Perry Mason

You could have sworn it was Perry Mason himself--that huge, glowering figure who was firing such enigmatic questions as "What's the temperature in here?" and "How did the roof blow off?" But it was actor Raymond Burr appearing in a different role--this time as the orchid hybridizer caught up in the case of the inadequate greenhouses. Burr, who plays the fictional criminal lawyer in the famed television series, made one of his frequent visits Monday to Cal Poly Pomona.

Margaret Field O'Mahoney, 89, an actress who gave up her career in movies and television to raise her children, including daughter Sally Field, died Sunday at her home in Malibu after a six-year struggle with cancer, publicist Heidi Schaeffer said. Using her professional name, Margaret Field, she had small roles in a string of movies from the late 1940s through the '50s, and she starred in the 1941 science fiction thriller "The Man From Planet X. " She appeared in dozens of TV series in the '50s and '60s, including "The Gene Autry Show," "Bonanza," "Perry Mason," "The Twilight Zone" and "Yancy Derringer," which starred her then-husband, actor/stuntman Jock Mahoney.

Television these days has taken to recycling its series, and none have been more successful than Perry Mason. "The Brady Bunch" was a recycled hit in two TV movies but so far has failed to burn up the Nielsens as a weekly series. "The Incredible Hulk" made the final sacrifice and died for ratings last month in "The Death of the Incredible Hulk," which was the fifth most popular made-for-TV movie during the February sweeps.

Television and film music composer Fred Steiner, creator of the bold and gritty theme for the "Perry Mason" TV series and one of the composers of the Oscar-nominated score for "The Color Purple," has died. He was 88. Steiner died of natural causes Thursday at his home in the town of Ajijic in the Mexican state of Jalisco, according to his daughter Wendy Waldman, a singer-songwriter. One of the busiest composers working in Hollywood in the 1950s and '60s, Steiner also crafted music for "Gunsmoke," "The Twilight Zone," "Star Trek," "Have Gun, Will Travel," "Rawhide," "Hogan's Heroes" and other TV series.

America loves revivals. The ratings confirm it. There's something calming about nostalgia, about withdrawing from a chaotic, uncertain present into a time that we recall as simpler and more tranquil. Hence--ta dum . . . ta DUM, ta dum . . . ta DUM--"Perry Mason Returns," Sunday at 9 p.m. on NBC. It's absurd. It's unbelievable. It's unsuspenseful. It's trite. It's banal. It's hokey.

Forget the "L.A. Law" crew. America's favorite lawyer is still Perry Mason. NBC's latest courtroom movie with Raymond Burr, "The Case of the Lady in the Lake," was seen in more than 20 million homes Sunday night. That showing, combined with strong ratings for ABC's telecast of "Beverly Hills Cop," helped ground Part 1 of CBS' miniseries about pioneer aviator Beryl Markham, which ranked 46th among the week's 66 prime-time programs. NBC won the week with a 14.7 average, compared to 12.

when the cases were more important than the lawyers' love lives--with a "Perry Mason" marathon Monday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. But not only "Perry Mason" fans should stay tuned. There are enough unusual episodes to hold just about anyone's interest. "The Case of the Deadly Verdict" (airing at 3 p.m.), the only one that Mason lost, is a must-see, of course. (Don't expect anyone to go to the gas chamber, however.) The other noteworthy episodes include "The Case of the Twice Told Twist" (6 p.m.

Bartlett (Bart) Robinson, who gave Perry Mason a radio voice in 1943, has died at a retirement home in Fallbrook. He was 73 and died March 26 after a lengthy battle with cancer, his wife, Margot, said this week. Robinson also portrayed the noble but crazed and suffering husband on "Portia Faces Life" and was a regular on "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar," the last major dramatic radio network show when it went off the air in 1962.

Charles Macaulay, an actor and director who was prominent in legitimate theater but is best remembered for his role as a hapless prosecutor facing the perpetually successful Raymond Burr in a number of "Perry Mason" movies, has died. He was 72. Macaulay, a close friend of the late Burr and an administrator of his multimillion-dollar estate, died Friday of metastatic cancer in Healdsburg, Calif. He had been a partner and resident of the Raymond Burr Vineyards in Sonoma County.

"Here, take this, would you?" Raymond Burr asked, holding out a tissue box. But as his visitor reached for it, the burly actor abruptly let go, allowing the box to fall to the floor. In a bit of histrionics worthy of Perry Mason, the quintessential TV lawyer he portrayed for nine years, Burr was demonstrating why he wouldn't consider doing another television series. "If you're giving something to someone, unless you hand it over all the way, you're not really giving it to them," he explained.

"The Whole Truth," which premieres Wednesday on ABC, offers Maura Tierney as New York City prosecutor Kathryn Peale and Rob Morrow as go-to defense attorney Jimmy Brogan, who, like Perry Mason and his perpetual opposing counsel Hamilton Burger, incredibly find themselves locked in weekly opposition. The novel twist is that sometimes one will win and sometimes the other. Jerry Bruckheimer is the producer, and most of what goes on here is a few clicks louder than life. Apart from the concept itself — which, though it beats at your head like an angry bird, is certainly airworthy — the hour's main attractions are Tierney and Morrow, who keep their own volume at a reasonable level, even when made to say things like "Fasten your seat belt, Jimmy" and "Game on, Katie.

For 14 seasons, viewers turned in every week to "Bonanza," the first prime-time network western in color. Fans tapped their toes to the now-classic theme song by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, and the Cartwrights -- Ben, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe -- were as familiar to audiences as their own families. And now the series, which was No. 1 in the ratings from 1964-67, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in style. Earlier this week, CBS Home Entertainment released the first season of the NBC show complete with pristine transfers and fun extras such as an alternate ending to the pilot episode, which features the Cartwrights singing the title tune.

The verdict is in from a 12-member jury of the American Bar Assn.: "L.A. Law" topped "Perry Mason" as the best legal drama in TV history. Despite a testament to "Perry Mason" by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor during her confirmation hearings last week, the TV drama starring Raymond Burr came in second to the series depicting the fictional L.A. firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney & Kuzak. Rounding out the top five are "The Defenders," "Law & Order" and "The Practice." -- Carol J. Williams

Joan Alexander, a leading radio actress in the 1940s best known for playing Lois Lane, the ace reporter who was constantly being rescued from peril by Superman, died of an intestinal ailment May 21 at New York Presbyterian Hospital. She was 94. After an early modeling and stage career, Alexander became a versatile performer on dozens of radio serials, notably as the loyal secretary Della Street in "Perry Mason."

For some 80 years, the 1922 romantic drama "Beyond the Rocks," starring two legends of the silent era -- Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino -- was considered lost. Only one minute of footage existed at the Nederlands Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. So the catalogers at the Filmmuseum were shocked when they discovered the first two reels of the movie while inventorying a collection of original nitrate reels of films that had been donated.

You can almost hear Perry Mason shouting, "Objection!" The folks in Ventura are honoring Erle Stanley Gardner, the city's most famous author and the creator of the "Mason" series. But handbills for the event committed the misdemeanor of misspelling Gardner's first name (see accompanying). By the way, my colleague Steve Chawkins can't understand why Ventura hasn't also named a road for Mason's secretary. You know, Della Street.

You can almost hear Perry Mason shouting, "Objection!" The folks in Ventura are honoring Erle Stanley Gardner, the city's most famous author and the creator of the "Mason" series. But handbills for the event committed the misdemeanor of misspelling Gardner's first name (see accompanying). By the way, my colleague Steve Chawkins can't understand why Ventura hasn't also named a road for Mason's secretary. You know, Della Street.

For three summers, the Friends of the La Jolla Library have encouraged novelists manque to parody, ape or otherwise mimic a famous writer with San Diego connections. In the first two contests, the writers were Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Now it's Erle Stanley Gardner, author of 82 Perry Mason novels and a resident of Temecula before his death in 1970. A goodly number of contest entrants have tried to clarify the psycho-sexual dynamic between Mason and secretary Della Street.

A small brass plaque hanging on the side of an old bank building in downtown Ventura is the only memorial to the site where attorney-turned-author Erle Stanley Gardner dictated his first Perry Mason novels in the early 1930s. It is a mystery to devoted Gardner fans that the city hasn't done more.

Nothing focuses the attention quite so promptly as a sudden, serious pain, especially a sudden, serious pain in the upper body. We're not talking problems of the heart here; we're talking heart problems. Unfortunately, heart conditions are endemic in our society. Every year 300,000 new patients develop angina--severe chest pain caused by constriction of blood vessels feeding the heart.