GeorgeSickler This series is just as interesting today as it was decades ago. Andy Griffith is outstanding as Ben Matlock -- no other actor could do as well. The supporting cast were naturals and the scripts were generally well written.The only drawback worth noting is that there is a sameness in a great number of the endings. This wasn't too bothersome when the series was on once a week. But it's in syndication here with two episodes back-to-back every weekday. Ben is frequently pulling a rabbit out of a hat to expose the killer. The killer always is seemingly denying everything on the witness stand, but then Ben surprises everybody -- including the TV audience -- by introducing evidence that never was developed during the show.That's probably OK once a week, but it does get a tad tedious twice a day every week day. But nevertheless, a great series.

aimless-46 Here it is, almost 1200 minutes of the mystery series "Matlock", 24 episodes (including the pilot) that were broadcast during NBC's 1986-1987 season. So let's forget all we know about the long run of this series and just talk about its premiere season. Years after his run as Sheriff Andy Taylor, Andy Griffith finally got another regular job. This time he is playing Ben Matlock, an Atlanta lawyer who talks like Sheriff Andy. It's a comfortable role in a tried and true format; a mix of "Perry Mason" and "Columbo". "Columbo" veteran Dean Hargrove dreamed up the series and shared executive producer duties with Fred Silverman. The focus is on the title character and Griffith is great fun to watch. He charms and sweet talks his way through each case, getting everyone to let down their guard because they underestimate this good old boy as much as they did the seemingly scatterbrained "Columbo". Both series revolved around the main character's ability discern something incriminating in seemingly innocent little things and to pick up on a guilty party's casual slip of the tongue. In the "Perry Mason" tradition Matlock is not bound by the conventional rules of evidence or procedural requirements once he gets into a courtroom. He can say anything and introduce any sort of evidence simply by reassuring the judge that his line or questioning will eventually become relevant. Be prepared for the obligatory breakdowns and confessions on the witness stand. The prosecutors can only shake their heads and bluster helplessly in the face of Matlock's cunning strategy. Matlock is assisted by the show's version of Perry Mason's Paul and Della. In season one these are his daughter and partner Charlene Matlock (Lori Lethin in the pilot-Linda Purl in the regular episodes) and his investigator Tyler Hudson (Kene Holliday). His junior partner Michele Thomas (Nancy Stafford) would not join the team as a regular until the nest season and it wasn't until 1988 that Don Knotts reprises his Barney role as Ben's neighbor Les "Ace" Calhoun. Season One's episodes #6 and #7 (a two part story titled "The Don") featured William Conrad as District Attorney James "Fatman" McShane. The next year the producers took this character, changed his name slightly to Jason Lochinvar 'Fatman' McCabe, and with Conrad created the long-running series "Jake and the Fatman". Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Cue-ball Spoilers below.Matlock, the long-running criminal lawyer show featuring Andy Griffith in the title role, has enjoyed a popularity in first-run and re-runs that I cannot understand. It is frequently (and favorably) compared to "Perry Mason", the archetypal criminal drama that sets the gold standard for courtroom television to this day. It's remarkable that the two shows are mentioned in the same breath.Griffith is Ben Matlock, a Harvard graduate who, we are told in the early years, never takes a case for less than $250,000. Earth to writers: criminal defendants do not have $250,000. Like Mason, Matlock's office sees a stream of innocent people charged with murder. Like Mason, Matlock winds up getting most of them acquitted.And there, the similarities end. Mason, the creation of detective story writer Erle Stanley Gardner, had an abiding respect for the courts, the police, and the rule of law (more so in the series than the novels that preceded them). Everyone on the Perry Mason show was smart; Mason was just smarter. In contrast, Matlock is perhaps the least dumb character on his show. One mystery involved a murder with a candlestick that was found in Matlock's client's house, wrapped in a newspaper. While Matlock was cross-examining the real killer, he discovers that the date on the newspaper was one day after his client was in jail. This is astonishing: no one on the police force or the district attorney's office has noticed that their most damning evidence provides the defendant with an iron-clad alibi? And Matlock, unlike Mason, cares little for the rules of evidence. Almost every show, when the prosecutor makes an objection based on hearsay or speculation, Matlock screams to the judge that his question is "absolutely vital to his case" and the judge lets it in. When I was in law school, we referred to this as the "Matlock rule". He passes photographs to the jury while the judge is considering whether they are admissible, and gives long soliloquies about surprise witnesses who are "prepared to testify", all while the prosecutor sits mute.You've guessed by now that I'm an attorney. I don't mind suspending disbelief to enjoy a television series (surely Perry Mason's nemesis Hamilton Burger would not have been a district attorney for a decade if he could never indict the real killer). But there's a difference between suspending disbelief and suspending intelligence.

Brian Washington Much like Perry Mason, Ben Matlock was a lawyer that never lost and that's where the similarities end. The thing I love about the character of Ben Matlock is that unlike the cool and suave Perry Mason, Ben was hot-headed and cursed like a sailor, but beneath that gruff exterior was a heart of gold. Ben pretty much was just like an average guy, while Perry Mason was the cool, suave and sophisticated barrister. Also, this show pretty much had a sense of humor about it that "Perry Mason" didn't have and this gives "Matlock" an edge.