Maybe Tom means Perry and Della have the equivalent of a 1950s TV marriage relationship. They clearly are not married characters. Maybe sophisticated adults at the time assumed they were doing it off camera, but if so they would have been making that assumption about an unmarried couple.
Burr (born in Canada, but grew up in Vallejo, where I now work) had a longtime companion. Of course his homosexuality was not acknowledged publicly, but my understanding is that his close friends and work associates knew or assumed he was gay or bisexual. The reason I wonder if this impacted how Perry was presented on screen is just if the producers just wanted to keep the focus off his romantic life. But more likely is that, like later TV procedurals, Perry Mason keeps the focus on the specifics of the week’s mystery, not on personal back stories of the characters. On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 8:28 AM Melissa P <[email protected]> wrote: > Do you know how the books treated their relationship? > > Also, wasn't Burr's (who also did Ironside) orientation "buried" until > after his death? > > On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 10:12 AM Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Perry's relationship with Della on the show is simple: they are an old >> married couple with no hint of marriage or sex. Code era movies had ways of >> letting mature viewers know that characters had sex while leaving the young >> or naive unaware and that's not present at all in the series. It's hard to >> relate to a modern context because it doesn't exist in a modern context. >> They are an exclusive couple with no physical touch. And I don't think it >> has anything to do with Burr's orientation. If that hadn't been completely >> buried during the run of the show the sponsors would have fled and the show >> would have been canceled. >> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CA%2B_fQPwt9zXFkRsfZ1YW%3Dgpk2wieNKOnjYYQzjc7WqjHz_c%2BhQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CA%2B_fQPwt9zXFkRsfZ1YW%3Dgpk2wieNKOnjYYQzjc7WqjHz_c%2BhQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkY%2BHVTUgPMonyrddDz6Z1EsBjVE3TNdkqHGOcFrgKfpJgQ%40mail.gmail.com.
