Erle Stanley Gardner had refused to license his Perry Mason character for further adaptations after disliking a radio series that emphasized romance over legal matters, until literary agent's wife and former actress Gail Patrick convinced him to develop a TV series.
Gail Patrick, her husband Thomas Cornwell Jackson, and Erle Stanley Gardner formed the production company Paisano Productions, with Patrick as president, and CBS obtained rights to 272 Gardner stories while Paisano retained a 60% interest in the films.
Raymond Burr originally auditioned for district attorney Hamilton Burger, with Tod Andrews reading for Mason, but Burr pushed to try out for the lead role instead.
Gail Patrick told Raymond Burr he was perfect for the title role but about 60 pounds overweight, so he went on a crash diet before his successful screen test, and he continued losing weight during filming, eventually losing about 100 pounds.
Actors considered for the role of Perry Mason before Burr was cast included Richard Carlson, Mike Connors, Richard Egan, William Holden, Fred MacMurray, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr., who was signed without a screen test before Burr's audition changed the producers' minds.
William Hopper auditioned for the role of Perry Mason himself but was instead cast as private detective Paul Drake.
William Talman, who played district attorney Hamilton Burger, was briefly suspended from the show over an alleged violation of CBS's morals clause after being charged following a party, but was reinstated thanks to a letter-writing campaign from viewers and efforts by Burr, Jackson, and Gardner.
Ray Collins, who played Lt. Arthur Tragg, was 68 when the series debuted despite the character being written as roughly Mason's age in the novels; Gardner was impressed enough by Collins' performance that he retroactively rewrote Tragg in later novels as 'grandfatherly' and 'paternal'.
When Raymond Burr needed a month off in 1962 for a surgical procedure, four episodes were filmed with guest stars carrying most of the action—Bette Davis, Michael Rennie, Hugh O'Brian, and Walter Pidgeon—with Burr filming only a few scenes for each before his surgery.
During the grueling first season, Raymond Burr appeared in about 98 percent of all scenes, lived on the studio lot rather than going home, and woke at 3 a.m. daily to learn his lines; he reportedly had key lines written on his shirtsleeve cuffs.
The series was filmed on Stage 8 at 20th Century-Fox studios and later at the former Charlie Chaplin Studios, with the Brent Building exteriors actually being the former Superior Oil Company Building in downtown Los Angeles, now a registered historical landmark and hotel.
Only one episode of the entire series, 'The Case of the Twice-Told Twist,' was filmed in color, commissioned personally by CBS president William Paley to see how the show would look in color if renewed for a tenth season.
Composer Fred Steiner wrote the show's famous theme, titled 'Park Avenue Beat,' describing it as 'a piece of symphonic R&B' meant to project both sophistication and toughness.
Much of the series' incidental music was drawn from the CBS-TV Music Library and included uncredited stock cues by composer Bernard Herrmann, used in around 100 episodes.
A 2014 Atlantic study analyzing Netflix's personalized genre data found that Raymond Burr was rated the favorite actor among Netflix users, with Barbara Hale ranked seventh.
For the series finale 'The Case of the Final Fade-Out,' set in a TV studio, the entire production crew appeared on camera, executive producer Gail Patrick made a cameo, and she persuaded Erle Stanley Gardner to make his only acting appearance as the presiding judge.
