- Title: Matlock – The Judge
- IMDb: link
Matlock Monday takes us back to the legal practice of the folksy defense attorney Benjamin Leighton Matlock (Andy Griffith). Dick Van Dyke guest-stars as Judge Carter Addison, and old associate of Matlock from law school days, who plans the perfect crime in murdering his mistress (Bobbie Eakes) and framing her new lover (Brian Lane Green). Then he becomes the presiding judge of the murder trial and steers the case towards a guilty verdict after failing to get Matlock to give up the case to another lawyer (which is the first moment to raise Matlock’s suspicion and tie circumstantial evidence back to the judge).
The case comes to Matlock through Charlene (Linda Purl) who convinces/bullies her father into taking a case pro bono (and waiving his usual extravagant fee). Tyler (Kene Holiday), who is as unenthused as Matlock over a case with no fee, is put to work on finding blood in the Judge’s car and then looking for an apartment across the way where he may have watched and planned the murder. While the first fails, the second investigation turns up evidence just prior to the Judge’s attempt to destroy it. In an unorthodox move, Matlock gets the Judge to take the stand (his second mistake) which offers the opportunity for Matlock to spring his trap and prove the Judge’s guilt in court.
