Perry Mason Returns: The New TV-Movies

It's a dark, rainy night. A bolt of lightning rips an ominous sky in two. A car pulls up a long driveway, slowly passing a security gate, heading toward a magnificent mansion. A man gets out and enters the huge house. He is apprehensive. He thinks someone may be following him. He hears noises in the house. He gets his gun out of the drawer. He turns on the light.

"Surprise!"

Arthur Gordon's family is throwing him a surprise birthday party. But Arthur has an even bigger surprise for them. He's cutting them out of his very ample will. Instead, he's cutting in his loyal, faithful, and hardworking secretary. Her name is Della Street.

Thus begins the first "real" Perry Mason episode in twenty years. Aptly titled "Perry Mason Returns," it appeared in the form of a two-hour made-for-TV movie, broadcast on NBC in December of 1985. Although Raymond Burr has blamed the years he spent on the original Mason show for costing him everything from a love life to a family life, he didn't need much coaxing to come out of semi-retirement to reprise his most famous role. The actor has said that the two-hour movie was the best format to present the Mason saga because the show's length allowed for more drama and character development. In addition, an occasional movie wouldn't involve him in the backbreaking schedule he and his costars endured on the original show.

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