Why Did Linda Purl Left ‘Matlock’ After Just 1 Season?
As Matlock hits its 40th anniversary, we’re solving the Mystery of the Disappearing Daughter. For the NBC legal drama’s first season — which kicked off on March 3, 1986 — Linda Purl played Charlene Matlock, daughter of Andy Griffith’s Ben Matlock and the junior partner at his legal practice. But by Season 2, Purl was gone.
Matlock started its life as the 1986 TV movie Diary of a Perfect Murder, in which Charlene was played by Lori Lethin. When the TV movie became a full-fledged series months later, Purl replaced Lethin in the role, telling the San Antonio Light, “They wanted someone older.”
In Season 2, Matlock viewers learned that Charlene had started her own practice in Philadelphia, and Nancy Stafford’s Michelle Thomas replaced her as Ben’s partner. And in Season 7, viewers met Brynn Thayer’s Leanne MacIntyre, Ben’s other daughter-turned-colleague.
So why did Purl bail on the series anyway?
Linda Purl was initially excited about playing Charlene
Viacom/Courtesy: Everett Collection
Purl was eager to learn more about Charlene when Matlock premiered. “She is the junior partner, so she does a lot of the legwork, but every once in a while, she does get the chance to get up in court and do something,” she told the Tribune TV Log at the time. “That’s fascinating for me; it’s opened up a whole new appreciation for me for lawyers and what they do.”
Purl said she was certain she’d get her share of the spotlight on Matlock, and in the meanwhile, she had invented her own biographical history for Charlene. “She’s probably had a very difficult relationship with her father, one where they do love each other, but for whatever reason, they can’t say that to each other easily.”
In her interview with the San Antonio Light, she said, “I see Charlene as a strong, independent woman who is, and wants to be, a very good lawyer. The product of an early divorce, she was raised by her mother on the East Coast and possibly in Europe, but stayed in touch with her father from time to time. Reunited only after her mother’s death, Charlene and her father are facing a complex relationship.”
She left the job after growing tired of the part
As Matlock found its rhythm in Season 1, Purl found herself only a small part of the ensemble. She told the Los Angeles Times in 1991 it was her choice to leave Matlock. “My last series was Matlock, and I left because it wasn’t going anywhere for me,” she said. “It was not what the producers or I originally thought it would be.”
She explained: “To me, doing a series is like changing parts in the middle of a race. You get a team of writers together, each with his own background, and they have to come up with a cohesive style and uniform voice for each character. And you’re doing all of this while you’re filming the episodes. I bring that up in reference to Matlock. You have good intentions, but then you get to the reality. You have a story to tell, a mystery to solve, and only a limited time to do it.”
Mario Casilli /TV Guide/NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection
Purl also opened up about that decision in an interview with the Gannett News Service in 1987. “The writers were just not able to write the character very fully,” she explained at the time. “Any show begins to take its own format, and Matlock took on its own.”
As Gannett News Service’s Mike Hughes noted, Matlock gave Purl little else to do than “being blond and cute” and “nodding sweetly.” So Purl faced a choice at the end of Season 1: “Do I stay on and enjoy my nice, comfortable job, or do I quit and look for something more challenging?”
Even so, Purl didn’t harbor hard feelings about her role on Matlock or her equally undeveloped roles on Happy Days, in which she played girlfriends to both Richie (Ron Howard) and Fonzie (Henry Winkler). “I did each [series] for a year, and I enjoyed them both. Maybe if I had been there longer, I would have tired of them.”
And Purl certainly found a variety of other jobs: She played Helene Beesley, mother of Pam (Jenna Fischer), in nine episodes of The Office, and recently cursed on General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful, for instance. And in 2025, she and her boyfriend, Patrick Duffy, starred in the action film Hollywood Grit.
Remind 