Perry Mason (TV series)/YMMV

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• Awesome Music
  • The theme song, "Park Avenue Beat", by Fred Steiner. Seriously, just listen.
  • Equally awesome is the rerecording used for the TV movies.
• The CSI Effect: Real-life defense attorneys started to notice a "Perry Mason Syndrome" with juries becoming hesitant to acquit a defendant without a confession from someone else on the stand (the standard is, of course, reasonable doubt). Some prosecutors similarly noticed a hesitance to convict without a confession on the stand.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Our heroes.
• Invincible Hero: Perry Mason. Legend has it that the TV writers wanted to do at least one episode where Perry lost, but Erle Stanley Gardner shot them down. Rescuing a client from the electric chair at the last possible moment was as close as it got.
  • Perry actually lost 3 cases in the Raymond Burr series:
    • Episode 1.38, "The Case of the Terrified Typist" - the one most people who think "Perry only lost once" think of: the big case of the episode ends in Burger's favor. Too bad they were trying an imposter, invalidating the entire trial.
    • Episode 6.28, "The Case of the Witless Witness" - this is the easiest to forget, because it's not the main case of the episode, but one which he loses at the beginning.
    • Episode 7.04, "The Case of the Deadly Verdict" - another where the episode starts with Perry losing, this time because his client lied to him. He spends the rest of the episode setting things right.
• Lawful Good: The main characters.
• Moral Dissonance: Sometimes occurred when a novel was adapted into an episode without accounting for the moral differences between the television characters and their literary counterparts.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Some fans apply this to any revival done after Erle Stanley Gardner died in 1970.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Perry clearly oversteps the boundaries of ethical behavior on occasion, but he's neither remorseful nor held accountable. When his opponents bring it up they're portrayed as being petty or malicious.
• The Scrappy: David Gideon, an eager young law student brought in to assist Perry. He doesn't last.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Perry sometimes comes up against such a choice, though he barely hesitates (if at all) before choosing "good."