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Seniors Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers About Perry Mason TV Show

Free fun long printable trivia quiz with answers for seniors about the Perry Mason TV show.

 

Who is Perry Mason?
A: Perry Mason is an American legal drama series originally broadcast on CBS television from September 21, 1957, to May 22, 1966.

The title character was portrayed by whom?
A: Raymond Burr.

Burr plays a fictional Los Angeles criminal-defense lawyer who originally appeared where?
A: In detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner.

Perry Mason was Hollywood's first what?
A: 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 what?
A: Best Dramatic Series, and it became one of the five most popular shows on television.

Raymond Burr received how many Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor?
A: Two.

Barbara Hale received an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Mason's what?
A: Confidential secretary Della Street.

Perry Mason and Burr were honored as Favorite Series and Favorite Male Performer in the first two what?
A: TV Guide Award readers' polls.

In 1960, the series received the first what?
A: Silver Gavel Award presented for television drama by the American Bar Association.

Perry Mason has aired in syndication in the United States and internationally ever since when?
A: Since its cancellation, and the complete series has been released on Region 1 DVD.

A 2014 study found that Netflix users rate Raymond Burr as what?
A: Their favorite actor and they put Barbara Hale at number seven on the list.

The New Perry Mason, a 1973 revival of the series with a different cast, was poorly received and ran for how many episodes?
A: 15.

In 1985, the first in a successful series of 30 Perry Mason television films aired on what network?
A: NBC, with Burr reprising the role of Mason in 26 of them before his death in 1993.

Perry Mason is a distinguished criminal defense lawyer practicing in Los Angeles, California, most of whose clients have been charged with what?
A: Murder.

Each episode typically follows what?
A: A formula.

The first half of the show introduces what?
A: A prospective murder victim and a series of persons involved with the victim who, through word or deed, reveal themselves as the likely perpetrator of the crime.

In a parallel story, we are introduced to Mason's what?
A: His eventual client, or to someone associated with that client.

Once the crime has been committed, Mason, his private investigator Paul Drake, and his secretary Della Street have some what?
A: Adversarial dealings with the homicide detective.

In the second half what does Mason do?
A: He spars with Burger in the courtroom, either during the trial or the preliminary hearing, in which the district attorney is required to produce just enough evidence to convince the judge that the defendant should be bound over for trial.

As the courtroom proceedings advance, Mason often finds what?
A: That the case is going against him, so that outside the courtroom either Mason himself or Paul and even Della pursue further leads.

As the investigation or examination progresses, Mason and sometimes Burger will uncover what?
A: The morally ugly or even illegal conduct of some of the witnesses or participants.

Eventually, some detail uncovered or remark made inside or outside the courtroom gives Mason what?
A: The clue he needs to enter into the line of questioning that causes the surprise perpetrator, whether on the stand or not, to break down and confess to the crime and admit to the appalling truth of their motive.

In the closing scene or epilogue, Paul and Della, and sometimes Burger and Tragg, will ask Mason what?
A: They ask what gave him the clue he needed.

After Mason explains, he or someone else will do what?
A: Make a humorous remark.

The show never discloses what?
A: The amount of money spent by the innocent suspect to Mason after being falsely accused by the police and being falsely prosecuted by the District Attorney.

Who was Lieutenant Arthur Tragg?
A: A police homicide detective and lead police official on the series, who appeared from the beginning of the series until midway through the 1963-64 seasons.

Who was Lieutenant Anderson?
A: Another police homicide detective and lead police official on the series.

Known as Andy to his friends, he started appearing in the fall of 1961 when Ray Collins began to reduce his participation in the show due to what?
A: Illness.

Who was Lieutenant Steve Drumm?
A: Another police homicide detective and lead police official on the series, who appeared in the final season (played by Richard Anderson).

After a series of Warner Bros. films and a radio series he despised, author Erle Stanley Gardner refused to do what?
A: To license his popular character Perry Mason for any more adaptations.

His literary agent was advertising executive Thomas Cornwell Jackson, who had, in 1947, married whom?
A: Actress Gail Patrick.

She had studied law before she went to Hollywood "for a lark" and appeared in more than 60 feature films including what?
A: 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 what?
A: Adapting the Perry Mason stories for a television series.

Gardner regarded Perry Mason's personal life as irrelevant and wanted the series to concentrate on what?
A: Crime and Mason's fight for the underdog.

Patrick, her husband, and Gardner formed what?
A: A production company, Paisano Productions, of which she was president.

When she first tried to sell Perry Mason to CBS, the network wanted it to be what?
A: A live hour-long weekly program.

Paisano Productions absorbed the costs for what?
A: A filmed pilot.

In February 1956, CBS announced what?
A: Its new series, Perry Mason, anticipating it would begin that fall.

The network obtained the rights to 272 stories by Gardner, including whom?
A: Perry Mason and 11 other principal characters.

Perry Mason was Hollywood's first what?
A: Hour-long weekly series filmed for television.

Who was its executive producer?
A: Gail Patrick Jackson.

Gail Patrick Jackson was immersed in throughout 1956?
A: Auditions.

The role of Perry Mason proved to be what?
A: The hardest to cast.

Whom was among the hundreds of actors she saw audition in April 1956?
A: Raymond Burr, who initially read for the role of district attorney Hamilton Burger.

Patrick had been impressed with Burr's what?
A: His courtroom performance in the 1951 film, A Place in the Sun.

What did she tell him?
A: That he was perfect for the title role in Perry Mason, but at least 60 pounds overweight.

Over the next month what did Burr do?
A: He went on a crash diet.

When he returned, he tested as whom?
A: Perry Mason, and was chosen from a field of 50 finalists.

William Hopper also auditioned as Mason, but was cast as whom?
A: Private detective Paul Drake.

Barbara Hale was still prominent in feature films, but had a young family and wished to avoid what?
A: Going away on long periods of location shooting.

Patrick said that Hale telephoned about what?
A: The role of Della Street.

Patrick had an actor in mind for what?
A: The Los Angeles district attorney.

"I'd seen a brilliant little movie, The Hitch-Hiker, and had to have whom as Burger?
A: Bill Talman.

Like any real-life district attorney, what is Burger's main interest?”
A: Justice.

Episodes typically employed how many featured players in addition to the principal cast and extras?
A: 10.

The production staff of Perry Mason worked at being what?
A: Technically correct and responsive to an audience that included lawyers and judges.

Producer Ben Brady practiced law in New York before doing what?
A: Before entering show business.

Story editor Gene Wang graduated from what?
A: Law school in Florida.

Executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson studied what for two years before becoming an actress?
A: Law.

Many episodes are based on novels and short stories by whom?
A: Lawyer-turned-writer Erle Stanley Gardner.

Only two of the 69 Perry Mason novels Gardner published before January 1963 were not what?
A: Adapted for the series.

All but three episodes in the first season were adapted from what?
A: From Gardner's stories.