August 26, 2015

For your consideration

WILLIAM HOPPER (LEFT) AS PERRY MASON?  NO, I DON'T SEE IT EITHER.
This video keeps popping up as a suggestion based on my viewing habits, so I decided to finally give in and go with it.  You all know of my affinity for Perry Mason, and if I hadn't already writing about it as one of my ten favorites, I'd be doing something on it today as part of my personal Saturday TV lineup.

The video is introduced by Mason's Della Street, Barbara Hale, and features screen tests for the various Mason roles.  The photo above is from a test given to William Hopper*, who auditioned for Mason but wound up playing his loyal detective Paul Drake instead.  Tell me if you think any of these would have worked.

*Barbara Hale is the mother of William Katt, who played Paul Drake Jr. in the early Mason made-for-TV movies.  Not to be outdone, William Hopper, the original Drake, was the son of the legendary gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.


2 comments:

  1. Just got back from re-checking the post from September of 2013 - you know, the one where I told you about the 50th Anniversary DVD which includes the Burr-Hopper test scenes above.
    Guess you didn't get the DVD set after all.

    Oh well ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is fun.
    Hard to see Paul pretending to be Perry or Perry being Hamilton.
    Yeah, they made the right choices.

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