@lima-2 said:

Any thoughts on this character? A subdued counterpart of Kookie from 77 Sunset Strip ... maybe?

As a character, I found him more annoying than anything else. I guess I was secretly resentful that, as his screen time increased, it seemed as though it was at the expense of Paul Drake. In many instances, I found Paul to be even more appealing than Perry.

I was just reading about the David Gideon character on Wikipedia, and they said that he appeared in 9 episodes over 2 seasons but "nobody knows why". I figured he was some law school student who was interning for Perry.

I didn't even remember him, until this post. He also had a part in an episode of (S)TOS.

Seriously? Which episode?

He played lieutenant Lindstrom in the episode "The Return of the Archons".

● The Red Hour

Okay, Thanks. I'm going to resubscribe to Paramount Plus so I'll probably start watching Perry Mason again. See you on the board!

I'm sure he was meant to be a "pretty face" as a draw to younger viewers, but with William Hopper already looking good in those days, there was really no need. It doesn't seem the writers knew what to do with him. Lt. Tragg had already been cast against his description in the novels so as to not draw attention away from Perry Mason and Paul Drake, so it looks like they realized adding the character was a misstep and corrected it.

@vranger : That theory makes a lot of sense. I've noticed that long running tv series will bring in new characters who are younger and sometimes better looking than the original cast.

In 1970, the producers of Classic Mission Impossible brought in two new characters who were noticably younger than the main cast: Lesley Warren as Dana Lambert, the femme fatale, and Sam Elliott as Dr. Doug Roberts. Sam Elliott was brought in to replace Peter Lupus, who the producers decided after four seasons as a regular cast member couldn't act. The plan was to slowly phase out Willie Armitrage (Lupus) and bring in Dr. Doug Roberts (Elliott). When the fans found out about this, all hell broke loose! Peter Lupus and his character Willie Armitrage were EXTREMELY popular with the fans. I was 9 years old at the time, and I was shocked that the producers would even think of doing that, let alone actually doing it. Anyway, after a massive letter writing campaign on Peter Lupus's behalf, the producers changed their minds and had Lupus in half of the season five episodes and Elliott in the other half, then after an appearance in the second episode of season six, disappeared. Ironically, the other younger character Dana also disappeared at the end of season five.

We just finished going through the entire Mission Impossible early last summer, then did the 1980s series. Of course, in the original MI, When Landau and Bain left of their own accord, they had no choice but to recast those roles on the team. Nimoy wasn't so much younger (3 years), but Leslie Ann Warren was a lot younger than Barbara Bain (15 years). They should have tried to keep Sam Elliot for longer, since Nimoy didn't stay for the rest of the run himself.

I think we have very similar tastes in classic TV series. :-)

@vranger said:

I'm sure he was meant to be a "pretty face" as a draw to younger viewers, but with William Hopper already looking good in those days, there was really no need. It doesn't seem the writers knew what to do with him. Lt. Tragg had already been cast against his description in the novels so as to not draw attention away from Perry Mason and Paul Drake, so it looks like they realized adding the character was a misstep and corrected it.

That sounds right. I'll have to take a better look at the intended demographics.

Makes sense to me. Maybe the producers where trying to attract younger viewers. I think that's what the producers of Classic Mission Impossible where doing when they casted Sam Elliott and Lesley Warren in season five and tried to get rid of Peter Lupus.