scenes in Riverside but there are lots of references. In one scene, Perry comments to famous movie star Helene Chaney (Gloria Henry) that Riverside is a very interesting place. The Media Page has an audio clip. This scene is missing in cut episodes of the show..

In it's heyday, Perry Mason was shown in many countries. It was quite popular in Germany but, as you might expect, was a little different. The biggest change is that everybody speaks German. Leah, a fan from Germany, explains that German actors were used to dub the voices. She says this leads to interesting situations when an actor's voice is familiar from other roles. For example, Perry Mason sounds like Bill Cosby and Fred Flintstone! Engelbert von Nordhausen is the dubber, and you can "meet" him here. To add to the situation, German words tend to be longer than English ones. You know the deal, the lips say "Goodbye" as the voice says "Auf wiedersehen." Finally, the episodes are renamed in German. Leah has provided this list. It's fun to see how the titles changed. You can find translation help at LEO.

Them ads. Yes, there are ads here now, but please do not consider this a money making commercial enterprise. It's still "just a hobby." The site now has a real domain name and a new host, Pair Networks, and I just hope to cover some of the costs. Click an ad if you're interested and thank you very much! [11/9/04]

All main pages moved to the Wiki! [3/25/08] Old site redirected to the Wiki! [4/19/08]