The BEST episodes of Picket Fences season 1
Every episode of Picket Fences season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Picket Fences season 1!
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 - The Lullaby League
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/6/1993
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.
#2 - Sugar and Spice
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/29/1993
Attraction to a girlfriend confuses Kimberly. Max and Kenny vie for undersheriff but Max loses out on the promotion.
#3 - Fetal Attraction
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/1/1993
Jill asks Dr David Williams, her ex-fiance, to perform a controversial foetal tissue transplant on a man suffering from Parkinson's Disease.
#4 - Frog Man
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/8/1993
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.
#5 - Be My Valentine
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/12/1993
Max goes undercover to catch a vicious serial killer named 'Cupid' who murders women he meets through classified ads.
#6 - Bad Moons Rising
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/15/1993
When Alice Freeman is charged with murdering her estranged husband by running him down with a steamroller, Wambaugh defends her by claiming insanity as the result of the menopause. The onset of puberty unsettles Matthew.
#7 - Rights of Passage
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/15/1993
A group of heavily armed Chippewa Indians declares war on Rome and takes over the courthouse, as a dispute over enlarging the golf course gets violent. Ginny accuses Jill of discrimination when she agrees to give an abnormally young boy a controversial growth treatment. Matthew stands up for Zach against the school bully.
#8 - Nuclear Meltdowns
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/22/1993
When a school friend gets pregnant, Kimberly tells her parents she thinks it resulted from incest. Kenny's girlfriend meets her long-lost twin and Cynthia Parks' pet duck is sacrificed.
#9 - The Body Politic
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/5/1993
An HIV-positive dentist sues the city of Rome after being fired. A man and his mother-in-law battle over whether to keep his brain-dead pregnant wife alive.
#10 - Mr. Dreeb Comes to Town
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/2/1992
Michael J Anderson guests as a circus performer who "steals" an elephant from the circus to rescue him from ongoing abuse by the trainers. Also, a beloved teacher from the high school loses his job when a brain tumor causes him to have a violent outburst.
#11 - The Autumn of Rome
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/16/1992
Things get crazy in Rome when the mayoral race between Mayor Pugen and Douglas Wambaugh takes an ugly turn. Jimmy temporarily joins the race in order to seize an opportunity to publicly chastise them both for their behavior and antics.
#12 - Sacred Hearts
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/6/1992
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.
#13 - The Contenders
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/30/1992
Jimmy considered it before but now Jill decides she will run for mayor after Bill Pugen ignores women's rights once too often. At a police speed checkpoint, Max and Kenny stop a man with false papers and Kenny, recognising him as former Middle-Weight Champion of the world Jeff Freed, wants to waive the charges against him. He then arranges a match between himself and Freed, with half of the proceeds going to the boxer and the other half going to a local charity.
#14 - The Snake Lady
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/4/1992
Jimmy, Max and Kenny investigate the mysterious death of a woman who may or may not have committed suicide. Suspects in her death are her snake-raising sister and her own husband, who gets involved with Max.
#15 - The Green Bay Chopper
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/25/1992
The FBI comes to town to search for a serial killer who chops off the right hand of his victims. Max's diligence in investigating on her own pays off when she is allowed to assist in his apprehension.
#16 - Frank the Potato Man
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/23/1992
The townspeople of Rome are plagued by a mysterious "serial bather" who sneaks into their homes while they are out and takes a bath. The pressure is on for the Sheriff's department to apprehend the disturbed felon as suspicion falls on Frank the Potato Man, a homeless man who lives in the woods outside of town. Meanwhile, a farmer claims a neighbor's still intoxicates his cows.
#17 - Sightings
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/8/1993
A corpse found in the Brocks' trash is found to be a sheriff who mysteriously disappeared 38 years earlier. Carter believes he may have been killed by radiation emitted by a UFO, bringing alien enthusiasts to town.
#18 - Thanksgiving
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/13/1992
Jill's father arrives for Thanksgiving with a young love in tow. Wambaugh has his wife Myriam arrested after he catches her in bed with Harold Lundstrom. It all adds up to a typically riotous and far from peaceful holiday in the Brock house.
#19 - Pageantry
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/11/1992
Zach's teacher, Louise Talbot, defies a court-ordered ban of the annual Christmas pageant on public property, after which disturbing facts come to light about her.
#20 - Remembering Rosemary
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/26/1992
It's Halloween and Jimmy decides to reopen the ten year old suicide case of Rosemary Bauer when Karina Shaw, her former maid who hasn't spoken since the death, suddenly utters the word "murder". On the strength of this new piece of evidence, the case is reopened and elderly Rome resident Howard Buss confesses to killing Rosemary, bringing proof of his guilt to the authorities. Meanwhile, holiday tricks get out of hand.
#21 - High Tidings
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/18/1992
Brock catches Kimberly in bed with her boyfriend, arrests him and cancels Christmas in the household. At the Sheriff Station, Max and Ginny are held hostage at gunpoint by an elderly man dressed as Santa Claus.
#22 - Picket Fences
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/18/1992
The sudden death of the Tin Man during a community performance of The Wizard of Oz throws the normally sleepy town of Rome, Wisconsin, into chaos and throws Sheriff Jimmy Brock right into the middle of a difficult murder investigation. Meanwhile, when the favourite singing group of Brock's teenage daughter Kimberly arrive in town, they prove not to be what either she or Deputy Kenny had anticipated.