Discuss Perry Mason

I just watched this episode again, and I realized that they cut out an entire courtroom scene in which they had actors playing experts from the Ford Motor Co. giving testimony about a car's gearshift and handbrake operation. (The show used Ford brand cars in its episodes, so the scene was supposedly using "Ford experts.")

I wonder if they removed that scene in recent syndication to avoid any problems if a future advertiser happened to be a rival car company. I know they sometimes edit a series to remove original prominent brand sponsorship plugs (e.g., Kellogg's cereals' weekly sponsorship of the original Adventures of Superman series in the early 1950s) that were prominently wrapped around the episodes. I guess nowadays maybe they sometimes/usually do some additional editing to avoid conflicts w/advertisers in individual syndicated episodes.

It's probably not obvious most of the time, but I specifically remember seeing that scene a long time ago when I watched the series in its original run in the 1950s, and also later in syndication. So the editing must have been done later on after syndication had already been going on for a long time.

I also believe there are different syndicated packages/versions shown on different networks, so maybe sometimes this episode is not edited out and sometimes it is. I know that some networks show edited versions of syndicated series like Twilight Zone, and others don't edit them. E.g., the TZ episode "Walking Distance" originally contained a scene in which Ronny Howard appeared, but some retro networks edit it out.

Can't find a movie or TV show? Login to create it.

Global

s focus the search bar
p open profile menu
esc close an open window
? open keyboard shortcut window

On media pages

b go back (or to parent when applicable)
e go to edit page

On TV season pages

(right arrow) go to next season
(left arrow) go to previous season

On TV episode pages

(right arrow) go to next episode
(left arrow) go to previous episode

On all image pages

a open add image window

On all edit pages

t open translation selector
ctrl+ s submit form

On discussion pages

n create new discussion
w toggle watching status
p toggle public/private
c toggle close/open
a open activity
r reply to discussion
l go to last reply
ctrl+ enter submit your message
(right arrow) next page
(left arrow) previous page

Settings

Want to rate or add this item to a list?

Login