6 Facts About the Original ‘Matlock,’ May They Please the Court
In the late 1980s, Andy Griffith returned to TV (and brought a lot of famous friends with him) when he starred as the title character in Matlock. Griffith’s Ben Matlock was a folksy country lawyer with a preference for gray suits and a taste for hot dogs. But don’t let his down-South charms fool you — he was also a formidable litigator, scoring acquittal after acquittal for his clients during the show’s nine-season run between 1986 and 1995.
Though Matlock got his final verdict over 30 years ago, the show still airs every weekday at 10am on MeTV. Check out fun facts about the show below — including details on several cast members’ dual roles!
1Andy Griffith sometimes clashed with Matlock creator Dean Hargrove
Griffith and Matlock creator Dean Hargrove sometimes had differences of opinions, to put it mildly, according to the book Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show by Daniel de Visé.
“[Griffith’s] ideas of comedy were unparalleled,” Hargrove explained, per de Visé. “When it had to do more with the plot, the mystery, that was when we’d tend to stay with what we had.”
De Visé also said that Griffith would sometimes yell as he argued his case, adding, “Dean would stand there and take it, the very picture of propriety, until Andy had said his piece. Then Dean would calmly proceed with the show.”
2Nancy Stafford’s two roles can both be seen in the credits
Nancy Stafford joined Matlock as a series regular in Season 2, in the role of Michelle Thomas — after playing the role of the call girl Caryn Nelson in Season 1. Even after that (re)casting, Caryn could still be seen in the opening credits, though only from behind.
Other series regulars had guest appearances on Matlock before becoming a full-time cast member, too. Kari Lizer guest-starred in Season 6’s “The Suspect” before she was cast as Cassie Phillips, for example, and Brynn Thayer made a guest appearance in Season 1’s “The Angel” before taking the part of Leanne MacIntyre.
3Daniel Roebuck played three characters on the show before playing Cliff Lewis
Bob D’Amico / ©ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
If Daniel Roebuck looked familiar when he joined the main Matlock cast in 1992, perhaps that’s because he played three other characters on the show before taking on the role of Cliff Lewis. He played Dr. Bobby Shaw in Season 1’s “The Doctors,” an attorney named Alex Winthrop in three Season 3 installments, and a prosecutor named Mr. Sodowski in a Season 6 two-parter.
Roebuck told The-Entertainment-junkie.de that he got high praise from Griffith after showing up on set for his Season 1 guest role. “The next day the director, Tony Mordente, said to me at the craft service table, ‘The old man wants you to be a series regular!’” Roebuck recalled. “Now that’s a very nice thing for someone to say, especially for someone I respected as much as Andy Griffith.”
4The show is credited with making Wilmington, North Carolina, a TV production hotspot
Matlock was set in Atlanta, Georgia, but for its first six seasons, it was filmed in Los Angeles. In 1992, however, Griffith insisted that the show move production to Wilmington, North Carolina, as Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Regional Film Office, told Star News Online in 2012.
And Matlock paved the way for TV shows including Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill to film in the area. Griffith “was the main reason television came to Wilmington,” added Bill Vassar, head of the EUE/Screen Gems studio complex. “That’s what kept the film industry going here.”
5Matlock spun off another TV show … which spun off another TV show
Everett Collection
William Conrad’s Season 1 appearance as District Attorney James L. McShane inspired the 1987 crime drama series Jake and the Fatman, created by Matlock producers and starring Conrad as a prosecutor. And a third-season episode of that show featured Dick Van Dyke as the crime-solving doctor Mark Sloan, a character who got his own show, Diagnosis Murder, in 1993.
6A Diagnosis Murder episode explained Matlock’s hot dog fixation
Griffith reprised the part of Matlock on the aforementioned Diagnosis Murder, in 1997’s “Murder Two” — and viewers finally found out why the character was always eating hot dogs. As Showbiz CheatSheet recaps, Ben made a bad investment in the 8-track tape industry at the advice of Dick Van Dyke’s Dr. Ben Sloan, and he had to buy cheap seats and eat hot dogs because of that financial setback!
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