Matlock is one of many shows from The '80s with geriatric protagonists unlike several of the others (such as The Golden Girls and Murder, She Wrote) it never developed a Periphery Demographic of younger viewers, and indeed is mostly remembered (thanks in large part to the efforts of The Simpsons) as a show beloved by the elderly. Perry Mason (based in Los Angeles in most of the franchise based in Denver for the TV movies) is always intense and menacing by nature Matlock is old-fashioned, folksy and grandfatherly. But there is a big difference between Mason and Matlock. Probably not coincidentally, Matlock's creator, Dean Hargrove, and his production partner, Fred Silverman (the same man who, at various times, worked as an executive for all three major television networks ABC, CBS, and NBC) produced a string of Perry Mason made-for-TV movies beginning three months before Matlock premiered. Structurally, this series is very much like Perry Mason. (In one movie, Matlock actually kept the case going until he found out who did the murder, even though his client was actually cleared and the prosecutor was ready to drop the case.) He defends his clients with help from a private detective friend, Courtroom Antics (done folksily), and finding out who actually did it. (One episode has him reveal that he grew up in a North Carolina town that no longer exists.) He currently practices law in Atlanta, Georgia, which, at the time this series was running, was one of the least Southern places in the Deep South. Matlock the witness code#Benjamin Leighton Matlock is a folksy Southerner with a moral code from before The '60s and a sense of justice.
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