“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you…”
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Almost everyone has heard the words. We’ve heard some version of them so many times on television or in the movies that most of us could probably finish the warning ourselves.

But where did they come from? And what do they really mean?

In September 1957, Americans met Perry Mason.

On Saturday nights at 7:30, viewers tuned in to CBS to watch Raymond Burr play the seemingly unbeatable Los Angeles defense attorney, with Barbara Hale beside him as his faithful secretary, Della Street. The show became one of television’s biggest hits, eventually reaching number five in the national ratings.

For nine seasons—271 episodes (270 in black and white and only one in color) Perry defended clients who invariably seemed to find themselves accused of murder. He exposed lies, challenged witnesses and famously shattered alibis during cross-examination, frequently forcing the actual killer to confess right on the witness stand, allowing his client to walk free.

Over 271 episodes, Perry reportedly lost only three cases.

Or did he?

Even those rare losses weren’t quite what they appeared to be.

But throughout all nine seasons of Perry Mason, something we now associate almost automatically with being arrested and questioned by police didn’t yet exist.

The Miranda warning.

Perry Mason aired its final episode on May 22, 1966. Just three weeks later, on June 13, the United States Supreme Court handed down Miranda v. Arizona.

By the time Law & Order arrived in 1990—and later Law & Order: SVU—the warning had become so familiar that hearing the beginning of it barely required an explanation.

But somewhere between Perry Mason and Olivia Benson, something fundamental had changed.

And it began with a man named Ernesto Miranda.