I Just Watched...

[Lorna]

I have a pretty complicated and nit picky PERRY MASON QUESTION and it is entirely possible that no one will have the answer for it, but:

If you go to the IMDb top 10 highest rated episodes FOR PERRY MASON and then you go and you look up THE SERIES on FREEVEE or AMAZON or PARAMOUNT PLUS- almost HALF are MIssing!

“the case of Paul Drakes dilemma” (#3 highest rated), is missing from the season three lineup as is the “the case of the final fade out” (#1 highest rated) and like two or three others- they are missing entirely even though every single other episode from that season is available.

Like 95% of the series is available- just not the highest rated ones (as per IMDb user votes)

I am just perplexed as to why this is, the only reason I can think of why an episode will be pulled from a television series’s streaming lineup would be that it had some type of highly offensive Content, or used Music that was copywritten.

In fact, in so far as I can tell the only episodes of Perry Mason, missing from all eight (nine?) seasons, are a vast majority of the ones that are in the top rated IMDb episode section for the series.

[laffite]

delete by laffit

[HoldenIsHere]

I have a pretty complicated and nit picky PERRY MASON QUESTION and it is entirely possible that no one will have the answer for it, but:

If you go to the IMDb top 10 highest rated episodes FOR PERRY MASON and then you go and you look up THE SERIES on FREEVEE or AMAZON or PARAMOUNT PLUS- almost HALF are MIssing!

“the case of Paul Drakes dilemma” (#3 highest rated), is missing from the season three lineup as is the “the case of the final fade out” (#1 highest rated) and like two or three others- they are missing entirely even though every single other episode from that season is available.

Like 95% of the series is available- just not the highest rated ones (as per IMDb user votes)

I am just perplexed as to why this is, the only reason I can think of why an episode will be pulled from a television series’s streaming lineup would be that it had some type of highly offensive Content, or used Music that was copywritten.

In fact, in so far as I can tell the only episodes of Perry Mason, missing from all eight (nine?) seasons, are a vast majority of the ones that are in the top rated IMDb episode section for the series.

I am not familiar with the PERRY MASON situation specifically, but from my experience with other TV series where certain episodes aren't available it is usually due to music licensing fees being cost prohibitive

[ElCid]

About Perry Mason:
I've been playing games on my tablet and listening to Perry Mason.
While I wasn't paying attention to either 100%, Perry and makes good radio.
I could swear someone offered Jessica Fletcher a cigar and she said, "No thanks, I'm trying to quit."
"Southern Double-Cross." She is in Australia and her lawyer was just found dead.

Which Perry Mason? Original with Raymond Burr, TV "movies" with Burr, William Warren movies or the new one? Jessica Fletcher and Perry Mason???
Regardless, the Raymond Burr Perry Mason is a big favorite for my wife and I - watch at least two episodes per week. Bought the DVD's as they were released so seen all the episodes many, many times. We usually watch them in order, but lately have been skipping a few. Probably one of the best series ever on TV and with an excellent cast. Although the later replacements for Tragg did not measure up, they weren't bad. Incidentally, Ray Collins' name continued on the credits long after he left so he could continue to receive health insurance. I have read a couple of the books and both Perry and Paul are much darker characters than in the Burr TV shows.
Ray Collins had a small, but very good performance in Kill the Umpire movie.
Have not watched the new series as I cannot accept the Perry and Paul characters as being anything remotely as good as the ones from the past.
The original PM series had excellent stories (toned down for TV I'm sure), but good plots, good actors across the board and good direction. Interestingly a 1930's - 40's actress, Gail Patrick, became an executive producer of PM TV series as Gail Patrick Jackson.

[ElCid]

I have a pretty complicated and nit picky PERRY MASON QUESTION and it is entirely possible that no one will have the answer for it, but:

If you go to the IMDb top 10 highest rated episodes FOR PERRY MASON and then you go and you look up THE SERIES on FREEVEE or AMAZON or PARAMOUNT PLUS- almost HALF are MIssing!

“the case of Paul Drakes dilemma” (#3 highest rated), is missing from the season three lineup as is the “the case of the final fade out” (#1 highest rated) and like two or three others- they are missing entirely even though every single other episode from that season is available.

Like 95% of the series is available- just not the highest rated ones (as per IMDb user votes)

I am just perplexed as to why this is, the only reason I can think of why an episode will be pulled from a television series’s streaming lineup would be that it had some type of highly offensive Content, or used Music that was copywritten.

In fact, in so far as I can tell the only episodes of Perry Mason, missing from all eight (nine?) seasons, are a vast majority of the ones that are in the top rated IMDb episode section for the series.

Have you tried the over the air broadcasts? We have the DVD sets, so that's how we watch them, but they have been on OTA channels forever in this area.

[ElCid]

Speaking of original Perry Mason TV series, I am always highly interested in the automobiles. Perry would go from a Ford to a Cadillac to a Lincoln, etc. Paul usually drove the best cars - mostly Thunderbirds. Perry paid him well.
In the early episodes, Perry drives what looks like a standard Ford, but is actually the Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner. It was a convertible that actually had a real hardtop. Real expensive for a Ford and extremely complicated. Seldom see it on PM with the top down, but if you look close you can see an line across the top about a foot or so from the windshield. This is where part of the hard top folded up so whole thing could be stored in the trunk.

[jimimac71]

About Perry Mason:
I've been playing games on my tablet and listening to Perry Mason.
While I wasn't paying attention to either 100%, Perry and makes good radio.
I could swear someone offered Jessica Fletcher a cigar and she said, "No thanks, I'm trying to quit."
"Southern Double-Cross." She is in Australia and her lawyer was just found dead.

Which Perry Mason? Original with Raymond Burr, TV "movies" with Burr, William Warren movies or the new one? Jessica Fletcher and Perry Mason???
Regardless, the Raymond Burr Perry Mason is a big favorite for my wife and I - watch at least two episodes per week. Bought the DVD's as they were released so seen all the episodes many, many times. We usually watch them in order, but lately have been skipping a few. Probably one of the best series ever on TV and with an excellent cast. Although the later replacements for Tragg did not measure up, they weren't bad. Incidentally, Ray Collins' name continued on the credits long after he left so he could continue to receive health insurance. I have read a couple of the books and both Perry and Paul are much darker characters than in the Burr TV shows.
Ray Collins had a small, but very good performance in Kill the Umpire movie.
Have not watched the new series as I cannot accept the Perry and Paul characters as being anything remotely as good as the ones from the past.
The original PM series had excellent stories (toned down for TV I'm sure), but good plots, good actors across the board and good direction. Interestingly a 1930's - 40's actress, Gail Patrick, became an executive producer of PM TV series as Gail Patrick Jackson.

No, Perry Mason then Jessica Fletcher. I switched channels. The original Perry Mason.
I too would add to Lorna's issue, the OTA TV channels and the diginets/sub-channels are showing plenty of Perry Mason.
I don't typically watch Perry Mason but the original show is on MeTV. One shows in the early morning in California and the other one quite later at night.
With Matlock, M*A*S*H, In The Heat of the Night, and maybe others, MeTV shows them in order.
The 2-hour Matlock episodes might not show in proper sequence.
I am only into cable television, which already costs too much.
For anyone who likes the retro television shows, checkout Philo. It is still $25/month.
Andy Griffith was always about Ford cars. Both in the Andy Griffith Show and Matlock.
Sherriff Metzger in Murder, She Wrote wore a cowboy hat and drove a Caddy convertible.
My favorite TV car is the pile of junk Columbo had.
https://www.cgiautomotive.com/what-car- ... mbo-drive/

[CinemaInternational]

I have a pretty complicated and nit picky PERRY MASON QUESTION and it is entirely possible that no one will have the answer for it, but:

If you go to the IMDb top 10 highest rated episodes FOR PERRY MASON and then you go and you look up THE SERIES on FREEVEE or AMAZON or PARAMOUNT PLUS- almost HALF are MIssing!

“the case of Paul Drakes dilemma” (#3 highest rated), is missing from the season three lineup as is the “the case of the final fade out” (#1 highest rated) and like two or three others- they are missing entirely even though every single other episode from that season is available.

Like 95% of the series is available- just not the highest rated ones (as per IMDb user votes)

I am just perplexed as to why this is, the only reason I can think of why an episode will be pulled from a television series’s streaming lineup would be that it had some type of highly offensive Content, or used Music that was copywritten.

In fact, in so far as I can tell the only episodes of Perry Mason, missing from all eight (nine?) seasons, are a vast majority of the ones that are in the top rated IMDb episode section for the series.

The answer here might be hard to say. For, as anyone might expect from a 50s/60s courtroom show, Perry Mason did not do anything that would be considered deeply offensive, nor would music be a hangup, because the show is owned by Paramount/CBS, a studio well known to eliminate original music cues from episodes to cut back on cost (sometimes with really bleak results as I'm still traumatized by their release of Beverly Hills 90210 which cut out all the music and replaced it with generic stuff that clashed with the early 90s show. What was especially galling was their using electronic techno music to replace a beautiful song in a scene in the pilot [ "Clear to You" by the Innocence Mission]. I think I really took offense because it was that song that made me fall in love with the show in the first place)

I do recall though that L.A. Law, a series so densely plotted that you had to watch every episode to keep up with the plotlines, had originally been put up online 5 or 6 years ago, riddled with 7 or 8 missing episodes a season on IMDB+ (now Freevee) , then it disappeared for a long while, then it came back in total on prime, replete with the controversial episodes, like the ones with racial slurs. (Most of that show's wildest episodes are marked "18+" on Amazon Prime)

And I also recall getting back to Perry, that CBS used to, before the switch to Paramount+, lease out some shows to Hulu, and I spent a lot of time on Hulu during my TV spree in 2020 and 2021, and I recall that some shows were there complete (90210, Twin Peaks, Melrose Place), but there were dozens of missing episodes from I Love Lucy, The Odd Couple, and Taxi, and I can vouch in Taxi's case that two of their best loved episodes, "Sugar Mama" with Ruth Gordon and "Reverend Jim: A Space Odyssey", once among TV Guide's list of the best episodes of all time, were missing at the time. And their Paramount+ service only offered about 13 episodes of Happy Days, which ran for 11 seasons. So maybe, Perry is like those shows that are its stablemates in that CBS is reluctant to show the whole series . It is aggrevating though.

(Unrelated, but I wish that Warners would get Knots Landing on streaming sometime. Dallas made a big splash on Prime when it resurfaced, and Knots was always the better written show, so it would be nice for its episodes to be seen by the general public for the first time in nearly 20 years. Warners also controls China Beach which is also AWOL on streaming, but I know from the DVD release that that show is filled with expensive popular music. And Murphy Brown is also missing because of music reasons.)

[ElCid]

Ironically, the next episode we watched last night of Perry Mason was Paul Drake's Dilemma. A good episode, but not sure why it would have been rated #3. Paul is my favorite character of all on the series. As for the Final Fade Out, that was the closing episode for the series. Not as good as some others, but maybe it is #1 because it was the finale? When the witnesses are interviewed re: the murder, they are actual behind the scenes employees of the series.

[ElCid]

(Unrelated, but I wish that Warners would get Knots Landing on streaming sometime. Dallas made a big splash on Prime when it resurfaced, and Knots was always the better written show, so it would be nice for its episodes to be seen by the general public for the first time in nearly 20 years. Warners also controls China Beach which is also AWOL on streaming, but I know from the DVD release that that show is filled with expensive popular music. And Murphy Brown is also missing because of music reasons.)
[/quote]

We watched Dallas and Knott's Landing when originally broadcast and they were enjoyable. But, have no desire to watch them again. Actually did not watch Knott's Landing after the first season, not nearly as good as Dallas.
Murphy Brown in on one of the over the air networks.
As a Vietnam veteran I enjoyed China Beach, but after the first season it sort of went stale for me.

[Hibi]

LMREO!!!!!!! I must've missed that one!

I always get a kick out of it, no matter how many times I've seen it.
It's at the very end just before the credits. I likely forgot a few
words of Tragg's whole beatnik speech. IIRC, Bobby Troup played
the beatnik pianist and Frankie Laine was the comic. Beatniks rarely
came off very well in PM.

I think I vaguely remember that episode now, at least that Bobby Troup was in it. (unless he was in another one) I'll watch out for it!

[Hibi]

I will put in a good word for Arty Tragg. I never got the impression that he loathed
Perry and Paul. Naturally they were on opposite sides, but for the most part Tragg
kept his cool. In some episodes he would come to Perry's office at the end and pass
along something that had made Burger mad and all of them would have a good laugh
at that. He was basically going behind Burger's back and telling tales out of school.
One of Tragg's funniest scenes was when he came to Perry's office at the end of a trial
that involved beatniks and he was leaving he said something like Don't crowd me granny
(referring to Della). I'm one of the hip ones. Dig? See you later, daddy-o. And Tragg was
much more interesting than the vanilla on white bread duo of Anderson and Drumm.

LMREO!!!!!!! I must've missed that one!

The beatnik episode that Andree is referencing is "The Case of the Jaded Joker", in which Big Sleep gal Martha Vickers plays Sheila Hayes. This was from season 2 in 1959. I must have seen it 20 times and it is a hoot. There are a few pot references in this one and as well as two coffee house scenes (the place 50 beatnik stoners would go that didn't serve booze). It is always funny to see how up-tight 50s and 60s TV shows would show this type of counter-culture.

Hopefully you can see it someday. And yes, that Tragg daddy-o line leaves Perry and Delta doing a double take.

I think I may have seen it, but I don't remember it well. I'll definitely give it second look now if it's on when I'm watching tv. At least I know the episode title now. Thanks.

[Hibi]

Who else enjoyed the cheapjack Monogram WWII propaganda "thriller" I ESCAPED FROM THE GESTAPO? Dean Jagger (when he still had hair, but it was probably a rug) plays a forger unwittingly involved with a drab bunch of B-movie Nazi saboteurs in hard g "Los Angle-eez" headed by John Carradine. We know the group is foreign because they don't, er, I mean do not, speak with contractions. The motley crew is holed up in a room attached to an amusement arcade where average Americans are strolling around eating cotton candy, oblivious to what is going on behind their patriotic backs.

While all the humdrum "intrigue" is going on, there are some half-hearted but not unwelcome stylistic noir flourishes. These unfortunately cannot elevate the entire production into anything other than a tepid exploitative bargain basement programmer.

Interesting dialogue: "Mendelssohn! I haven't heard him since the Reichstag fire"

I saw it on the schedule and recorded it! (haven't watched it yet) Didn't know it was Monogram. LOL! So I know it'll be bad going in....

[Hibi]

Ironically, the next episode we watched last night of Perry Mason was Paul Drake's Dilemma. A good episode, but not sure why it would have been rated #3. Paul is my favorite character of all on the series. As for the Final Fade Out, that was the closing episode for the series. Not as good as some others, but maybe it is #1 because it was the finale? When the witnesses are interviewed re: the murder, they are actual behind the scenes employees of the series.

I saw that one recently (Final Fade Out) and remember watching it as a kid. I've never seen the color episode though. Dunno why they never run it. (at least on MeTV)

[Allhallowsday]

PLANET TERROR (2007) Hilarious.