The plot hinges on an attempt to make it appear that a recently deceased legatee has outlived his legator by one day. This distinction would be meaningless today, as California law has changed; legatees and legators are currently considered as having died simultaneously if their deaths are separated by less than one week.
This fifth season was the highest-ranked of the entire series. With a Nielsen average of 27.3, Mason was the fifth-highest-rated show on TV at the time.
One of the few instances in the series where the judge allowed the morning session of the hearing to go past the allotted time to break for lunch. In fact, he seemed rather annoyed that Burger's direct examination of the bartender went "well past" the start of the lunch break. But because the judge controls the hearing, he could have asked Burger and Perry how long they anticipated the bartender would be on the stand and could have delayed his testimony until after lunch. The abrupt stoppage in the hearing was a mechanism used by the writers to allow viewers to ponder the seemingly damaging testimony from the bartender.
The newspaper at issue is the Los Angeles Chronicle, the fictitious paper featured prominently in the series.