The BEST Episodes of Picket Fences
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Nov 1, 2021
Network: CBS
Before Ally and The Practice, David E. Kelley was behind this superlative series. Picket Fences followed the lives of the residents of the small town of Rome, Wisconsin, where weird things happened. Cows giving birth to human babies, a spate of people turning up dead in freezers, sex change teachers, a revolving door of mayors who never lasted very long - and one who even spontaneously combusted! Struggling to maintain order in this Twin Peaksesque environment is Sheriff Jimmy Brock. Married to the town doctor, Jill, they are attempting to bring up their three kids Kimberly, Matthew and Zachary against the odds.
#1 - Divine Recall
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired Feb 11, 1994
Mayor Rachel scolds Father Barrett for giving a pep talk colored with religious ideals to a public school's hockey team. Meanwhile, a risque video from Rachel's past jeopardizes her career as Kenny admits their affair to Jimmy.
10.00 
#2 - Turpitude
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired Oct 22, 1993
Mayor Pugen is caught between a Brock and a hard place when the Sheriff arrests him for murdering a disarmed carjacker, leaving him to rely on Wambaugh for his defense. Frightened at the level of violence creeping up on the Rome people, Jill buys a gun to protect her family.
9.00 
#3 - Down the Tubes
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired Nov 3, 1995
Pregnant Mayor Bey shields the baby's father as Jill considers tubal ligation. Meanwhile, Littleton is haunted by memories of his brother and makes some big decisions about his future.
9.00 
#4 - Snow Exit
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired Jan 19, 1996
In the middle of a major snow storm, Judge Bone has a heart attack while, snowed-in at the police station, Mayor Bey goes into labor with only Jimmy to deliver her baby. Meanwhile, it's bonding time with lots of alcohol for Jill, Kimberly and Lydia, as Max is reunited with an old adversary - the one and only Barney Bratwurst.
9.00 
#5 - The Z Files
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired Feb 9, 1996
Zach's buddy sends a teacher's photo over the Internet. Max dates a chat-room acquaintance.
9.00 
#6 - Bottled
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired Feb 16, 1996
Jill's emotions take control when the Brocks celebrate Zach's 13th birthday.
9.00 
#7 - The Lullaby League
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired May 6, 1993
Zach plays horn for an ailing blues legend but Jill is frustrated when the woman takes ill and fails to appreciate medicine's ability to keep her alive. Max delivers a criminal's baby and begins procedures to adopt it.
8.89 
#8 - Guns 'R' Us
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired Jan 14, 1994
Embarrassed by a prank, Matthew tries to get even with some boys, but the practical joking gets out of hand, which may result in paralysis for him. Meanwhile, budget cuts hit the sheriff's department and Max fills in as sheriff.
8.80 
#9 - Abominable Snowman
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired Jan 28, 1994
With his mind failing due to Alzheimer's, Howard Buss proposes that doctors harvest his heart for the transplant his son needs. Meanwhile, Wambaugh pleads with the city to house Frank the Potato Man.
8.75 
#10 - Fetal Attraction
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired Apr 1, 1993
Jill asks Dr David Williams, her ex-fiance, to perform a controversial foetal tissue transplant on a man suffering from Parkinson's Disease.
8.67 
#11 - Buried Alive
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired Apr 8, 1994
A visit by Jill's father leads to a lively evening of therapy in the Brock household. Jimmy invites Max to dinner after she arrests Jill's father for disorderly conduct.
8.67 
#12 - Duty Free Rome
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired Oct 28, 1993
Wambaugh appeals Mayor Pugen's conviction and uncovers a technicality that could secure a new trial. Max's therapist admits his attraction to her and the feeling is mutual, raising ethical issues. Father Barrett confronts his church's stand on birth control.
8.63 
#13 - Sacred Hearts
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired Nov 6, 1992
Max searches for a nun suspected of killing an elderly leukemia patient. When the nun is caught, she confesses to committing a series of mercy killings and the furore over prosecuting her divides the town and causes Zachary to fear death.
8.60 
#14 - The Dancing Bandit
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired Nov 12, 1993
Marlee Matlin guests as Laurie Bey, the Dancing Bandit who has become a bit of a folk hero for her heists where she and her very talented gang rob from rich bureaucrats and give back to families who have gotten screwed by the system.
8.60 
#15 - Dairy Queen
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired Nov 26, 1993
Jimmy, Jill, Rachel and Father Barrett debate employing a scantily-clad pin-up model, a battered wife, to help promote the dairy industry in Rome. Kimberly considers getting breast implants.
8.60 
#16 - Frog Man
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired Jan 8, 1993
Investigating a burglary with Max, Kenny is shot and seriously injured by the Frog Man, a burglar who leaves live frogs at the scene of his crimes.
8.57 
#17 - The Bus Stops Here (1)
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired Oct 7, 1994
As temporary co-mayor, Jill copes with racial tensions from a judge's decision to bus tough black students from Green Bay to Rome's schools.
8.57 
#18 - Be My Valentine
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired Feb 12, 1993
Max goes undercover to catch a vicious serial killer named 'Cupid' who murders women he meets through classified ads.
8.50 
#19 - Squatter's Rights
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired Mar 11, 1994
When an obese woman confesses to murdering her husband by sitting on him, Max has some doubts about the motive. A synagogue ostracizes Wambaugh.
8.50 
#20 - Frogman Returns
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired Jan 13, 1995
The embarrassed son of the Frogman sues for emancipation. Jill strikes Matthew for accidentally injuring Zack.
8.50 
#21 - Witness for the Prosecution
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired Dec 15, 1995
Rome is in a flutter when Mayor Bey announces that the Pope himself is coming to visit the town. It's a day of celebration as His Holiness arrives, but the walk down main street ends in chaos when someone in the crowd opens fire, killing a man. The resulting investigation reveals the death was suicide, according to the dead man's gay lover... until the Pope announces he saw the whole thing and that it was, in fact, murder. The court case that follows threatens to end Judge Bone and Wambaugh's tempestuous friendship for good.
8.50 
#22 - Bloodlines
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired Jan 12, 1996
Matthew's classmate shoots himself. A bear is loose in Rome and Kenny assumes the role of Mayor Bey's Lamaze partner.
8.50 
#23 - My Romance
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired Jan 26, 1996
After being struck by a falling power line in a fluke accident, Carter meets his long dead Grandpa Bob while clinically dead for about 3 minutes. This causes him to question his relationship both with God, and his girlfriend Sue. Judge Bone meets up with an old flame from over 50 years ago, both of them now widowed, and a little flames are rekindled. Zack gets a crush on a beautiful young Asian gal that is in their home for a week for some kind of musical competition; she is a cello prodigy. However, she has eyes for Zack's older brother, Matthew, and Zack catches them kissing after dark, and is heartbroken.
8.50 
#24 - Systematic Abuse
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired Sep 30, 1994
Littleton feels Brock's department is hampering the investigation of a girl's murder.
8.44 
#25 - Supreme Courting
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired Feb 4, 1994
Valentine's Day brings love and controversy to assorted age groups: Max helps Carter woo a widow he is smitten with, Zack finds his first love but gets in trouble for kissing her, and Kimberly's boyfriend is too prudent as they struggle with sexual-consent guidelines.
8.40