I heard mention of such a book on the old IMDB boards, but have not been able to verify its existence. However, I just saw an ad on MeTV. Their gimmick this week is to show pilot episodes. I think Perry Mason's pilot was to be shown on Wednesday evening at 11:30 om EDT. And yes, on the MeTV schedule, that is shown to be TCOT Moth Eaten mink!

I'm watching Perry Mason on CBS All Access, and they have The Case Of The Restless Redhead as the first episode. The Case Of The Moth Eaten Mink is a few episodes later.

That's too bad. I haven't watched METV in eight years (I quit watching after I got the entire series of Twelve O'Clock High and Classic Mission Impossible on DVD). They used to have some great stuff like "Sunday Night Noir" and "SciFi Saturdays".

Might I make a suggestion? Have you ever thought of getting CBS All Access? I know a lot of people hate it because of Discovery (I loved season two), but you also get access to A LOT of classic CBS shows including Perry Mason. I watch it on my phone and I'm only paying $9.99 a month.

What did you think of Anson Mount as Captain Pike and Ethan Peck as Spock?

I haven't watched Perry Mason in decades (though often used to, via reruns, while I was growing up during the '60s and '70s). Good show - though I no longer really remember much about it, so don't have anything to comment regarding it.

What I do want to ask, Invidia, is whether you've phoned your cable provider and checked to see if perhaps there may be any other level of subscription that would be much more affordable, while still including the channels that are especially important and of particular interest to you. I'm a multiple-decades subscriber to Comcast cable, and my monthly bill is currently only $38 (which includes all the usual type service and add-on fees that companies and the government monthly tack on).

Admittedly that's for Limited Basic level of channels, so is no extravagant channels line-up, instead is the usual broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and The CW), multiple PBS primary and secondary stations (including NHK World), a few classic t.v. channels (MeTV, COZI, Antenna TV - which those three channels collectively offer a quite expansive number of terrific old series of decades ago), an array of shopping, religious, and Spanish-language channels, a couple C-SPAN channels, and a small number of other miscellaneous channels (such as a special local-access station specific to the beach area communities hereabouts).

Certain years, during various stretches of months, I opt to upgrade my Comcast subscription to the Digital Starter level of channels, which adds various other channels, that I especially enjoy, to my line-up. I only do that upgrade if I want to be getting my all-time favourite channel, TCM (Turner Classic Movies), for however long.

I have absolutely no interest in getting Premium tier or pay-per-view type channels, so am always 100% pleased and satisfied with whatever channels line-up I'm on at a particular time, which always gives me plenty of channels to pick and choose from, with always good things to watch. Incidentally, even when I'm now and then on Comcast's Digital Starter level of channels for a while, I never, ever have spent more than about $75 per month to get it.

Call your cable provider and ask what the tiers and available price plans are that include the particular channels you consider absolutely essential (and, meanwhile, ask yourself if there are certain channels that you like, but that you'd be willing to live without). Also ask whether they happen to have any special plans, such as maybe something like a long-time subscriber's "loyalty" plan (which often they do - though they'll normally never mention it except under certain unique circumstances). If you say/ask the right type things, often a lot of money per month can be saved.

I'll now close (and apologize for adding such a long comment), so the thread can return to discussion of Perry Mason.

Hello there, genplant29! I haven't seen you in a while! How are you?

Doing well, Savage! Hope also you are.

That was a great post you sent to Invidia, with your suggestions about cable. I'm lucky because I only keep my tv for my DVDS and I'm able to watch a lot of different stuff on my phone. In fact I just signed up for Curiosity Stream, a YouTube channel that has nothing but documentaries for only $2.99 a month. I love it!

I love Captain Georgiou! Michelle Yeoh is so awesome! There are a lot of people who think that she stole Tomorrow Never Dies right out from Pierce Brosnan. Interesting comment about Spock and Michael.

I loved Perry Mason when I was a kid. But watching much of anything on Me TV - or other similar channels such as RTV (Retro TV) - can be very painful because they might cut over 10 minutes per episode from shows like Perry Mason and original Star Trek, which were made back in the 50s and 60s to run about 50-51 minutes but now get crammed into 40-minute "hours."

TNT and TBS are big offenders there too, and they cut even newer shows to run more ads. Years ago I recorded an episode of ER from TNT and then recorded the same episode again 5 or 6 months later when it was repeated. I then compared the two recordings. Just in that time they cut another two minutes from that episode! One whole "scene" and parts of two others.

And even if it were possible to cut that much from an episode without affecting the story, they don't seem to even try. In an episode of ER where one story line was about a small boy who accidentally shot and killed his mother while trying to protect her from being attacked by his father/her husband, the whole segment with the explanation was cut.

On Me TV, for another example, in the Star Trek episode "Requiem For Methuselah," among other cuts the entire exchange at the end about how Flint is now dying since he left Earth, was cut.

In an episode of MASH where they're dealing with an unexploded bomb, one of the story lines is how Radar approaches a nurse with the "we don't know if we're going to live or die..." kind of thing, and... well, she agrees. Then at the end, he approaches another and it turns out to be Klinger dressed as a nurse. Which is (especially) hilarious because of the earlier parts. But on Me TV they cut the earlier parts with the actual nurse, and only the part with Klinger is seen.

God only knows what they're taking out of Perry Mason. And I don't really want to find out.

I've been watching Perry Mason on CBS All Access, and they show the entire episode, no cuts (as far as I can tell). However, for some reason they completely deleted season six, which annoyed the hell out of me, because I was looking forward to seeing the guest stars who substituted for Raymond Burr when he got sick.

If the running times are like 50 to 52 minutes, you're seeing everything.

Yes that is great but I still wish CBS All Access hadn't decided not to show season six.

I wonder whether MeTV ever airs S6 episodes.

Currently Me TV shows 2 episodes per day, from different "cycles." The 8am "cycle" is about halfway through season 5, so if they're going to show season 6, it should begin in like 3 weeks. Unfortunately you can't look that far ahead in their schedule. At least the local Me TV channel doesn't show that far ahead. I think they only show on Mon-Fri. The 10:30pm "cycle" is early in season 2.