The publisher of a newspaper takes a fishing trip with his brother and the paper's managing editor. The show opens with a scene of flabby, middle-aged men in flannel shirts holding on to the sides of their small fishing boat as it is being rocked violently by raging water. What had been an ideal spot for fishing becomes white-water rapids when sudden flooding occurs. The men are thrown into the water and their bodies are not recovered for days.
The new stockholders are the two sisters and the stepdaughter of the drowning victims. One sister sees her inheritance as a ticket to Easy Street. Take the money and run. The other sister wants the paper to continue as it had been under their brother. The sisters each have a son. One is a drunken wastrel and the other is running the newspaper. Too bad ad revenues are down, along with subscriptions. He can't even meet the week's payroll. And the stepdaughter (Kerry Worden) plays both sons for suckers and ends up as murder victim. All in the family!
Sleazy investor visits the nephew with the work ethic: Well, you're sitting in a big man's chair.
Perry is talking to the drowned men's heirs about simultaneous death and how it applies in this case when Paul Drake barges into the meeting.
PD: It's not the law I'm talking about, Perry. It's the facts.
Turns out the brother with the stepdaughter managed to get to safety and died of his injuries and exposure a day after his fishing companions. His will has the final say.
Work-ethic nephew finds out his supposed fiancée has been using him and he takes a "principled" stand.
Nephew: It's worth losing the paper to be safe from her.
Perry gives Paul his assignment and says he wants the info PDQ. Paul interrupts -- again!
PD: "Fast. And don't spare the expense." If someone has to pay for Paul Drake's expensive tastes, it might as well be Perry Mason.
The nephew is charged with the murder of his other uncle's stepdaughter. He is expecting Perry's secretary to deliver some papers to him for signatures, but matchmaker PM enlists the nephew's own secretary to visit her boss in jail.
Nephew: Oh, it's you.
Secretary: Well, there's a sparkling quotation.
It isn't, but I couldn't resist her use of the word quotation.
Drunken nephew is on the stand and Perry is asking him about his relationship with the decedent, Kerry Worden. Drunk says his father had arranged their engagement as a way to get her shares in the paper.
PM: Are you sure Miss Worden wasn't getting married to your father? (Laughter in courtroom.)
At the end of the day, the good nephew is editorially victorious in a planning and zoning battle, ad revenues have doubled and subscriptions are way up. The future is nothing but bright for newspapers!
The new stockholders are the two sisters and the stepdaughter of the drowning victims. One sister sees her inheritance as a ticket to Easy Street. Take the money and run. The other sister wants the paper to continue as it had been under their brother. The sisters each have a son. One is a drunken wastrel and the other is running the newspaper. Too bad ad revenues are down, along with subscriptions. He can't even meet the week's payroll. And the stepdaughter (Kerry Worden) plays both sons for suckers and ends up as murder victim. All in the family!
Sleazy investor visits the nephew with the work ethic: Well, you're sitting in a big man's chair.
Perry is talking to the drowned men's heirs about simultaneous death and how it applies in this case when Paul Drake barges into the meeting.
PD: It's not the law I'm talking about, Perry. It's the facts.
Turns out the brother with the stepdaughter managed to get to safety and died of his injuries and exposure a day after his fishing companions. His will has the final say.
Work-ethic nephew finds out his supposed fiancée has been using him and he takes a "principled" stand.
Nephew: It's worth losing the paper to be safe from her.
Perry gives Paul his assignment and says he wants the info PDQ. Paul interrupts -- again!
PD: "Fast. And don't spare the expense." If someone has to pay for Paul Drake's expensive tastes, it might as well be Perry Mason.
The nephew is charged with the murder of his other uncle's stepdaughter. He is expecting Perry's secretary to deliver some papers to him for signatures, but matchmaker PM enlists the nephew's own secretary to visit her boss in jail.
Nephew: Oh, it's you.
Secretary: Well, there's a sparkling quotation.
It isn't, but I couldn't resist her use of the word quotation.
Drunken nephew is on the stand and Perry is asking him about his relationship with the decedent, Kerry Worden. Drunk says his father had arranged their engagement as a way to get her shares in the paper.
PM: Are you sure Miss Worden wasn't getting married to your father? (Laughter in courtroom.)
At the end of the day, the good nephew is editorially victorious in a planning and zoning battle, ad revenues have doubled and subscriptions are way up. The future is nothing but bright for newspapers!