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Perry Mason...Fade-Out

O

oldiesfan6479

Thursday night (May 17), Me-TV will air the last first-run Perry Mason episode
"The Case of the Final Fade-Out" (OAD 05/22/66) at 11:30/10:30.

Look for Dick Clark as the perp. :)

Friday night they will revert back to season one/episode one, at 11:30/10:30,
with "The Case of the Restless Redhead" from 09/21/57.
 
It's not - that "The Case of the Twice-Told Twist" that aired some 5 episodes before it. "Final Fade-Out" also features Erle Stanley Gardner as a judge and a lot of behind-the-scenes people on camera.
 
And Denver Pyle, mentioned elsewhere in the 'Before They Were Famous' thread, played the murder victim in that episode...one of them, anyway.
 
Actually, the only color episode of the original "Perry Mason" was earlier in the 1965/66 season.

I have heard an urban legend that after that color episode was filmed, all remaining episodes for the rest of that season (about half of the total) were supposed to be in color, but reportedly, the producers decided that week to pull the plug at season's end, so the rest of the episodes were filmed in black-and-white.

But given that in 1965/66, "Mason" went head-to-head against "Bonanza", a tenth season for that series was very unlikely.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
But given that in 1965/66, "Mason" went head-to-head against "Bonanza", a tenth season for that series was very unlikely.
Click to expand...

Not to take this thread in another direction but I just yesterday saw my first "Bonanza" episode on an HDTV and HD makes their cheesy sets look even more cheesy.

At least Perry Mason had stood the test of time (technically anyway).
 
landtuna said:
Joseph_Gallant said:
But given that in 1965/66, "Mason" went head-to-head against "Bonanza", a tenth season for that series was very unlikely.
Click to expand...

Not to take this thread in another direction but I just yesterday saw my first "Bonanza" episode on an HDTV and HD makes their cheesy sets look even more cheesy.

At least Perry Mason had stood the test of time (technically anyway).
Click to expand...

It's not even HD. I recall that Bonanza looked cheap and cheesy in reruns years ago on regular def TVs. They did a lot of outdoor shooting, but many of the supposedly "exterior" shots around the Pondersoa, and especially near the house - were shot on a sound stage. It's very difficult to make a ceiling look like a realistic sky on a sound stage - especially in color.


Until the 80s, TV shows were really low-budget, though it got a bit better in the 70s. Do you remember those Warner Brothers detective shows (77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6", etc.)? I remember seeing en episode of Hawaiian Eye on a rerun retrospective a few years ago. Robert Conrad was chasing a suspect through a Hawaiian "jungle." Not only could you tell from the ceiling and floor that it was a sound-stage, but you could see that the tropical plants and trees were in pots.
 
Lkeller said:
I recall that Bonanza looked cheap and cheesy in reruns years ago on regular def TVs. They did a lot of outdoor shooting, but many of the supposedly "exterior" shots around the Pondersoa, and especially near the house - were shot on a sound stage. It's very difficult to make a ceiling look like a realistic sky on a sound stage - especially in color.


Until the 80s, TV shows were really low-budget, though it got a bit better in the 70s. Do you remember those Warner Brothers detective shows (77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6", etc.)? I remember seeing en episode of Hawaiian Eye on a rerun retrospective a few years ago. Robert Conrad was chasing a suspect through a Hawaiian "jungle." Not only could you tell from the ceiling and floor that it was a sound-stage, but you could see that the tropical plants and trees were in pots.
Click to expand...

One radio station where I worked had the "Bourbon Street Beat" soundtrack album; the cover had the cast posing in front of a less-than-authentic replica of the Old Absinthe House built in a WB soundstage.
The first season of "MASH" was shot almost entirely on the Fox ranch, using the set built for the movie. Starting in season 2, Fox built a scaled-down replica of the camp inside a studio, to cut down on the location shoots.
At least many of the old TV series used major studio facilities and technicians. "Perry Mason" was shot at Fox early on; "Bonanza" at Paramount, etc. "The Man from UNCLE" made good use of MGM's backlot for international locales, a fact not overlooked by the producers of "Mission: Impossible," who wanted to build "foreign" sets on the Desilu backlot, but scaled down (3/4 scale, if I recall) to compensate for the limited space. This was overruled when it was pointed out that the cast members were on the tall side - the shortest, Barbara Bain, was 5'8" without heels.
 
Another thing that always bothered me - when Mannix or whoever would be chasing through some "back alley" (back lot set) in a bad neighborhood, only the alley would be totally clean - no dirt, grime, trash or dumpsters. How hard would it have been to have the the set decorators throw around some dirt and garbage to make it look real?
 
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