Rick Mabry, P.I., wondered about the echoes to Gershwin's PC heard in
the Perry Mason theme.

I'm no quotation freak, but do recall making this very association.  An
uncanny similarity, I'd agree, though their musical contexts (if that's
the word I want) are so different that if there was any borrowing, it
was done very effectively: the notes underwent a substantial transformation.

To me, this TV tune is one of the greats in an era full of effective,
jazzy TV drama themes.  Assuming that its composer had heard the Gershwin
in the first place, the peripheral segment that you point to is the very
hub of the Perry Mason theme: a driving, unrelenting motif that I recall
savouring with much gusto even as a child.  (The series played on Sundays
at 9 pm: a special late-night, end-of-the-weekend treat -- though the
talking heads' reams of dialogue did sometimes put this 10-13 year-old
right to sleep).

Maybe it's significant that, while the PC does bring the Perry Mason
tune to mind, the converse doesn't happen.  That theme takes me instead
to other TV music of the late 50s/early 60s.  Such as the one, for
instance, for 'M-Squad' -- 'Ballinger de Chicago,' as we knew it in
Spanish -- another with an unmistakeably jazzy swagger:
http://www.whirligig2.freeserve.co.uk/tv/msquad.wav  Some may recall
that this B&W TV show starred Lee Marvin, underrated US character actor,
IMO, no doubt since he got few good cinematic vehicles (though I could
name a few obscure gems, aside from 'The Wild One').

The memorable themes for 'Naked City' and 'Dragnet' also come to mind.
On MCML we've previously touched on 'Dragnet"s deep musical debt of the
reciprocal, 'My Sweet Lord' variety: each tune very much bringing the
other to mind.  For its simple but ominous DUM-DE-DUM-DUM theme, its
producers quietly paid Miklos Rozsa a hefty wad of cash, by his account,
as they didn't want to contest that it had been borrowed from his score
for 'The Killers.'

Bert Bailey, rambling