We have a modest TV satellite plan and no subscription or streaming services, so we get a very basic package of programming. Sometimes I get envious when friends talk about outstanding series they follow, but frankly, we are just not going to spend the money. No, we continue to watch the basics, some ESPN, and reruns.

My family didn’t have a TV until about 1963, so I missed the old classics other than the few I saw at Grandma’s or a friend’s house. Most recently, I’ve been catching up on the “Perry Mason” series that ran from 1957—1966, of which I saw very few when they originally aired.

Nevertheless, three seconds into any episode, and that theme song takes me back sixty years or more.

Part of the fun is picking out unknown actors who became major stars. In recent months I’ve spotted Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Dick Clark (yes, in a dramatic role), Cloris Leachman, Marion Ross, Angie Dickinson, Gavin MacLeod, James Coburn, and David McCallum. Online history sites name at least that many more.

Part of the entertainment is more serious. “Perry Mason” gives us a look at the stereotypes of its producers and era that few other shows can equal. If a fellow wore a fedora, he probably was a cop (Perry almost never wore one; Paul Drake, never).

If a girl was blonde and buxom, she was an entertainer or her boyfriend was into something shady. All middle-aged or older ladies who were called to testify in court wore pearls and hats. All older people who lived in apartments or rooming houses watched TV all evening and noted the exact time of any unexpected noises or visitors in the neighborhood.

The well-to-do drove very large gas guzzlers, often convertibles.

Airplane travel was more common than you’d think and tickets available with a simple phone call—or by just showing up at the counter with cash.

And smoking—if you didn’t live through this era, it’s hard to imagine the fug we all inhaled. Almost every character, male or female, smoked constantly. Pipes and cigars were rare, but cigarettes were everywhere.

No home or business was off-limits, every coffee table bore a cigarette case, and all public places allowed smoking. The only non-smokers were very demure older ladies and Della Street, Perry’s private secretary. I have never seen another show from any era that featured more cigarette smoking, especially by Paul Drake (played by William Hopper, son of Hedda Hopper, the famous Hollywood columnist). No wonder, then, when I looked up its sponsorship, I found the primary sponsor was Phillip Morris. No wonder, too, that William’s health went downhill shortly after the show ended in 1966, and he was dead at 55, only four years later of a stroke and pneumonia.

Ironically, 1966 was the year the first “hazardous to your health” warning appeared on a cigarette pack…a tad late for some, wouldn’t you say?