« a very nice story | Main | Goa »
September 21, 2008
Perry Mason
The entire staff of KIW have been fans of fictional attorney-at-law Mr. Perry Mason since the late 1960's when members of the vast worldwide staff used to beat the 3pm summer heat by heading indoors to watch a rerun every weekday.
Later, when members of KIW's legal department passed the bar examination and starting "practicing" law, we were impressed at the fine points of law and procedure accurately portrayed in the Perry Mason television show.
Recently, we have come to see the Perry Mason television show as brilliant made-for-television film noir, and as a truly-American anti-establishment myth that inspires us to think for ourselves and question authority.
The show, which began in 1957 and ran for nine years, consistently portrays the police and the government as wrong. Both entities jump to easy conclusions that, when subjected to rigorous examination, prove to be false. The lessons are that life is complicated, filled with grey areas, and that blind faith in the government is dangerous.
Check out this 1962 episode, which includes an appearance by young Robert Redford . . . 'The Case of the Treacherous Toupee'
We also loved (yet hated) this quote, for the truth that it speaks:
"That's the only place you see real justice done."72 year-old Hayden Jones, who, at the time he said this, was destitute and dying of cancer. He was commenting on why he was spending his last days watching legal dramas like Matlock and Perry Mason on television. (Jones was a Pennsylvania man who spent 21 years of his life in prison. He was framed by police in 1949 after refusing to pay them bribe, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. His wife and three children were killed in an automobile accident on the way to visit him in prison. The state of Pennsylvania refused to compensate him for fear of establishing a precedent for paying those it has unjustly imprisoned.)
The Seattle Times; 5 May, 1996; p. A11
Viva Perry Mason! We need him now, more than ever.
Salon.com; 29 April, 2008; 'Legal appeal: Long before there was "Law and Order," a TV criminal defense attorney named Perry Mason brought high courtroom drama to the masses'
Posted by williamfrick at September 21, 2008 9:35 PM
Comments
My favorite episode was the "Case of the Frivolous Bar Grievance" in which Perry is brought upon charges for blowing an appeal deadline because his secretary put down the wrong address on the appeal. Case ends up being dismissed because "Client was a bum and deserved to be deported - err - convicted." Final scene is Perry taking the attorney for the Grievance Commissioner out drinking. Oh yeah, and then there was the "Case of the Missing Trust Fund Deposit". But that's another story.
Posted by: Not yet disbarred at September 22, 2008 3:07 PM