Perry Mason 50th Anniversary release (1 Viewer)

[Steve...O]

Apolgies in advance for the necessary vagueness, but a highly reliable source with first hand knowledge of their release plans has indicated that CBS/Paramount WILL release season three in 2008. Unfortunately it will be still be in volumes. Assuming a 3 month advance notice, the announcement for Vol 1 should be coming within a few weeks and Vol 2 will be out about before the end of the year.

The really good news is that S3 contains a lot of episodes that either didn't air on Hallmark when PM had a run several years back or weren't issued on Columbia House tapes. These releases will put unedited episodes into general circulation for the first time for many episodes.

 

[jdee28]

That stinks about the split seasons. I guess they'll never give Perry Mason a non-split season release. But at least we're getting the complete season 3 and this year to boot. Good news!

 

[Jeff Willis]

Steve, that's great news about S3! That's one that I'm looking forward to viewing since it contains a couple of my favorite episodes in the series.

 

[RickER]

I have my money out...give it to me!

 

[jdee28]

Perry Mason, Season 3 announced this morning! It is just Volume 1 though, so split seasons will in fact continue. Projected release date is August 19th. All in all, good news!

Perry Mason DVD news: Announcement for Perry Mason - The Third Season, Volume 1 | TVShowsOnDVD.com

 

[Charles Ellis]

Well, better split seasons than no seasons at all. Great news! Now let's see about a third season of Gunsmoke.....

 

[Greg Chenoweth]

Fans of "Perry Mason" have been begging for bonus material; in particular interviews with Barbara Hale and other people that worked on the series. The 50th anniversary set, I believe, is CBS/Paramount's way of presenting bonus material for the fans along with a collection of episodes from the various seasons. I have been enjoying watching this 50th anniversary set and have appreciated that CBS/Paramount has listened to the fans by giving us great bonus material.

Now, Season 3 has been announced for August, and I am right there with everyone else. I think it would be perfect to release all 26 episodes in one box set and then do the same with Season 4 later this year. However, half a season of Perry Mason is better than no season 3, so I'll take it. All I ask, CBS/Paramount, is that you keep it coming.

 

[Ed Bishop]

It does seem, on the surface, that many of these episodes were chosen for its guest stars; that doesn't diminish their quality, of course, which is generally good. The Bette Davis episode remains one of the strangest of the series, IMO, if only because, even now(as my wife pointed out), you don't expect to see Bette guesting on a TV show, even if it was one with the pedigree of Perry Mason! She took it over and seemed to be enjoying herself, but if there was ever a 'bottle' episode of the series, this one is it.

The color episode, on the other hand, is pretty bad. Of course this was the kind of show, with its noirish elements, that was perfect for B&W, and at its best, the series' production values equalled any B&W movie. But the real problem isn't the color, but the trendy music, the juvenile deliquent subplot, and the overall absurdity of it all...very sadly unrealistic for a show that offered a fascinating, often surrealistic overview of L.A. and environs that was, at times, worthy of such cinema as KISS ME DEADLY or THE BIG KNIFE. But the dubious result of this episode is only exaggerated with the use of color, as it was all too indicative of the last season, when, too often, the series seemed to be running on fumes, and seemed very tired.

That said, the box is highly enjoyable on its own terms, and it's wonderful to see Barbara Hale, well, hearty and hale... The extras are decent enough, an attractive package. The only aspect of it that bugged me was that, culling from Seasons 3 to 9, it's almost as if it's a wrap-up of some kind, that we won't get any more box sets. Hope that's not true, because this series was just too good, week to week, not to get it all out there.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Good point. As I was watching "The Case of the Deadly Verdict" last night, I suddenly became aware how much this was a noir show (and then read your comment today). The lighting on the B&W was actually quite amazing for a TV show. It makes total sense in the time period this show orginally ran that it was heavily influenced by noir pictures of the late 50's, but I only more recently went through all those Warner Box sets and became more educated about noir. Watching the show originally as a kid, it was just a very talky show with little action. Now ... it's art.

 

[Greg Chenoweth]

TVShowsonDVD.com announced two weeks ago that "Perry Mason, Season 3 Volume 1" is coming to DVD on August 19th. The season sets are definitely continuing.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I was in Borders yesterday and noticed a brand new biography of Raymond Burr on the shelves.

Powell's Books - Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret Life of Raymond Burr by Michael Starr

I fully realize this is not a gossip site, and I'm not plugging the book; just passing along the information of it's existence. Burr was a fantastic actor; even more so when you see the cover stories he passed on to the public to mask his more secret life (including a fictionalized love affair with Natalie Wood!). I didn't realize that William Hopper's (Paul Drake) mother was Hedda Hopper, the legendary gossip columnist, and that she was instrumental in protecting Burr's closeted life.

I don't know what insights the book may cover in regards to his Perry Mason role, or if the tone of the book is gossipy or more academic about the double life many actors led in the Fifties. But, personally, I enjoy in-depth, myth-busting biographies of film, tv or literary heroes, and feel that, in no way do they diminish these personalities. Sometimes they illuminate just how much more profound their accomplishments were in light of the personal struggles they had to hide or the prejudices they had to overcome.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

A couple comments after having finally finished screening this release ...

How come the 1985 movie Perry Mason Returns looks terrible compared to the B&W and Color episodes from 19 years earlier? Did they not bother to re-master that? Can't say that I blame them, though. It's a solid one hour PM episode padded with another hour of William Katt in linen pants (don't you just love the 80s?) chasing around in his jeep or getting chased. I guess he was supposed to pump the younger demographics.

The gem of the bunch is definitely "The Case of the Deadly Verdict," where Mason initially loses the case, then pursues it. There was clearly a more artistic directing approach to this particular episode. Very dramatic lighting, with lots of great noir touches.

A few of these episodes were definitely thrown in for the guest stars (Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds) rather than the script.

The color episode looks marvelous but is a real clunker. The only redeemable thing about it is that Victor Buono's Fagin-like character is named ... Ben Huggins. Did you get that, Bob?

 

[Bob Hug]

Thanks for the nod, Wayne!

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Was the reunion movie shot on film, videotape, or was it shot on film and edited on video?

Because if videotape was involved in any way, there's just no fixing the picture quality.

As for the entire DVD set, well, I bought this as a blind buy, never having seen any Perry Mason episodes before, and I enjoyed this box set very much. So much so, in fact, that I picked up the first two seasons, and am eagerly awaiting the beginning of season three later this year.

 

[Doug^Ch]

I bought this set from Amazon this week as they brought the price down to a much more reasonable $24.99.

 

[Dan McW]

More on the end-credit problems in the anniversary set, elaborating on my earlier post:

The episodes in the set, outside of the end credits, appear to be uncut and unaltered. CBS, however, should take a little bit more care with the end credits when producing the sets for seasons 6 and 7.

I checked the end credits of the 1962-63 and 1963-64 episodes (S6 and S7) in the set, which seem to be the ones with the two-part style I described in my earlier post. The Bette Davis episode as well as "Bountiful Beauty" are missing the second half of their credits. Also, the Columbia House transfer of "Deadly Verdict" (S7) has the two-part credits with the separate "mini"-theme songs, but the anniversary set's version has the titles running over the law-book background with the full version of the theme song. There's some sort of edit (I don't have the set with me now to check, but I think the film seemed to freeze briefly at this point) where "part one" of the titles should have ended, although at least all of the titles are there.

This error actually adds to the run time, but some eps in the set seem to have the card that reads "A CBS film presentation" slapped on the end of the credits whether it belongs or not. Early-season episodes are supposed to have this, with the kettle-drum roll and trumpet fanfare playing over it. The card appears with no fanfare on all eps in the anniversary set. Somewhere around S5 or S6, the card following the copyright that reads "Produced by the CBS Television Network in association with Paisano Productions" and showing the Seal of Good Practice replaced the card with the fanfare. Either one or the other—not both—should appear on a Perry Mason ep. On the eps in this set without "part two" of the credits, there’s a jump from part one of the credits to the “film presentation” card.

As a credits/theme-song/closing-logos nerd, I always notice things like this. Believe me, I plowed through the extras on the set and enjoyed seeing the remastered episodes. I know they're a low priority with most people, but end credits need to be properly presented too.

 

[jdee28]

Starting with releases from the middle of last year, CBS/Paramount usually does not present the end credits of their programs as they originally were. For color shows, they usually drop the end card altogether and replace it with a CBS/Paramount logo. For their black and white shows, if they don't drop the end card completely, they take one from a different season. Like for Gunsmoke -- when it originally aired, the kettle-drum roll and trumpet fanfare playing over the end card didn't start until the third or fourth season, yet it's on all the season 1 episodes.