Matlock: Difference between revisions

[[Matlock]] is a [[Simple Country Lawyer|folksy]] [[Good Ol' Boy|Southerner]] with a moral code from before [[The Sixties]] and a sense of justice. (One episode has him reveal that he grew up [[The Andy Griffith Show|in a North Carolina town that no longer exists]].) He currently practices law in Atlanta, Georgia, which in the time this series was running was one of the least Southern places in [[The Deep South]]. He defends his clients with help from a private detective friend, [[Courtroom Antic|Courtroom Antics]] (done folksily), and finding out who actually did it. (In one movie, Matlock actually kept the case going until he found out who did the murder, even though his client was actually cleared and the prosecutor ready to drop the case.)

Structurally, this series is very like ''[[Perry Mason]]''. Ironically, ''Matlock''{{'}}s creator, Dean Hargrove, and his production partner, Fred Silverman (the same man who, at various times, worked as a programming chief for all three major television networks ABC, CBS, and NBC) produced a string of ''Perry Mason'' made-for-TV movies around the same time. But there is a big difference between Mason and Matlock. Perry Mason (based in Los Angeles) is always intense and menacing by nature; Matlock is old-fashioned, folksy and grandfatherly, which actually makes it scarier when he gets into haranguing Courtroom Antic mode.