The Case of the Final Fade-Out

Hollywood certainly is a dog-eat-dog world, but that's exactly why Barry shouldn't have been so smug.

In reality Sidemark would have simply found somebody else to fill the role, star or no, or just written him off the show. Even if ratings tanked, it still beats just walking away from the mess and taking a big loss. Now *THAT* would be how the Hollywood machine handles this.

A well-done series ending. The ensemble of Perry plus four was magic. All legal dramas since have been pale derivatives. But I have few quibbles about the final show:

* The actual crew appeared on screen, deservedly, but their dialog seemed a bit too amateurish.

* Lt. Tragg (Ray Collins) should have been mentioned somewhere, for old time's sake. He was my favorite actor in the series, and his wry wit was sorely missed after his death.

* Fred Steiner finally appeared in the credits as the composer of the Perry Mason theme, which is entitled Park Avenue Beat. (Incidentally, live performances of the full piece are on YouTube.)

Oh, there are the little inside jokes and references (wink, wink), but it's typical PM fare - extremely poor dialogue writing, meandering plot, overacting, and ham-fisted direction.

Stick a fork in it! It's done! (mercifully)

In this full episode there are two murders and two courtroom hearings that are as fascinating as nearly any in the series. With a cast full of stars, this last episode is an honor to the many years of enjoyment that the series gave us viewers.

In begins as a episode of a TV show is being filmed. The show is approaching the end of the season and new contracts are being signed by all the actors. But at the signing, the star of the show named Barry Conrad decides not to sign. This leaves the producer, Jackson Sidemark (Denver Pyle) is a terrible position. The prima-donna will cause the entire show to collapse and contracts go unpaid.

But during the next filmed scene that involves a fight scene with prop-guns, something goes wrong when Barry Conrad gets shot with actual bullets. And Jackson Sidemark is arrested for the murder for comments he made when Barry would not sign his contract.

During the trial, the prop-man Pete Desmond (Jackie Coogan) is caught in a out-and-out lie on the witness stand and the charges are dropped.

Later, Jackson Sidemark ends up dead. And for some reason the police believe that an elder actress, Winifred Glover (Estelle Winwood), that had been dropped from a guest-spot in the TV show, had killed Mr Sidemark (why anyone would believe that an elder lady weighing about 90 pounds could knock out and kill a large side man is somewhat unbelievable). Perry will again go to court a second time which may lead to the solving of both murderers.

Some nice actors in this show. With the ones already listed the episode contains Dick Clark and Gerald Mohr that only makes the show much better. We also get to see some heated comments by Hamilton Burger directed at Perry when he thinks they misrepresented justice. This episode will keep the viewer on the edge of the seat as this is a full episode with a lot going on. A nice show to finish the series.

Sorry, folks, but the final season ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. Worth watching solely for the cameos of the actual PM crew and the inventor of Perry Mason, Erle Stanley Gardner. The plot was contrived, the supposed relationships of the "actors" and production people on-set were truly Hollywood fiction -- the industry as portrayed is nothing like this. There was one glaring (I can't overstate how obvious) scene which upon later testimony pointed absolutely to the murderer (not that there was any doubt even without it). The acting here was mediocre; I expected much better from this cast. I blame direction. The crew scenes were acted better than the cast. Oh, well. I suppose when it's over, it's over...