The picture says it all. The first 19 episodes of the 39 episode first season of Perry Mason with Raymond Burr will be released on DVD on 11 July 2006. (Yes, I have pre-ordered and thank you for asking.)
These episodes from the 1956-57 season were shot on film, all in black and white, and created more lawyers than any other single event in American history (please no lawyer jokes).
Erle Stanley Gardner’s creation of Perry Mason was so well defined by Raymond Burr that many forget that at least three other actors played the lawyer in the movies and one actor, Monte Markham, played the part on TV after the Burr series went off the air. The Burr TV stories were well written and, thankfully, heavily influenced by Gardner’s previous work. Unfortunately, a lot of Gardner’s later work was influenced by what he saw on the TV show. But that’s another rant for another day.
Nevertheless, CBS Television got it right the first time out of the box. With this and the “Have Gun Will Travel” release – I am a happy man.