At 72, Raymond Burr is trying something new. And that's no accident.
This massive man makes no secret of the key to his longevity in theater, films and TV. "The people who last are the ones who haven't stopped learning, working or dreaming," he says.Burr's new effort coexists neatly with his starring roles in hundreds of episodes of "Perry Mason" and "Ironside."
This fall he'll try his hand on the daily syndicated Trial by Jury (on late-night weekdays at 1:05 a.m., Ch. 4) playing a retired judge who guides viewers through the legal proceedings of each dramatized case.
"After doing so many `Perry Masons,' I have some knowledge of the courtroom, of course," Burr allowed. "But I never did a daytime show before or syndication. And I'm not actually doing the courtroom here. I'm sort of the conscience of the show."
Burr hopes to get "Trial by Jury" viewers as involved as if they were actual jurors on the cases, which will come from recent headlines.
So far, 144 stations covering 90 percent of the nation have signed on.
Said Burr, "The average juror is an average person, so I think it will appeal to the average person. When I explain the cases, I won't just be talking points of law, but points of law as they affect the person on the witness stand, which is how a juror sees it."
Why does Burr bother? After all, he's already busier than most men half his age. He'll make three "Perry Mason" specials this year for NBC. He also runs a grape-and-cattle farm in Sonoma County, Calif. And he doesn't need the money.
"Why does anyone do the same work year after year? The answer is that you hope once in a while you get something really worthwhile and different. If you do 300 `Perry Mason' shows, not all of them are great. The idea for the `Ironside' show was great, but not all the shows were."
Burr hopes the new idea works well at least most of the time. "I've tried to have a degree of excellence in everything I've done. I've been a ditchdigger (as well as a forester, ranch hand and salesman) earlier in my life, and I think I could still dig a pretty good ditch."
But he admits that with the first 25 episodes of "Trial by Jury" in the can, he has yet to watch a single entire show.
Most episodes will be taped this year in Denver, where he's often made "Perry Mason" shows. Two of this season's three "Perry Mason" specials will be taped there.
"We have about 25 reasons for liking Denver," Burr said. "You can find almost anything in the city and its environs - winter, summer, snow, deserts, at least 25 different kinds of backgrounds for houses and gardens, many styles of architecture - and some very nice and very capable people in movies, TV and theater."
Burr says he hopes his new show grows. Growth, he adds, is his favorite process, one of the reasons he spent much of his life in the South Pacific, where he owned an island in Fiji until 1984.
Burr has no use for comics the likes of Johnny Carson and David Letterman.
"They base a lot of their humor on cruelty," says Burr, noting that heavy folks like him are often the targets of those barbs. "What's wrong with fat people anyway? I was thin a long time. But I waited too long to get a gall bladder operation in the 1970s, fulfilling professional obligations. Nothing worked after that operation. Eventually, due to therapy, I became enormously healthy and 90 pounds heavier in nine months."
He's still heavy and he's still popular, with fans stopping him on streets everywhere he goes.