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The Best Episodes of Matlock

Every episode of Matlock ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Matlock!

Matlock is an American television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of criminal defense attorney Ben Matlock. The show, produced by The...
Genres:CrimeDrama
Networks:NBCABC

Best Episodes Summary

"The Target" is the best rated episode of "Matlock". It scored 8.3/10 based on 115 votes. Directed by N/A and written by Joel Steiger, it aired on 2/9/1995. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Assault".

  • The Target
    8.3/10115 votes
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    #1 - The Target

    Season 9 Episode 13 - Aired 2/9/1995

    Matlock is the unlikely witness when a boat blows up killing Judge Michael Sterns. Had it not been for Ben's sea-sickness, he would have been on the boat. Convinced that someone was out to get him and not Judge Sterns, Matlock, Cliff and Jerri take a look through some of Ben's old cases to find out who did it, and Matlock takes on the case of the man accused of the crime, a former lawyer who had been disbarred for jury tampering exactly five years earlier.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: Joel Steiger

  • The Assault
    8.3/10120 votes
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    #2 - The Assault

    Season 9 Episode 14 - Aired 2/16/1995

    While Cliff, Jerri and Billy plan to throw Ben a surprise party for his birthday, Ben goes to the city to pick up barbecue. While there, his car breaks down, he's mugged, the phone eats his last quarter ... and by the time he is rescued by activist Stan Johnson and returned to his car, it's half-stripped and they've stolen his barbecue. Matlock is very impressed by the young man, and when he's accused of trying to kill the landlord of the apartment complex he lives in, Matlock steps in to defend him and to stand up to the landlord, who is a very respected man in the legal community.

    Director: Christopher Hibler

    Writer: N/A

  • The Kidnapping (1)
    8.2/1099 votes
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    #3 - The Kidnapping (1)

    Season 8 Episode 13 - Aired 1/13/1994

    Abductors tries to kidnap Leanne but takes Billy instead and hold him for ransom.

    Director: Christopher Hibler

    Writer: N/A

  • The Scandal
    8.2/10163 votes
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    #4 - The Scandal

    Season 9 Episode 3 - Aired 10/20/1994

    When Matlock defends an attorney accused of murdering her boss, he also uncovers a history of sexual harrassment involving the law firm.

    Director: Frank Thackery

    Writer: Brian Alan Lane

  • The Heist (1)
    8.2/10109 votes
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    #5 - The Heist (1)

    Season 9 Episode 15 - Aired 4/27/1995

    Matlock and Jerri head out to the beach with Billy and Cliff as Cliff prepares for an upcoming triathlon. Once there, Matlock is surprised to run into retired F.B.I. agent Ed Wingate, who is investigating a case of his own. While Matlock keeps himself busy occasionally running into Ed, Cliff throws himself into the competition, and Billy throws himself at Anita Montrose, the real estate agent who rented them the beach house they're staying at. When one of the people Ed is investigating is found dead, Matlock agrees to defend his old friend.

    Director: Leo Penn

    Writer: N/A

  • The Dating Game
    8.1/1097 votes
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    #6 - The Dating Game

    Season 9 Episode 7 - Aired 11/17/1994

    When Cliff's friend Fred is accused of murdering Melissa, a woman he met through the dating service Perfect Harmony, he and Matlock take the case, and Jerri goes undercover to investigate. She sets herself up as one of the datees, much to the frustration of a loca police officer. Unfortunately, she has better luck than she hoped, as one of her dates is a killer in disguise.

    Director: Robert Scheerer

    Writer: N/A

  • The Judge
    8.0/10320 votes
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    #7 - The Judge

    Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/23/1986

    Ben Matlock accepts the pro bono case of Kevin Meredith, a young man accused of murdering his lover, whom Ben soon realises had a much more powerful lover.

    Director: Christopher Hibler

    Writer: Robert Hamilton

  • The Foursome
    8.0/10117 votes
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    #8 - The Foursome

    Season 6 Episode 11 - Aired 12/20/1991

    Matlock reluctantly agrees to defend millionaire Ellis Blake when he's accused of murdering his daughter's fiancé, Jeffrey Holden, an enterprising golf caddy who supplemented his living by blackmailing the men he caddied for. At the same time, Matlock is dealing with a brand new deputy district attorney, Lauren Richmond, who just seems too sweet to be real.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Capital Offense
    8.0/10111 votes
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    #9 - The Capital Offense

    Season 8 Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/1993

    Matlock continues his five-year struggle to save a con artist from the electric chair.

    Director: Robert Scheerer

    Writer: N/A

  • Dead Air
    8.0/10109 votes
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    #10 - Dead Air

    Season 9 Episode 9 - Aired 12/8/1994

    A radio personality is accused of killing his partner, but Ben suspects the victim's girlfriend. The only problem is that she seems to have an airtight alibi...Ray's neighbor, Mr. Yates, watched her 'find' the body.

    Director: Christopher Hibler

    Writer: N/A

  • The Sisters
    7.9/10244 votes
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    #11 - The Sisters

    Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/11/1986

    Harold Scully is a boring man. But at least he knows that. When he begs old acquaintance Ben Matlock to defend him on charges of murdering his wealthy wife Esther, Matlock reluctantly agrees. The more investigating he does, the more he realises that there is something seriously wrong with Harold's two nieces, sisters Julia and Emily.

    Director: Alan Cooke

    Writer: N/A

  • The Witness Killings (2)
    7.9/10107 votes
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    #12 - The Witness Killings (2)

    Season 6 Episode 2 - Aired 10/18/1991

    After a second young man dies under mysterious circumstances, Matlock continues to do his best to defend Russ Gifford, and tries to keep his animosity with the town at a minimum while Julie makes friends with the local women, and Conrad investigates the tattoo that ties the whole case together.

    Director: Christopher Hibler

    Writer: N/A

  • The View
    7.9/10105 votes
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    #13 - The View

    Season 8 Episode 5 - Aired 10/28/1993

    Matlock realizes he has become a witness in a murder case involving two theater actors and an unhappy husband.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Accused (1)
    7.9/10109 votes
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    #14 - The Accused (1)

    Season 9 Episode 1 - Aired 10/13/1994

    Matlock defends a journalist who killed an underworld figure in self-defense after meeting with him for an interview.

    Director: Christopher Hibler

    Writer: N/A

  • The Buddies
    7.8/10138 votes
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    #15 - The Buddies

    Season 4 Episode 12 - Aired 12/12/1989

    After an old friend from college dies, Matlock has to investigate three college chums on the charge of murdering a hitchhiker thirty years earlier.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Trial (1)
    7.8/10114 votes
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    #16 - The Trial (1)

    Season 5 Episode 19 - Aired 2/19/1991

    When assistant D.A. Howard Wright is murdered in his workshop, the attorney general approaches Matlock and asks him to take on the assignment of special prosecutor. With Michelle and Conrad's help, Matlock begins to investigate Wright's past, and realises the man was spending money that he could not have earned legitimately. In investigating names that Wright had left behind, Matlock finds himself embroiled in a lawsuit involving Maxwell Toys.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Strangler
    7.8/10131 votes
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    #17 - The Strangler

    Season 6 Episode 3 - Aired 10/25/1991

    Serial killer Jeffrey Speidel strangles his victims. When Matlock gets inovlved in the case, Speidel makes a point of turning Matlock into his next target...his goal is to ruin Matlock publicly before killing him.

    Director: Leo Penn

    Writer: N/A

  • The Dame
    7.8/10120 votes
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    #18 - The Dame

    Season 6 Episode 6 - Aired 11/15/1991

    While dining with Julie, a chance meeting with a woman causes Ben to relate the story of his investigation, many years earlier, of a widow that Ben's father (played by Andy Griffith) believes may have been involved with the death of his friend - her husband.

    Director: Leo Penn

    Writer: N/A

  • The Game Show
    7.8/10114 votes
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    #19 - The Game Show

    Season 6 Episode 10 - Aired 12/13/1991

    When the producer of the popular It's About Time gameshow is murdered, Matlock defends the aging host at the request of a friend of Conrad's, while Michelle goes undercover as a contestant.

    Director: Robert Scheerer

    Writer: N/A

  • The Outcast (1)
    7.8/10149 votes
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    #20 - The Outcast (1)

    Season 6 Episode 14 - Aired 2/7/1992

    Matlock retires from law after bungling up a case and forgetting his client's name. He heads out of town to do some fishing, but after a hitchhiker he gave a lift to dies mysteriously, he sticks around to investigate the case.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: Robert Schlitt

  • The Vacation
    7.8/10194 votes
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    #21 - The Vacation

    Season 7 Episode 1 - Aired 11/5/1992

    Matlock and Leanne head to the beach where Leanne reunites with three good friends from college, and Matlock reunites with someone from his past who just happens to be the brother of the woman whose heart Matlock 'broke' years earlier.

    Director: Christopher Hibler

    Writer: N/A

  • The Class
    7.8/10108 votes
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    #22 - The Class

    Season 7 Episode 6 - Aired 1/21/1993

    Matlock talks to a law class about his career, and the subject of 'the perfect murder' comes up. When student Eddie Price disappears after getting into it with Mark Randall, the university believes that Matlock's speech may have incited one of the students to murder. To clear his name, Matlock and Leanne decide to engage the students into an investigation into Eddie's disappearance, and soon learn that Eddie had more than they thought in common with not only Mark, but also Bobby Simpson as well -- they had all shared the same girlfriend.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Revenge
    7.8/10112 votes
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    #23 - The Revenge

    Season 7 Episode 13 - Aired 3/25/1993

    Matlock witnesses a robbery at a convenience store, but when things start happening that make him look like he's losing it, including messing with his papers, sending him to the wrong parties, and submitting phony pictures of his hind end to the papers, Matlock begins to realise that someone is trying to set him up. He, Cliff and Conrad begin to go through some of his old cases, trying to figure out which recently released killer is out to get him, but everyone they think of seems to have an alibi.

    Director: Burt Brinckerhoff

    Writer: N/A

  • The Haunted (1)
    7.8/10117 votes
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    #24 - The Haunted (1)

    Season 8 Episode 8 - Aired 11/18/1993

    While Cliff investigates a suit of medical malpractice and ends up getting more involved than he should with his client, Matlock investigates the case of the mysterious Rod Greenwood, who happens to bear an eerie resemblance to a dead businessman. Soon Cliff and Matlock realise that their cases are tied together.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Verdict
    7.8/1097 votes
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    #25 - The Verdict

    Season 9 Episode 11 - Aired 1/12/1995

    Katie Clark is a hot new prosecutor in town, fresh from St. Louis, but originally from Atlanta. Her first case involves prosecuting a building contractor who has been accused of murdering one of his employees, who just happens to be Clark's former lover. Despite his reservations about Clark prosecuting a former lover, Matlock agrees to let her continue on the case, impressed by her desire to not allow her personal past with Gibson to affect her judgment.

    Director: Leo Penn

    Writer: N/A