Incompetent, Irrelevant & Inmaterail: "Perry Mason" gets a 10th Season: Fall 1966

[49ersFootball]

The producers may want to bring a younger actor as an associate to Perry Mason as one of the reasons that Raymond Burr was reluctant to do another season was because he was basically doing a feature length movie worth of dialogue every week and this would allow him to do two or three scenes a show every third or fourth show.

I know that one young associate for several episodes from 1961-62 I think forgot the actor's name.

 

[49ersFootball]

Navarro
11:28 AM PST, June 12th, 1966
Carmichael, CA.

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Jackson was also looking at the resume of Anna Navarro, who was on "The Case of the Lonely Heiress" from February 1st, 1958. "Having a difficult time where to place this young lady on the cast in the upcoming 10th Season, but she'll be a rising star for sure."After phoning Navarro to have a face-to-face meeting with her inside her office, they discussed the prospects of the upcoming 10th Season (CBS gave the green-light after intense, heated negotiations with Jackson & Co.,) as well as possible characters that Navarro could be interested in portraying.

It was not specified who Navarro's unspecified character would be replacing on the cast, although Mary Ann Mobley was assumed to be a replacement for Connie Cezon's Gertie (Cezon left the TV Series around 1964 for other opportunities as noted earlier in the TL), but it was increasingly likely that Mobley would eventually become a permanent replacement for Barbara Hale at some point either during the 10th Season or during the interim period before the 11th Season.

 

[49ersFootball]

Talman
1:16 PM PST, June 19th, 1966
San Diego, CA.

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William Talman was known prominently for his role as District Attorney Hamilton Burger in the "Perry Mason" TV Series during the 9 Seasons. However, he began to have some health problems behind the scenes beginning with a nagging cough, which wouldn't stop despite some medication efforts to prevent the coughing from becoming an annoyance to the cast members.

 

[ejpsan]

William Talman was known prominently for his role as District Attorney Hamilton Burger in the "Perry Mason" TV Series during the 9 Seasons. However, he began to have some health problems behind the scenes beginning with a nagging cough, which wouldn't stop despite some medication efforts to prevent the coughing from becoming an annoyance to the cast members.

This gives the producers the excuse to cast a younger actor for less pay and maybe have the new character to be a more of rebellious prosecutor who bends the rules to get results.

 

[49ersFootball]

This gives the producers the excuse to cast a younger actor for less pay and maybe have the new character to be a more of rebellious prosecutor who bends the rules to get results.

Mason would still win the cases like he did in the 9 Seasons before. Interesting to see if the Assistant DA would be corrupt in getting what he or she wants.

 

[ejpsan]

Mason would still win the cases like he did in the 9 Seasons before. Interesting to see if the Assistant DA would be corrupt in getting what he or she wants.

Mason could act like a mentor to the new prosecutor showing him or her how to win cases by following the rule of law and if the show does cut back on Raymond Burr's workload the associate could actually lose some cases only to have Perry Mason win in the last scene.

 

[49ersFootball]

Mason could act like a mentor to the new prosecutor showing him or her how to win cases by following the rule of law and if the show does cut back on Raymond Burr's workload the associate could actually lose some cases only to have Perry Mason win in the last scene.

Maybe Robert Redford might do a couple of guest staring roles as Mason's associate. I do remember they had Bettye Davis doing a cameo guest staring role back then.

 

[Unknown]

In the OTL last episode, The Case of the Final Fade-Out, Dick Clark, of all people, played the murderer (and, overall, not a very nice person), which was a shock; normally, he's a nice guy (his hosting of American Bandstand, etc.)...

Wonder if we'll see others play against type in Perry Mason...

 

[49ersFootball]

In the OTL last episode, The Case of the Final Fade-Out, Dick Clark, of all people, played the murderer (and, overall, not a very nice person), which was a shock; normally, he's a nice guy (his hosting of American Bandstand, etc.)...

Wonder if we'll see others play against type in Perry Mason...

It was obvious his character was the double murderer based on the body language.

 

[49ersFootball]

Casting News Updates for Season 10:

Jackson had analyzed the resumes of the cast members including the potential of bringing new & younger ones onto the popular TV Series, so she in a press release announced the following:

1.) "Perry Mason" Season 10, which is set to debut on September 17th, 1966

2.) Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale, William Hopper, William Talman & Richard Anderson all set to reprise their respective roles for Season 10.

3.) Mary Ann Mobley will be on the cast as well, portraying Maxine Reeves, replacing Connie Cezon's Gertie as the receptionist/secretary: likely to get major role later on during the 10th Season if & when Hale exits (as I mentioned earlier in the TL, Della Street takes a job with Gordon Industries).

4.) Anna Navarro, Robert Redford (portraying the role of Bill McKay) joining the cast.

5.) In order to lighten the heavy workload of Burr, there will be several cameo appearances in a couple of the episodes.

6.) William Shatner, Stephanie Powers will be included in some of the episodes, but it wasn't specified what roles their undisclosed characters will be portraying.

7.) Jackson also announced that sometime during the 10th Season & possibly more, it would later be transitioned into a TV Movies Series with 2 HRS, which would allow some of the original cast members to rest up.

 

[ejpsan]

Having Robert Redford playing a character with the same name as one of his most famous roles is basically ASB plus he is getting more starring roles in the movies so going back to television is a non starter.
As for Sidney Poitier, he has an Academy Award already and he is at this point in time is in Illinois making In Heat of the Night so there is no way that he is playing the same character and he has two other movies coming out in 1967, To Sir with Love, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner that will make him the top box office draw in 1967.
You might as well have Rick Dalton become a guest star during the season.

 

[49ersFootball]

I'm cooking up more twists in this TL. Jackson plans on doing a 2 HR premiere of the 10th Season in the Fall.

 

[ejpsan]

If the 2 hour premier gets high ratings CBS may decide that it would be more profitable for them to cancel the series and go with three or four movies a year and try to counter program against Bonanza which was on NBC in the same time slot as Perry Mason and was the highest rated show on television.
Raymond Burr may like this set up better then doing a weekly series and there is the unspoken item about Mr. Burr's life if it gets out would be devastating to the show and network.

 

[49ersFootball]

If the 2 hour premier gets high ratings CBS may decide that it would be more profitable for them to cancel the series and go with three or four movies a year and try to counter program against Bonanza which was on NBC in the same time slot as Perry Mason and was the highest rated show on television.
Raymond Burr may like this set up better then doing a weekly series and there is the unspoken item about Mr. Burr's life if it gets out would be devastating to the show and network.

I'm still going to include the 10th Season & also include guess stars to take the lead from Burr (due to his heavy workload).

If I recall, there were guest stars subbing in for Burr before on "Perry Mason".

 

[49ersFootball]

I totally forgot about the unspoken issue regarding Burr's personal life, which I will explore later.

 

[49ersFootball]

Somewhere in suburban Los Angeles:

This person was reading the newspaper about the "Perry Mason" TV Series getting a 10th Season. Angry & bitter about not being chosen for at least a recurring role "Fat boy thinks he can get a free ride with the movie deals & crap. I've got a special card to play by exposing his dirty little secrets."

Turns out this person had a grudge against Burr & someone else at CBS Network for some reason. He or she had some explosive bombshells in exposing the dirtiest little secrets just for the viewers to see....

 

[ejpsan]

I like the direction that this is going but at this time unless someone was arrested on a morals charge the press would not report on stories like this and publications like the National Enquire would go only with blind items any not name names.
Mr Burr was in a committed relationship that lasted until his death and it was an open secret that the cast and production company knew about.
I could see CBS and the production company throwing lesser known actors under the bus in order to protect Mr. Burr, but otherwise the stories about Mr. Burr's lifestyle are going nowhere even if there are pictures involved.

 

[49ersFootball]

I like the direction that this is going but at this time unless someone was arrested on a morals charge the press would not report on stories like this and publications like the National Enquire would go only with blind items any not name names.
Mr Burr was in a committed relationship that lasted until his death and it was an open secret that the cast and production company knew about.
I could see CBS and the production company throwing lesser known actors under the bus in order to protect Mr. Burr, but otherwise the stories about Mr. Burr's lifestyle are going nowhere even if there are pictures involved.

Big question is who would the lesser-known actors getting thrown under the bus be ?

 

[ejpsan]

Big question is who would the lesser-known actors getting thrown under the bus be ?

Maybe someone who is at this time IOTL is still a minor actor but later became a big star, so having that person career come to a premature end will bring enormous butterflies to the future of television and movies as an example maybe Lesley Gore...

 

[49ersFootball]

Still working on who could be subbing in for Perry in the 10th Season. Might be Gary Collins, but it could be a conflict of interest considering his wife, Mary Ann Mobley will be on the cast.