The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner.

[a] As the courtroom proceedings advance, while Burger and Tragg often uncover new evidence or a new witness that would seem to seal the fate of the accused, Mason's team continue their parallel investigation in what seems to be an increasingly hopeless effort.

Eventually, some detail is uncovered, a different interpretation of the evidence is found, or a remark is made inside or outside the courtroom which gives Mason the clue he needs to discover the identity of the real murderer.

Armed with this new insight, Mason then usually embarks upon a line of questioning that reveals the surprise perpetrator, often causing them to break down and confess to the crime in the courtroom.

A seventh Warner adaptation, based on Gardner's novel The Case of the Dangerous Dowager, was filmed in 1940 as Granny Get Your Gun, with the Mason character written out of the story entirely.

She had studied law before she went to Hollywood "for a lark" and appeared in more than 60 feature films including My Man Godfrey (1936), Stage Door (1937), and My Favorite Wife (1940).

She stopped acting in 1948, started a family, and began to talk to Gardner about adapting the Perry Mason stories for a television series.

[3]: 17  Columnist Hedda Hopper wrote that Cornwell Jackson had postponed a two-month vacation in Hawaii, hoping to get the series ready by September or October.

[14] In mid-June, Hopper reported that the Jacksons had left on their annual trip, after stating that Perry Mason would not be ready for TV that fall.

"[18] Patrick had been impressed with Burr's courtroom performance in the 1951 film A Place in the Sun, and told him he was perfect for the title role in Perry Mason, but at least 60 pounds overweight.

As a matter of fact, Burger in a good many instances has joined Mason in action against unethical attorneys, lying witnesses, or any one else obstructing justice.

… Gloria Henry, Vaughn Taylor, Hillary Brooke, John Archer, Morris Ankrum, Don Beddoe, Fay Wray, Olive Blakeney, Paul Fix, Addison Richards.

Four episodes were filmed with guest stars—in succession, Bette Davis, Michael Rennie, Hugh O'Brian, and Walter Pidgeon—who carried most of the action.

[39] "'The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink' is written and directed very much like a noir B-feature of the period, from its stylishly dramatic opening to its violent climax," wrote film scholar Thomas Leitch.

[3]: 25  He noted that the pilot film "provides a fascinating laboratory for the formula, since it combines trademark elements that would become long-running features of the series with others that would be swiftly abandoned.

[3]: 23–25 In her TV column in early November 1956, journalist Eve Starr reported, "Word is seeping down from CBS brass that its hour-long Perry Mason pilot film is a whooping success, so much so that the show will be held back until a good time period can be found for it next season.

… As I saw the manner in which your ideas, your tact and persistence had gradually changed the approach and resulted in a highly polished, finished product I was tremendously proud of you and of my association with you.

[12] The series was filmed at 20th Century-Fox and had veteran Fox staffers behind the scenes, including art director Lewis Creber[l] and sound mixer Harry M. Leonard.

In 1960, when William Talman, who played Hamilton Burger, was suspended for allegedly violating the morals clause in his contract, several assistant prosecutors were seen in court.

"The piece he came up with, titled "Park Avenue Beat", pulsed with the power of the big city and the swagger of a beefy hero played to perfection by actor Raymond Burr," wrote the Los Angeles Times.

[56] Described by Steiner as "a piece of symphonic R&B", the Perry Mason theme heard at the opening and end credits became the composer's best-known work.

[71]: 32188  Set in a TV film studio where two murders occur, the last show offered the entire production crew an opportunity to appear on camera.

[74] Patrick made a cameo appearance herself, and persuaded Erle Stanley Gardner to make his acting debut as the judge who presides over the second trial.

In a July 15, 2009, interview on NPR's program All Things Considered, Barbara Hale claimed that all of Mason's lost cases were declared mistrials off the air.

Todd Yellin, vice president of product innovation for Netflix and the person who designed the system, was at a loss to explain what journalist Alexis Madrigal called "this weird Perry Mason thing".

[85]: 99  "The definitive portrayal, of course, was by former screen heavy Raymond Burr on the CBS series (1957–1966) in scripts faithfully based on Gardner's novels", wrote mystery writer Max Allan Collins.

[94] In her 2013 memoir the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States wrote of the show's influence on her while she was growing up in a Bronx housing project.

"[97] The Blues Brothers recorded a cover version of Fred Steiner's Perry Mason TV series theme for the 1980 album Made in America.

[110] Released as a single,[111] the song was the first to integrate the music of Perry Mason[112] into what one reviewer described as a "bruising rocker … complete with an ominous excerpt from the classic TV show theme".

Bonus material includes the 1956 film tests of Burr and Hopper, just discovered in the CBS vaults; interviews with Hale, Marks, and CBS executive Anne Roberts Nelson; a short documentary about Erle Stanley Gardner; a cast appearance on Pantomime Quiz; a 1958 Person to Person segment in which Burr (at his home in Malibu) is interviewed by Charles Collingwood; two CBS News Nightwatch interviews of Burr by Charlie Rose; the anti-smoking public service announcement William Talman made on behalf of the American Cancer Society shortly before his death from lung cancer; and the first of the made-for-TV movies, Perry Mason Returns.