When Dan Blocker appeared in an episode of Bonanza wearing a sling his audience wanted to know what had happened. The answer was simple, and true. During filming he had fallen off his horse and broken his arm.
Raymond Burr had appeared in an episode of his hit show Perry Mason wearing a cast, and again the public wanted to know what had happened.
The answer was more convoluted, and a straight-out lie.
Raymond would visit troops in Korea and later Vietnam. The studio publicists said that while on a tour visiting troops his helicopter had crashed while under fire, causing damage to his arm. It was years later, after his death. that it was revealed that he had been walking along a beach on an Hawaiian island and had attempted to lift a large boulder looking for shells. He had hurt his arm muscles then.
Just my opinion, he did a lot of good work for his country in visiting the troops, but this seemed to be overly manipulative and unnecessary. It just seems the publicity department went a little overboard with making up a story when there was nothing wrong with the truth.