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Raymond Burr felt that the Perry Mason book series couldn't be properly adapted into a television series
"You couldn't and we didn't do one of Erle Stanley Gardner's great stories in one hour," said Burr.
Though the adaptation of a book to television can seem simple to the average audience member, it's easier said than done.
One of the more successful book-to-television adaptations was Perry Mason. The television series, which ran for nine seasons, was based on a series of novels written by acclaimed author Erle Stanley Gardner.
With great respect for the material, producers involved Gardner in the pre-production process of Perry Mason, with Gardner hand-picking actor Raymond Burr for the title role.
But years after the show aired, Burr confessed that the limited time slot that television provided meant that no matter how hard they tried, cast and crew alike could never do Gardner's work justice.
"You couldn't and we didn't do one of Erle Stanley Gardner's great stories in one hour," said Burr during an interview with the Spokesman-Review. "To squeeze into the time slot made it necessary to cut down on the number of clues. The audience never got background on the characters or on Perry Mason himself. You didn't know whether he'd been a test-tube baby or an immaculate conception."
After the series wrapped, Burr returned to the role for various Perry Mason films. These programs allowed for more time, which Burr believed was the secret ingredient to a proper adaptation. "Now, we're doing it right," said Burr. "I'm working with Fred Silverman and Dean Hargrove writes the best stories in the world."
Ultimately, Burr felt that he was indebted to Gardner, who had gifted him with the role of a lifetime. The actor was determined to return the favor to the best of his ability.
"When they came to me last winter with Perry Mason returns, I was delighted," said Burr. "I felt I owed it to Erle's memory and to his wife, Jean, a lovely lady, to do a two-hour Perry Mason movie the way it should be done. I'll keep on doing them as long as Silverman and Hargrove want to do them."
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6 Comments
That book is so dense that, when it was first done for television as a 10-hour television miniseries in 1980, they still had to cut a huge number of subplots and themes from the novel. Edited down to a (more or less) 2 1/2 hour length, as it was, it's less a movie than an extended long trailer.