• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, November 3, 2023

They only made a pilot, ’cause they haven’t been able to make any other episodes thanks to this year’s Hollywood strikes, but doggone it -- Kathy Bates in the folksy title role of CBS’s new “Matlock” is gosh-darn terrific.

Being a TV columnist has its privileges, and the most recent one was the privilege of watching the “Matlock” pilot yesterday, thanks to one of the CBS publicity teams who were only too happy to provide a look-see at the TV Blog’s request.

Kathy Bates as Matlock? To apply a great old cliché here, it’s a match made in TV heaven.

She’s not Ben Matlock, of course, because he was a he and she is a she. In the new show, she’s walking on the wild side of New York City and not Atlanta, where Ben Matlock practiced his down-home courtroom wizardry from 1986 to 1992 on NBC, and on ABC from 1992 to 1995.

Andy Griffith was on the cusp of turning 60 when “Matlock” premiered on March 3, 1986. Kathy Bates is 75. 

She has worked primarily in movies during her long career, with some television. She won an Oscar for “Misery” in 1990.

With the new “Matlock,” she is headlining a TV series for the very first time. Not surprisingly, based on her long history and the audience recognition that comes with it, getting her for a network TV series seems like a coup for CBS.

In the show, she does share some characteristics with the original Matlock. She maintains the same folksy demeanor that has people underestimating her, right up until she surprises them with her instincts and skills.

When she first encounters a roomful of lawyers in a conference room at the New York law firm where she tries to land a job, she introduces herself as Madeline “Maddy” Matlock.

She then makes reference to the old show in a clever bit of writing that links the new Matlock with the old one.

“I’m Maddie, informally. Formally, Madeline Matlock. Yes, Matlock -- like the old TV show, which is all I heard between 1986 and 1992!” she tells the lawyers.

But the joke is on her. Later, it comes to light that these lawyers, all much younger than she, have never heard of “Matlock.” 

Later, the old “Matlock” is referenced again when one of the younger lawyers finds the old “Matlock” theme song on his smartphone and plays it for her.

Still another young lawyer calls her “Angela Lansbury,” a reference to another show of the “Matlock” era, “Murder, She Wrote.”

Watching Kathy Bates command the screen in the new “Matlock” with no opportunity at the present time to see more of her new show is an unfortunate byproduct of this season of strikes.

Wait ’til next year? We can only hope.