[FanIn80]

OK.. with my next pick... in the Crime category:

Matlock!

Matlock was a long-running American television legal drama. The show ran from September 23, 1986 to May 8, 1992 on NBC, where it replaced the long-running series The A-Team to Friday nights, then on November 5, 1992 until May 7, 1995 on ABC.

The show centered on widower Benjamin L. "Ben" Matlock (Andy Griffith). Matlock is a renowned, folksy, popular yet cantankerous defense attorney, (based on attorney Bobby Lee Cook, from Summerville Georgia,) who is worth every penny of his $100,000 fee. As part of "The Thief (Part1)" Matlock bartered his services for several rare coins in the defense of a coin dealer. His remark was "Look at it this way Michael. You just got $100,000.00 in legal services for just $13.00."[citation needed][neutrality disputed] He has also solved and subsequently won at trial almost every case he has taken, especially murder cases where everyone else was sure his client was guilty, when at the end of the episode, the person who is sitting on the stand, is the actual killer. He studied law at Harvard, based his law practice in Atlanta, Georgia, and lived in a modest farmhouse in a neighboring suburb. He is known to visit the scene of the crime to discover clues otherwise overlooked and come up with viable, alternative theories of the crime in question (usually murder). Matlock also has conspicuously finicky fashion sense; he generally appeared in court wearing a trademark light gray suit and, over the nine seasons, was seen behind the wheel of three generations of the Ford Crown Victoria— always an all-gray model (Andy Griffith always drove Ford products in his 1960's show, The Andy Griffith Show, as with Matlock). Some Mayberry alumni had guest shots on the drama: Don Knotts, Aneta Corsaut, Betty Lynn and Arlene Golonka.

Matlock was noted for his thrift and a fondness for hot dogs. After the series ended, his penchant for hot dogs was explained in the episode Murder Two of the television show Diagnosis: Murder. In it, Matlock blames Dr. Mark Sloan for recommending a disastrous investment in 8-track cartridges. Matlock subsequently invested (and lost) his savings of $5000, while he survived by wearing cheap suits and living on hot dogs.

Matlock's thriftiness, liking for hot dogs, and the demands he placed upon his investigators were often points of comic relief in the series. Andy Griffith's prior career as a comic often showed through in things that Matlock did or said.