Perry Mason: The Complete Series

I was born in 1954. Perry Mason ran from fall 1957 through spring 1966. (Back in the days of just 3 channels!) I remember watching this program with my parents. As a little kid I had some trouble following the plot and details of the legal system and so forth. My feeling was that D.A. Berger and Lt. Tragg were bad men who tried to make big trouble for innocent people (Perry's clients, that is.) Perry, Della and Paul were the good guys of course. I recently started watching these old episodes on a cable channel that runs old shows from the 50's, 60's and 70's. They were much better than I remembered and so I ordered this set comprising the entire 9 year series. I have found the series to be, in general, much better than most of what is on TV these days. The acting is superb. Of course, much of what is seen is in the style of the speech, censorship rules, and morals of that time. I did not find any of that off-putting; rather, it was somewhat charming and reminded me strongly of a different time in our country. There were about 300 episodes, I watched them all. Just about every TV star and character actor from those years appeared on Perry Mason and some appeared more than once. So the series is also a great review of the TV and movie stars of those years, many of whom appeared frequently on TV shows. (For example I counted at least 75 actors/actresses who appeared on PM who also appeared on Star Trek the Original Series.) Stars such as Michael Rennie, Hugh O'Brien, Walter Pigeon, Bette Davis and some lesser known but quite familiar faces of Dabbs Greer, Pat Priest, Sue Ane Langdon, Dick Clark, Warren Stevens, Barry Sullivan, Marianna Hill, Sherry Jackson and a very great many others. Watching the last episode was somewhat sad. I realized that everyone I was seeing has been dead for years. The episode ended on a high note. Interestingly, the judge in that final episode was actually Erle Stanley Gardner himself. The story involves two murders which took place on a studio lot that shot various TV series. Of course the police had to come and interview many behind the camera crew. The writer cleverly worked in the actual behind the camera crew of the PM series as the crew in the story. It was a nice send off. In conclusion, I had a nostalgic connection to the series as discussed above. I thought the stories were interesting, the acting was excellent, you came to really like the characters. My only criticism would be that there were a fair number of plots that I involved the innocent client of Perry perhaps hitting or knocking out the victim (but not killing him) and then in a 5 minute period after the client leaves, someone else comes in and kills the victim. We don't know who that person is/was until the end of the episode. I don't think this is a spoiler, but all of Perry's clients are innocent, the only ones we can count on to be innocent. I strongly recommend this series.

Hollywood does not make this quality of entertainment anymore. It's a golden era that will never return, and it's great that it has been preserved. The only thing I have concern about is, the audio. The video is superb, picture is fantastic, but when the background music come on, it is way louder than the actors speaking. Can barely hear the voices, so you have to turn the volume up to hear them, and because the music is louder than the voices, you have to turn the volume down when the music comes on or it will blow your eardrums out. It is so loud you can hear it blaring even outside the house. That means, if you are in an apartment, you will disturb your neighbor upstairs, downstairs, and the ones beside you. So, you have to keep the remote in your hand so you can turn the volume up and down when needed, which is not an effective way to do that, because the music comes on when you least expect it, and it takes a while to get it to a decent level. I have used recording equipment, and I know you can adjust the volume of the voice and adjust the background music before you start actual recording, and whoever copied these DVD's did not adjust the background music and the voice levels to normal volume. The company who duplicated these need to get someone who knows what they are doing, or train the persons who do it. Otherwise, I am happy with my purchase, just wish I didn't have to monitor the volume while I watch. It takes the pleasure out of just relaxing and watching your movie.

I grew up in the 50's and 60's and Perry Mason was not on my watch list as a kid, but discovered the great attorney when I was working for an attorney in the 70's when there were reruns of this show. I fell in love with the suave Mr. Mason and was fascinated by his brilliance in handling his cases. I later forgot all about this show until it came to my attention on Amazon. I decided to be patient and wait for the complete series to be released and nearly had a stroke when I saw the original price! But patience paid off right after Cyber Monday and I got this wonderful set for $190.00 instead of $599.00! My husband and I are retired and spend lunch every day with Perry, Della, Paul, Trag and Mr. Burger. I had forgotten how good TV could really be and am slowly working my way through each season. Some people are complaining about this not being a "boxed set". WHO CARES!! You can't watch the box! and it certainly doesn't enhance the stories in any way. I am just thrilled to have discovered the great barrister again. Besides, this show would be worth the price just the see all the great women's clothes (Della was a real hottie!) and the fabulous cars...Perry seems to have had a new vehicle for each episode! My only complaint about this series is the constant cigarette smoking...they tried to glamourize it...guess the tobacco companies paid for air time, but that aside, be patient, wait for a good price drop and BUY THIS COMPLETE SET!! If you love old shows, great acting and wonderful sets, you have your series here...my husband and I should be through the series in about 2 years!! No objections, your honor!!

My wife and I have enjoyed watching Perry Mason from time to time, but one thing we noticed is that it appeared that some of the show was left out on broadcast channels...maybe to make room for more commercial time? We've been enjoying seeing these on DVD, especially enjoying the nice picture (and, of course, no commercial interruptions). The only downcheck is that they're stacked fairly oddly in the package. There are a lot of DVDs in there (of course), but they way they're stacked means you sometimes have to shuffle a bit to put one back in the pack and get out the next one. Not enough of an issue for me to take away a star, but you might find it a bit annoying.

Ottimo prodotto. Contiene tutte le stagioni di questa serie straordinaria, in cui ogni episodio è tratto da un romanzo, e per la bravura degli sceneggiatori e degli attori , ogni episodio è un vero gioiello. La qualità video è molto buona e i sottotitoli in inglese per non udenti consentono a chi come me non afferra bene le parole di seguire bene. Consiglio l'acquisto agli appassionati , perchè è l'unica possibilità di avere la serie completa, sarebbe bellissimo se pubblicassero ii dvd doppiati in italiano o con i sottotitoli in italiano per gli episodi non doppiati, ma per ora questo è il massimo che si riesce a trovare e lo consiglio vivamente!

I first copied off t.v. on vhs.. Had almost the whole series.One day had a get rid of vhs day. I passed over these many times on Amazon at the price but with all my vhs tapes gone , relented and purchased the set. very clear picture and sound even better than the original on t.v. given the sets of the day mostly broadcasted through TV roof antennas. and smaller screens. and a lot one speaker TV's. The only two things I am disappointed with are the discs stacked one upon and trying get the right disc and not having numerous discs come loose. cases look great for any library. Although the cases advertise cc close captioning, my set has none so I am a little disappointed. other than these, great watching.

Perfect for avoiding all the crappy ads on "free to air" TV.

A wonderful series and a great actor that we lost too early. Will take some time to watch all the episodes.

字幕付きなのはSeason７からSeason9までのみです。AmazonのDVDの内容説明は字幕付きとなっていて、これを信じて購入したのに残念です。出品者に連絡したところ返品伝票が送られて来ました。しかしながら返品先が米国で発送費用が高額で着払いで送ることは出来ません。だまされた気分です。どうしたらいいでしょうか？