The BEST Episodes of Jake and the Fatman
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Sep 5, 2020
Network: CBS
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.
#1 - Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired Apr 5, 1989
Jake investigates a robbery of a transportation company, and gets involved with its owner.
10.00 
#2 - Dancing in the Dark
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired Oct 25, 1989
A cat burglar robs a hotel while McCabe is hosting a district attorney convention there. The immediate suspect is Harry McGuinn, a recently released cat burglar. He insists that he is innocent, and tries to help Jake solve the robbery.
10.00 
#3 - My Shining Hour
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired Nov 29, 1989
Jake helps out the actor, Tom Cody, who played his childhood idol - the Skyhawk. Tom has been reduced to an alcoholized, broke veteran plane pilot, and no one believes him when he witnesses a murder.
10.00 
#4 - 'Round Midnight
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired Oct 3, 1990
Jake isn't very happy when his friend's Porsche is taken at gunpoint. He tracks down the robber, but holds off when he finds the carjacker associating with an infamous jewel thief. So posing as an alarm cracker, Jake goes undercover to find what their target is.
10.00 
#5 - Pretty Baby
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired Feb 27, 1991
Cindy O'Malley, a friend of Jake's, is witness to a murder, but is spotted by the killer and he chases her and shoots her. McCabe & Co has to take care of her baby while they try to find her and the killer.
10.00 
#6 - Nevertheless
Season 4 - Episode 24 - Aired May 8, 1991
Todd Kurtin kills his wife in an alley, and makes it look like a mugger assaulted her. But the story doesn't convince McCabe, who prosecutes Kurtin - even though the case is weak.
10.00 
#7 - Come Closer to Me
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired Jan 8, 1992
A trio of high-class pickpockets gets in trouble when they pick a mafia hitman's pocket and get a piece of paper with his next target on it.
10.00 #8 - You'll Never Know
Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired Feb 26, 1992
A doctor is murdered, and is discovered to have been making child pornography. The prime suspect is Elliot Edwards, a city council member with a spotless record.
10.00 
#9 - Side by Side
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired May 17, 1989
McCabe and the son of a friend go fishing, and discover a bomb on the their boat. Unable to disarm it they jump in the sea and swim to a nearby island. Meanwhile Jake and Derek presume they're dead, and go looking for the bomber.
9.00 
#10 - It All Depends on You
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired Nov 1, 1989
Derek gets his first case - a drunk driver who assaulted a police officer. But the driver is a powerful man, and suddenly Derek's main witness lies and the judge dismisses the case.
9.00 
#11 - Out of Nowhere
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired Nov 8, 1989
Jake and the FBI go after Victor Potemkin, a suspected drug smuggler. But when they raid his house they find no drugs, but Jake finds someone he knows - a woman who disappeared overnight just as he was about to propose to her.
9.00 
#12 - In the Still of the Night
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired Jan 3, 1990
Derek gets Jake to look into things, when the sister of a good friend is arrested for possession of drugs. She says they were planted by her mother-in-law, who is angry with her son for trying to take control of the family company, and at her for marrying him.
9.00 
#13 - The Tender Trap
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired Sep 19, 1990
Derek's uncle reveals he's about to get married. But Derek becomes suspicious because the bride is nearly half his uncle's age, and starts digging into her past.
9.00 
#14 - We'll Meet Again
Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired Apr 24, 1991
McCabe is showing a school class around the courthouse, when a man dressed as clown tries to kill him with a shotgun. The man misses, but gets away. McCabe goes over past convictions to see witch of them might be the would-be assassin.
9.00 #15 - Where or When (2)
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired Sep 25, 1991
Jake goes undercover as a middle man between Rose and a rebel army wanting to buy Rose's hi-tech rifles, while Delaney finds proof that Rose isn't who he claims to be.
9.00 
#16 - I'll Be Seeing You
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired Feb 16, 1988
A small time crook comes to McCabe offering to testify against the crime boss O'Rourke, after laying low for ten years. McCabe is suspicious, but is more than willing to go along with anything that can get O'Rourke behind bars.
8.50 
#17 - Blues in the Night
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired Mar 16, 1988
Jennifer Wilding gets a surprise when her identical twin sister turns up wanting to resume their previous partnership - one steals jewelry and the other provides an alibi.
8.50 
#18 - Rhapsody in Blue
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired Apr 6, 1988
Ned Covington and his wife plan to kill his boss, Phil Duncan, when he is passed over for promotion, but they kill another employee by mistake. Realizing this they try to frame Duncan for the murder.
8.50 
#19 - I'll Never Smile Again
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired Mar 22, 1989
A tourist tries to stop a mugging, but he is grabbed from behind and the mugger stabs him. When the police arrive, the tourist is still alive, but the mugger is dead from a bullet wound and on the ground lies a gun used to kill several muggers. The third man is nowhere to be seen.
8.50 
#20 - They Can't Take That Away from Me
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired May 10, 1989
Jake and two friends participate in a drug bust that goes sour. The next day those friends are found dead - killed by a shotgun blast while they were in their car at the docks.
8.50 
#21 - Snowfall
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired May 24, 1989
The Secret Service gets help from Jake in catching a money counterfeiter, who trades his product for cocaine. It becomes personal for Jake when a friend is killed during a failed raid.
8.50 
#22 - The Lady in Red
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired Sep 27, 1989
Ed Delaney, an ex-cop and an old friend of McCabe, is killed when he comes close to solving ""The Lady in Red"" Murder - a 20-year-old unsolved murder case that got him fired from the police.
8.50 
#23 - The Way You Look Tonight
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired Oct 11, 1989
A young lady is acquitted for killing her mother, and wants to hire Jake privately to find the killer. Jake turns it down because he's on his way to a vacation, but then McCabe refuses to let him take any days off. So Jake quits his job and takes the assignment.
8.50 
#24 - You Turned the Tables on Me
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired Jan 10, 1990
After several failed raids on mafia boss Everett Ashford, it appears the PA's office has a leak. Evidence starts to point to Leigh Perry, a rising star in the PA's office and the head of the organized crime division.
8.50 
#25 - I Ain't Got No Body
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired Mar 7, 1990
A woman disappears when looking into her mother's death at a health resort. Jake and LA cop Karen Stetson go undercover at the resort, posing as a married couple.
8.50