On Watching Perry Mason with My Dad

Over the course of the past year or so, I have watched about 40 episodes of Perry Mason with my dad and I have found the experience one of the more pleasurable things we’ve ever done together. We always hold a running commentary during the show where we surmise, gesticulate, laugh, critique, reference history and rate the episode.

He’s seen every one of the 271 episodes at least a dozen times. He hasn’t forgotten the outcome of any case. He will never reveal to me who committed the murder until Perry’s cross examination reveals the true culprit. I keep waiting for the one case Perry lost or those rare color episodes.

The suits, the sweaters, the cars, the cocktails, the cigarettes, the home décor, the dresses, the hairdos. Paul, Della, Burger, Tragg, Perry’s prodigious girth that grows with every season, the black and white broadcasts, the blackmailers, the greed, the embittered dowagers, the gigolo freeloaders, the hack LA actors, the bit players who later became stars. What’s not to love?

Perry Mason was a Portland cultural institution for decades. Noon. KPTV. It was on in bars and reception lobbies and jails and lunch rooms. Then that tradition got swept away along with a lot of other quirky great Portland traditions. The time of Perry Mason in Portland at noon was over, never to return.

But not in my dad’s house! Or at least at 9:30 in the morning.

What draws Dad to the show is 1) the unique procedural aspect to it. There are no jury trials. All the courtroom drama unfolds in preliminary hearings to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed with the charges. We are spared histrionics and pandering to a jury; 2) Excellent English. The language, the diction of the performers, the use of words like “testamentary,” and the proper conjugation of the verbs “lay” and “lie.” (which I’ve never quite mastered!). He claims contemporary television shows butcher the conjugation of lay and lie all the time and he keeps a little library of them in his head. Eighty-seven years old and he’s teaching his writer son ( a former English teacher) English through Perry Mason! There ought to be a show about us watching this show! He’d teach the rest of us how to conjugate the trickiest verb in English.

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