The Best Episodes of Picket Fences

When Alice Freeman is charged with murder in the death of her husband, Wambaugh defends her by claiming insanity as the result of menopause. Brock's son, Matthew, begins to experience puberty.

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A rabbi seeks to block the town from staging a religiously-themed Christmas pageant on public property. The town is shocked to learn that beloved teacher Louise Talbot, scheduled to play the Virgin Mary in the pageant, is a post-operative transsexual.

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Deputy Max goes undercover when a response to her personal ad leads her to believe that she is being targeted by a serial killer known as "Cupid."

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After Father Gary Barrett is shot and killed during a robbery at the church, Mayor Bey proposes holding a spring musical pageant to help pull the community out of its somber mood

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Jill and Zack are among the hostages taken by a group of bank robbers led by a deaf woman (Marlee Matlin) who calls herself "the Dancing Bandit." Jimmy works with the FBI to stop the standoff, but the group proves far craftier than anyone expected.

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The hearing impaired Dancing Bandit is arrested when she visits Zach on his birthday. Federal authorities want her trial to be set in Rome, where the jury reaches a surprising verdict.

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When Jill is found guilty of physician-assisted suicide, Wambaugh insists that Judge Bone put the issue of euthanasia on trial. Meanwhile, Kenny and Carter discover that Zack has been killing swans in a nearby pond.

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Jill's father arrives in Rome with his new 26-year-old girlfriend. Wambaugh finds his wife in bed with another man.

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A 500-pound woman confesses to murdering her husband by sitting on his head. Douglas Wambaugh is expelled from his synagogue and seeks a ruling in a Jewish religious court to be reinstated.

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While Brian Latham continues to proclaim his innocence, Kenny and Max review the evidence of the case and begin to believe he is telling the truth. Jimmy turns 55 and suffers a midlife crisis.

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Jimmy goes outside of his department to get the help he needs to find Ed Lawson, who is wanted for murder. Meanwhile, the town launches its own search to find a new mayor, and Kenny and Max are caught kissing on the job.

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Jill enlists her former fiancé to perform a fetal transplant on a patient with Parkinson's disease over the objections of the town hospital. Jimmy feels threatened when he catches Jill and her former fiancé exchanging a kiss

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Mayor Pugen kills a carjacker after the carjacker drops his weapon and Sheriff Brock must decide whether to press murder charges. When he does, the new district attorney has to choose how to prosecute the case.

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Matthew's attempts to get revenge for a humiliation by some high-school bullies by threatening them with a gun takes an unexpected turn, which lands one of them in the hospital and Matthew in jail for attempted murder. Meanwhile, Mayor Harris' decision to roll back deputy salaries inspires a round of "blue flu" with Kenny and Maxine.

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Howard Buss' Alzheimer's disease worsens and his anguished son Kevin shoots him to death. Kevin is put on trial for murder.

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Wambaugh realizes the dream of a lifetime when he presents oral arguments before the Supreme Court.

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It is Saturday night in Rome, and the townspeople are looking at various ways to spend the evening. Matthew cruises the town with his friends. Jimmy and Jill make an attempt at romance. Judge Bone and Wambaugh play poker, but one of the men in their group drops dead. Note- In 1997 TV Guide ranked this episode number 96 on it's '100 Greatest Episodes of All Time' list.

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A beloved local man is killed during a stage production of The Wizard of Oz. Suspicion initially falls on the town pharmacist when the sheriff learns the dead man was having an affair with the pharmacist's daughter. The dead man's wife confesses but her confession is suppressed in court. She is then murdered and the Sheriff's department discovers that she and the pharmacist conspired to kill her husband and then the pharmacist killed her.

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When her friend becomes pregnant, Kimberly fears that she is the victim of incest. However, the man purporting to be her father is actually her husband and they are involved in a polygamous relationship. Max investigates a religious sect that engages in animal sacrifice. Guest Stars: Liz and Jean Sagal

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A fugitive doctor seeks a court order to allow him to keep his brain-dead wife on life support to allow her to bring her pregnancy to term. The mayor fires the town dentist for refusing to disclose that he is HIV-positive. Guest Stars: Liz and Jean Sagal

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District Attorney Littleton and defense lawyer Douglas Wambaugh prepare for the upcoming murder trial of Brian Latham. Littleton is concerned that his case will be hampered by the absence of hard evidence.

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After a child brings a severed human hand to school for show and tell, the Sheriff's department teams with the FBI to pursue a serial kidnapper, the "Green Bay Chopper", who severs the right hands of his victims.

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A rash of break-ins leads to an investigation of a "serial bather". Suspicion initially centers on "Frank the Potato Man", a vagrant who, it is learned, was tried for aggravated rape 15 years earlier.

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When the Brock family inadvertently finds Kimberly having sex with her 19-year-old boyfriend on Christmas Eve, Jimmy wants to prosecute him for statutory rape. A man claiming to be Santa Claus takes Max and dispatcher Ginny hostage and Jimmy tries to talk him down.

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A group of heavily armed Chippewa Indians declares war on Rome, seizes, and barricades the courthouse. Ginny stages a protest when Jill begins administering growth hormones to a short boy. Matthew takes on the school bully.

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