May 19, 2019 was a solemn day for Cable TV – nay it was a solemn day for the world, for culture, and it was especially a solemn day for fans of sci-fi writer (and long lost brother of Hungarian nom-de-plume Joe Eszterhas) George R. R. Martin.
The dense television series based on his epic books Game of Thrones came to an end.
For fans and HBO network executives that also meant the channel’s “nudity quotient” was about to become noticeably light.
HBO needed to act and fast. With the world in lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic, HBO’s streaming service was on the wrong side of the “Silent war” with its arch-rival Netflix.
HBO stuck topless actresses and stand-ins anywhere they could get them. Desperate, HBO pulled the trigger on Perry Mason and crossed their fingers.
For Perry Mason, the hotshot attorney who never loses, it is a case of “everything really old becomes new again”. Mason debuted in 1933 in the novel The Case of the Velvet Claws written by lawyer turned writer Erle Stanley Gardner.
The novels were all huge hits and helped make Gardner the best selling author of all time at the time of his death in 1970.
The Wikipedia entry notes:
“While the Perry Mason novels did not delve into their characters’ lives very much, the novels were rich in plot detail which was reality-based and drawn from his own experience.
In his early years writing for the pulp magazine market, Gardner set himself a quota of 1,200,000 words a year.
When asked why his heroes always defeated villains with the last bullet in their guns, Gardner answered, “At three cents a word, every time I say ‘Bang’ in the story I get three cents.
If you think I’m going to finish the gun battle while my hero still has fifteen cents worth of un-exploded ammunition in his gun, you’re nuts”.
Perry Mason found its way into the consciousness of culture 24 years later for television. The show starred Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. The show ran for 9 years and would even gain the nod of approval from its creator Erle Stanley Gardner.
“The best-known incarnation of Perry Mason came in the form of a CBS TV series simply titled Perry Mason which ran from 1957 to 1966, with Raymond Burr in the title role.
Also starring were Barbara Hale as Della Street, William Hopper as Paul Drake, William Talman as Hamilton Burger, and Ray Collins as Lt. Tragg. The entire series has been released on DVD and reruns are a staple in syndication.”
The Black Lives Matter and the #Metoomovement, showed us the past sucks.
Women didn’t have the right to vote until 1920s.
African American males received the right to vote in 1865.
The past was made up of white guys as far as the eye could see; well, when I say white guys that doesn’t include Jews or Catholics. Rather white Anglo-Christian guys as far as the eye could see.
Producers shy away from historical pieces as a result, until they realized the censors are tolerant towards historical portrayals. To HBO and a number of other studios, that means boobs – lots of them.
With Game of Thrones on the shelf, the popular online streaming service Netflix’s practically drowning in nude actresses.
HBO will attempt to convince viewers and critics that, for the foreseeable future the network remains as committed as ever to nudity.
