The BEST episodes of Matlock
Every episode of Matlock ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Matlock!
Don't be fooled by his down-home demeanor and country-boy ways; criminal defense lawyer Ben Matlock is worth every penny of his fee. Count on Matlock to visit the crime scene, scope out the clues everyone else missed, and dramatically reveal the real criminal during a climactic trial sequence.
#1 - The Temptation
Season 8 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/27/1994
A thug tries to make Leanne fall in love with him by using her journal that he stole from her house.
#2 - The Kidnapping (1)
Season 8 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/13/1994
Abductors try to kidnap Leanne but take Billy instead and hold him for ransom.
#3 - The P.I.
Season 8 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/3/1994
A P.I.'s daughter shoots some photos that get the wrong man accused of murder.
#4 - The Confession
Season 9 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/1/1994
Prosecutor Julie March (Julie Sommars) returns, looking for Matlock's help to vindicate a thief she wrongly convicted.
#5 - The Heist (1)
Season 9 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/27/1995
While at the beach to cheer on Cliff in a triathlon, Ben runs into an old friend and retired FBI agent who's handling unfinished business. VVhen the Fed is accused of murder, Matlock defends him.
#6 - The Kidnapping (2)
Season 8 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/20/1994
The FBI agent who was in charge of Billy's kidnapping case is now accused of killing another agent.
#7 - The Madam
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/2/1990
A call girl blackmails her employer to stay on the payroll, and when one of them winds up dead, it's Matlock to the rescue.
#8 - The Getaway
Season 9 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/5/1995
Matlock defends an ex-con accused of robbing the same bank he knocked off years earlier. But the young witness who can clear the ex-con's name demands a favor from Ben before he will tell the truth.
#9 - Brennen
Season 8 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/17/1994
Ben vies with a formidable D.A. while defending a client accused of killing a city councilwoman, and discovers a secret hiding in the D.A.'s past that is affecting his judgment in this case.
#10 - The Trial (2)
Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/26/1991
Matlock manages to figure out what's going on, but his competition ices him out of the final round...or so it seems.
#11 - The Idol (1)
Season 8 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/19/1994
A lawyer who is a fan of Matlock's is accused of murdering a blackmailing P.I.
#12 - The Dare
Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/27/1994
To prove that Matlock could not solve the perfect murder, a demented millionaire (Terry O'Quinn) kills Ben's friend and challenges Ben to solve the crime.
#13 - The Outcast (1)
Season 6 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/7/1992
Matlock retires from law after bungling up a case and forgetting his client's name. He heads out of town to do some fishing, but after a hitchhiker he gave a lift to dies mysteriously, he sticks around to investigate the case.
#14 - The Nightmare
Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/1/1991
After a bump on the head, Matlock has a nightmare where he is trapped in the Old West, and needs to save Conrad from an angry lynch mob when he is accused of murder. His is frequently distracted by Michelle, a beautiful saloon girl, and Julie, the vengeance-seeking sister of the dead man.
#15 - The Strangler
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/25/1991
Serial killer Jeffrey Speidel strangles his victims. When Matlock gets inovlved in the case, Speidel makes a point of turning Matlock into his next target...his goal is to ruin Matlock publicly before killing him.
#16 - The Big Payoff
Season 6 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/28/1992
Michelle helps an insurance investigator prove that a man killed his wealthy wife to collect on the insurance money.
#17 - The Defense
Season 6 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/6/1991
Teenager Danny Hayes is on trial for the murder of his father. Danny honestly believed that his father was about to kill his mother as he threatened to, but the testimony of his father's best friend threatens Danny's chances at freedom.
#18 - The Capital Offense
Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/1993
Matlock continues his five-year struggle to save a con artist from the electric chair.
#19 - The Suspect (1)
Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/29/1991
Matlock defends a wealthy widow charged with the murder of her husband, while Michelle helps to defend a father accused of murdering the drug dealer who got his child hooked...a dealer who just happened to be a cop.
#20 - Dead Air
Season 9 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/8/1994
When a radio personality is accused of murdering his on-air partner, Matlock comes to his defense and must discover who left the DJ DOA
#21 - The Abduction
Season 6 - Episode 14 - Aired 3/6/1992
Matlock has every intention of preserving lawyer/client confidentiality, but when a group of mobsters kidnap Michelle to extort information from Matlock, he has to weigh his professional ethics against her life.
#22 - Mr. Awesome
Season 6 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/17/1992
Conrad asks Matlock to defend Anne Johnson when she's charged with the murder of her cheating ex-boyfriend Dwayne Meeks. It's not long before Matlock realises that Anne's son Jimmy is the key to the whole mystery.
#23 - The Target
Season 9 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/9/1995
An explosion at sea results in a judge's death, but Matlock fears he was the killer's real target
#24 - The Picture (2)
Season 6 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/24/1992
Matlock successfully defends his cousin on charges of murder, but when it's all said and done, he still can't stand the woman.
#25 - The Diner
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/14/1993
Matlock takes Leanne to meet Martha Jordan, the wife of his very first client back in 1962. Stan Shaw was the cook at the local diner when he was accused of killing the local sheriff after a disagreement in the diner. Charlie Matlock pushed Ben, who had recently quit his job as a district attorney to take the case, but not everyone in town was happy with the Matlocks siding with the black cook accused of killing the white sheriff. Despite Cyrus Jordan's attempts to get the Matlocks to drop his case for their own safety, father and son were determined to prove that Cyrus never killed anyone.