Wednesday, October 17, 2012

AS SEEN ON TV: DELLA STREET


Ever since I discovered that my cable company is finally carrying ME-TV (Thanks, Mayr!), my DVR is slowly filling up with all the other shows I haven't been watching because I'm too busy getting my 'Perry Mason' fix twice a day!

DELLA STREET

AS SEEN IN:
'Perry Mason'
Several TV movies

CREATED BY:
Earle Stanley Gardner

PORTRAYED BY:
Barbara Hale

TV STATUS:
Recastaway (Original)

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:
Della Street was the fictional secretary of Perry Mason in the long-running series of novels, films, and radio and television programs featuring the fictional defense attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner.

A character named Della Street first appeared in Gardner's unpublished novel "Reasonable Doubt", where she was a secretary, but not the secretary of the lawyer, Ed Stark. Gardner described her this way: "Della Street ..... Secretary, twenty-seven, quiet, fast as hell on her feet, had been places. Worked in a carnival or side show, knows all the lines, hard-boiled exterior, quietly efficient, puzzled over the lawyer, chestnut hair, trim figure, some lines on her face, a hint of weariness at the corners of her eyes."

When Gardner submitted "Reasonable Doubt" to William Morrow, an editor suggested that "Della Street is a better character than the secretary." Gardner took this suggestion when he rewrote "Reasonable Doubt" as "The Case of the Velvet Claws" and made Della Street Perry Mason's secretary. In the published novel, the carnival or side show was jettisoned, and Street came from a more respectable background.

On television, Della Street was played by Barbara Hale, in the series and the made-for-TV movies. She was played by Sharon Acker in the short-lived revival series, 'The New Adventures of Perry Mason' starring Monte Markham as Mason.
(Toobworld note: That TV series takes place in an alternate TV dimension. However, in my Toobworld novel, that Perry Mason is a shape-shifting alien of the "bent-pinkie" species seen in "The Invaders".)


BCnU!

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