Musing on "Mason"

Jill likes the old Perry Mason series--she uses it as background noise while she's working (in part because the distinctive theme song helps her keep track of time) and finds it to be soothing TV at bedtime. That has got me thinking about how to revive/reboot the concept, especially since so many people seem to think the current attempt, with an "origin" story, has failed.

Here's my idea:

Erle Stanley Gardner wrote 82 Mason novels from the early 1930s to the mid '60s...and each was set contemporary to the time it was written. Let's set the series somewhere in the middle, say early 1950s, and only use adaptations of the actual novels. Yes, some details of each might have to be altered to fit the period, but not radically so. Each episode should run 90 minutes, to give enough time not to rush the story.

If this sounds like the A&E Nero Wolfe series with Timothy Hutton, yes, it does. I've always thought that was the best way to get a long-running book series on TV.