Matlock (TV series)
| Matlock | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Legal drama |
| Created by | Dean Hargrove |
| Starring | |
| Theme music composer | Dick DeBenedictis |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 9 |
| No. of episodes | 195 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
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| Running time | 45–48 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
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| Distributor | CBS Television Distribution (2007–present) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
NBC (1986–92) ABC (1992–95) |
| Original release | March 3, 1986 – May 7, 1995 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Diagnosis: Murder |
Matlock is an American television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of criminal-defense attorney Ben Matlock. The show, produced by Intermedia Entertainment Company (first season only), The Fred Silverman Company, Dean Hargrove Productions, Viacom Productions, and Paramount Television (season 9 only), originally aired from March 3, 1986, to May 8, 1992, on NBC; and from November 5, 1992, until May 7, 1995, on ABC.
The show's format is similar to that of CBS's Perry Mason (with both Matlock and the later Perry Mason TV movies in the 1980s created by Dean Hargrove), with Matlock identifying the perpetrators and then confronting them in dramatic courtroom scenes. One difference, however, was that whereas Mason usually exculpated his clients at a pretrial hearing, Matlock usually secured an acquittal at trial, from the jury.
The show centers on widower Benjamin Leighton "Ben" Matlock, a renowned, folksy and popular though cantankerous attorney. Usually, at the end of the case, the person who is on the stand being questioned by Matlock is the actual perpetrator, and Matlock will expose him, despite making clear that his one goal is to prove reasonable doubt in the case of his client's guilt or to prove his client's innocence.
Matlock studied law at Harvard, and after several years as a public defender, established his law practice in Atlanta, living in a modest farmhouse in a neighboring suburb. He is known to visit crime scenes to discover clues otherwise overlooked and come up with viable, alternative theories of the crime in question (usually murder). Matlock also has conspicuously finicky fashion sense; he generally appears in court wearing a trademark light gray suit and, over the series' entire run, owned three generations of the Ford Crown Victoria—always an all-gray model (Griffith's character had always driven Ford products in his 1960s series, The Andy Griffith Show).
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