Before Mr. Mason, there was Mr. District Attorney.
To understand the genre in its historical context, one must be able to place it in its time. This timeline offers a broad illustration of the history of television and includes major events in inventions, programming, and relevant laws and regulations. What kind of equipment did people use to listen or watch, what were the most popular shows, what was the government doing to control all of this? More detailed information on specific lawyer programs is set out in the Chronological List, Fictional Lawyers, and Real Judges pages of this site.