page_title: Perry Mason (1957 TV series)
section_title: Reception
hierarchical_section_title: Perry Mason (1957 TV series) / Reception
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Raymond Burr and other cast members on the set of the CBS-TV series Perry Mason, from the front cover of Look magazine
context_page_description: Perry Mason is an American legal drama series originally broadcast on CBS television from September 21, 1957, to May 22, 1966. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles criminal-defense lawyer who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner. Many episodes are based on stories written by Gardner.
  Perry Mason was Hollywood's first weekly one-hour series filmed for television, and remains one of the longest-running and most successful legal-themed television series. During its first season, it received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Best Dramatic Series, and it became one of the five most popular shows on television. Raymond Burr received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor, and Barbara Hale received an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Mason's confidential secretary Della Street. Perry Mason and Burr were honored as Favorite Series and Favorite Male Performer in the first two TV Guide Award readers' polls. In 1960, the series received the first Silver Gavel Award presented for television drama by the American Bar Association.
context_section_description: "Perry Mason was television's most successful and longest-running lawyer series," wrote TV historian Tim Brooks. "It remains, I think, the best detective series ever made for television," wrote film historian Jon Tuska. "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.
caption: Raymond Burr and other cast members on the set of Perry Mason, from the front cover of Look magazine (October 10, 1961)
exif: {}