Perry Mason is a fictional character, a efense attorney who originally was the main character in numerous pieces of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in over 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a story line which involved a client of his being put on trial for murder. Typically, Mason was able to establish his client's innocence by demonstrating the guilt of another character. Gardner was one of the best-selling authors of all time, and had "135 million copies of his books in print in America alone in the year of his death." (1969). The character of Perry Mason is also well-known from film and television, including "television's most successful and longest-running lawyer series" from 1957 to 1966, another series in 1973-1974, and more than 25 made-for-TV movies from 1985 to 1993.