The BEST episodes of Jake and the Fatman

Every episode of Jake and the Fatman ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Jake and the Fatman!

District attorney J.L. McCabe strikes down on the crime in Los Angeles together with his special investigator Jake Styles and assistant D.A. Derek Mitchell.

Last Updated: 9/7/2025Network: CBSStatus: Ended
My Shining Hour
star
9.67
3 votes

#1 - My Shining Hour

Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/29/1989

McCabe thinks Jake has his head in the clouds when he defends a former TV hero who's now a drunken pilot and claims to have witnessed a murder.

Watch Now:Amazon
Dancing in the Dark
star
9.33
3 votes

#2 - Dancing in the Dark

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/25/1989

Jake helps a supposedly reformed cat burglar investigate a theft for which he's been accused and reunite with his estranged teenage son.

Directors: Chuck Bowman
Writer: Steven Aspis
Watch Now:Amazon
'Round Midnight
star
9.33
3 votes

#3 - 'Round Midnight

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/3/1990

In order to catch an elusive jewel thief, Jake poses as the burglar-alarm expert the thief requires for a job that's yet to be disclosed.

Watch Now:Amazon
It All Depends on You
star
9.00
4 votes

#4 - It All Depends on You

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/1/1989

After Derek blows his first big case for McCabe, Jake starts his own investigation of the defendant.

Directors: Michael Lange
Watch Now:Amazon
Out of Nowhere
star
9.00
4 votes

#5 - Out of Nowhere

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/8/1989

McCabe meets his match in a gruff Government agent bent on catching a drug dealer, while Jake learns that an old lover is involved in the case.

Writer: Jeri Taylor
Watch Now:Amazon
God Bless the Child
star
9.00
2 votes

#6 - God Bless the Child

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/12/1990

A pair of spoiled children murder their wealthy father—who is one of McCabe's poker buddies—and frame a businessman for the crime.

Directors: E.W. Swackhamer
Watch Now:Amazon
The Tender Trap
star
9.00
4 votes

#7 - The Tender Trap

Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/19/1990

Derek suspects his uncle's fiancee is a black widow, and she may have already spun her web.

Directors: Michael Lange
Watch Now:Amazon
star
9.00
2 votes

#8 - Come Closer to Me

Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/8/1992

Jake goes undercover with a group of thieves to find out a hit man's next victim.

Directors: Frank Thackery
Writer: Doc Barnett
Watch Now:Amazon
You're Driving Me Crazy
star
8.75
4 votes

#9 - You're Driving Me Crazy

Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/4/1990

A husband pleads temporary insanity after brutally stabbing his wife, but Jake and McCabe suspect he had method to madness.

Watch Now:Amazon
Only You
star
8.75
4 votes

#10 - Only You

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/24/1990

Jake's growing attraction to a friend could prove fatal when she interferes in his investigation of an industrial-espionage ring.

Directors: Ron Satlof
Watch Now:Amazon
Danny Boy
star
8.75
4 votes

#11 - Danny Boy

Season 3 - Episode 25 - Aired 5/9/1990

McCabe's bottled-up feelings are unleashed when he's called to the state prison where his inmate son witnessed a murder.

Directors: Russ Mayberry
Watch Now:Amazon
My Heart Belongs to Daddy
star
8.75
4 votes

#12 - My Heart Belongs to Daddy

Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/2/1990

A young woman claims to be McCabe's daughter while Jake and Derek deal with a frightened witness.

Directors: Robert Scheerer
Watch Now:Amazon
The Way You Look Tonight
star
8.75
4 votes

#13 - The Way You Look Tonight

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1989

Deciding to take a break from his partner, Jake sets out to investigate a murder case that McCabe lost in court.

Directors: Leo Penn
Writer: Jeri Taylor
Watch Now:Amazon
The Lady in Red
star
8.75
4 votes

#14 - The Lady in Red

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1989

McCabe's boozing ex-partner turns up dead just as he's about to solve a 20-year-old murder case.

Watch Now:Amazon
I'll Be Seeing You
star
8.67
6 votes

#15 - I'll Be Seeing You

Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/16/1988

After ten years on the run, a murder witness returns to use McCabe against a powerful defendant for a big payoff, and Jake must escort the witness to court in one piece.

Watch Now:Amazon
Side by Side
star
8.67
3 votes

#16 - Side by Side

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/17/1989

McCabe and a teenage Crusoe are shipwrecked after a boat explosion.

Directors: Jackie Cooper
Watch Now:Amazon
In the Still of the Night
star
8.67
3 votes

#17 - In the Still of the Night

Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/3/1990

Derek sees an old friend who's gotten mixed up in murder as well as the monied shenanigans of her unpredictable husband's wealthy clan.

Directors: Georg Fenady
Watch Now:Amazon
Second Time Around
star
8.67
3 votes

#18 - Second Time Around

Season 4 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/3/1991

A woman's elaborate scheme to fake the death of her blackmailed partner has one fatal flaw: McCabe seeing the man alive.

Watch Now:Amazon
I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan
star
8.57
7 votes

#19 - I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/30/1988

An author who's a former cop literally kills for a best-seller, giving Jake and McCabe a plot that keeps them guessing.

Directors: Michael Lange
Watch Now:Amazon
Blues in the Night
star
8.50
6 votes

#20 - Blues in the Night

Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/16/1988

A pair of twin jewel thieves proves to be a challenge for McCabe as he unknowingly provides an alibi for one sister while the other commits a murder.

Directors: Harvey Laidman
Watch Now:Amazon
You Turned the Tables on Me
star
8.50
4 votes

#21 - You Turned the Tables on Me

Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/10/1990

A successful prosecutor gives credit to her lover, a mob boss, for her conviction record and to Jake for unknowingly identifying the mob's snitch.

Directors: Reza Badiyi
Watch Now:Amazon
I Ain't Got No Body
star
8.50
4 votes

#22 - I Ain't Got No Body

Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/7/1990

Jake and a former lover, who's a fellow cop, pose as a married couple to investigate suspicious deaths at a health spa.

Directors: Georg Fenady
Watch Now:Amazon
Chinatown, My Chinatown
star
8.50
4 votes

#23 - Chinatown, My Chinatown

Season 3 - Episode 26 - Aired 5/16/1990

The prime suspect in the attempted murder of a young cop is his own father, the head of a Chinatown syndicate.

Directors: Reza Badiyi
Watch Now:Amazon
Exactly Like You
star
8.50
4 votes

#24 - Exactly Like You

Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/26/1990

A man confesses to murdering the banker who turned him down for a loan, but McCabe doesn't think the confession adds up.

Directors: Ron Satlof
Watch Now:Amazon
My Boy Bill
star
8.50
4 votes

#25 - My Boy Bill

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/31/1990

Sailors turned jewelry thieves abduct the son of the prosecuting attorney, and it's up to Jake to rescue him.

Directors: Reza Badiyi