Today in History

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"Perry Mason" Premieres

Perry Mason was created by author Erle Stanley Gardner in the 1930's. In 1957 Perry Mason was brought to television on CBS. The first episode shown was The Case of the Restless Redhead on September 21, 1957. There were 271 episodes in all running from 1957-1966. All but one episode was in black and white (The case of the Twice Told Twist). The first few minutes of the show are used to introduce the characters and for the murder to take place. Next, Perry would end up defending whom ever was charged with the murder. He would get Paul Drake (his P.I.) in on the case to help him find the real murderer. Then the show would move to the courtroom, usually with Hamilton Burger as the D.A. In the court room Perry got most confessions, usually right on the witness stand. For the final scene Perry, Della and Paul would usually gather in Perry's office or a restaurant and explain how they figured it out, and end with some kind of joke.