It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Erle Stanley Gardner’s fictional lawyer/detective, Perry Mason. Gardener wrote 82 Perry Mason novels, but that wasn’t the extent of his literary talent. Gardner also wrote under the pen name A. A. Fair. Using that pen name, he created one of the best 
fictional detective teams ever, Bertha Cool and Donald Lam.
In 30 novels, the overweight, penny-pinching, elderly, white haired Bertha partnered with underweight, short, suspended lawyer, Donald. Together, they took on cases that other agencies often refused. They didn’t do this because they thought there was an injustice that needed to be corrected; they often took cases because Bertha wanted the money.
When Perry Mason came to television in 1957, Gardener’s production company, Paisano Productions, tried to follow up with a Cool and Lam TV series. The pilot never sold, but the episode is available on YouTube. Starring former jockey Billy Pearson as Donald Lam and singer-dancer, stage actress Benay Venuta as Bertha Cool, the characters clicked, but t
he plot didn’t. The pilot was sold as a half-hour detective show, but this time allocation didn’t allow the audience to really get to know the strange dynamics of Bertha’s and Donald’s relationship and backstory or to follow along with Lam as he solved the case. At the end of the pilot, it was as if magic occurred and you really didn’t care whether the client was happy or justice was served for the murder victim, who was on screen for about two minutes before being done in.
That said, the pilot is worth watching because of Gardner’s on-screen introduction and his promise of new clients every week. CBS didn’t buy his promise or the show’s format and perhaps we are all the sadder for that. The upside is that all of the actors appearing in the pilot often appeared in the Perry Mason TV series.
The Cool and Lam TV pilot is on YouTube. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the link on this site, but click on the YouTube link and you can watch the pilot.
