So watching "Perry Mason" is a qualification?  What's wrong with reading _Wolff and Byrd: Counselors of the Macabre?_  At least Batton Lash has real live lawyers advising him on the legal issues in his comic; I don't know that any real lawyers were involved with "Perry Mason."

And does this mean that watching every episode of "Mister Science" qualifies one for a scientific post?

Earl Stanley Gardner was an attorney.  And a damn good one as I understand.  He just decided to go straight and give up on lawyering.