TV with Patty Mac
TV with Patty Mac
By Ryan McCrary | July 9, 2025
I was doomscrolling on Instagram the other night and came across a clip from a long forgotten episode of the original Perry Mason.
This reminded me of my mom, Patty McCrary who tuned in to Perry Mason with a nearly religious fervor every noon on Channel 12.
Perry Mason originally aired for nine seasons from 1957 to 1966. There were 271 episodes, spanning nearly 14,000 minutes. To this day I remain convinced mom never once saw the last 20 minutes of any single episode.
It was fascinating to watch Perry Mason and the crew – Della Street, investigator Paul Drake, Lieutenant Tragg and D.A. Hamilton Burger – chain smoke while putting mom to sleep like clockwork at around 12:30 p.m. Mason was legendary for being practically undefeated in the courtroom, but mom never saw one of the wins.
She had plenty of theories about who was guilty and who was innocent, though and once she woke up from her nap she would quiz me – at least on days I was home sick from school.
These sick days started the same. Most of the time mom would make popcorn, which was her favorite snack, and then would flip on the TV. For the uninitiated, in the days before remotes, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, viewers had to walk to the tv to turn it on, raise or lower the volume or change the channel. There weren’t many options at the time since there were only six channels back then… imagine the horror!
Once the TV warmed up – and yes, that was a thing, too – we were only a couple local TV commercials away from the iconic Perry Mason theme. Then the murder or the event happened and we were off to the races. Lt. Tragg investigated like a bulldog. Drake investigated the investigation using charm and wit fueled by 4-5 packs of Lucky Strikes per episode.
Burger bragged incessantly about building an unassailable case while Della fretted and worked the details of keeping our hero on schedule.
Although she likely never saw the inside of the courtroom, Perry Mason would have dazzled my mom with his cross examinations, his perfectly timed rejoinders and his booming voice while accusing the real perpetrator, leaving Burger’s prosecution in shambles.
Once the smoke cleared and the good guys won, Mom would bolt upright as the end credits rolled with the theme song and inevitably said, “Well, I fell asleep again… what happened to my popcorn”?
As I attempted to hide my greasy fingers and checked my teeth for stray kernels I knew this was a case she would solve quickly.
Patty McCrary’s Top-5 Favorite Shows
- Perry Mason
- The Rockford Files
- Magnum P.I.
- Simon & Simon
- Scarecrow and Mrs. King
