For most of its publishing lifespan, "Argosy" was "never terribly successful", but in the late 1940s and 1950s it experienced a significant boost in sales when it began running a new true crime column, "The Court of Last Resort". Lawyer-turned-author Erle Stanley Gardner (later the creator of Perry Mason) enlisted assistance from police, private detectives, and other professional experts to examine the cases of dozens of convicts who maintained their innocence long after their appeals were exhausted. The popular column appeared in "Argosy" from September 1948 until October 1958, and was adapted for television as a 26-episode series by NBC.