Matlock CBS Pilot: Green Light or not? SPOILERS 

Murder me, she wrote.

The Six Million Dollar Man, starring Whoopie Goldberg.

If it wasn't called Matlock, I'd be all in. The title bothers me, being a big fan of the actual Matlock series.

Nothing says 'TV is dying' more than CBS trying to reboot Matlock for 'modern audiences.'

I can't wait for the reboot Andy Griffith Show, starring Queen Latifah.

Are they kidding? What's next, The Rockford Files starring Lizzo? Maverick starting Daisy Ridley? Perry Mason starring Snoop Dog? HEY, McCLOUD WAS A ONE OF MY FAVORITES!!!

Wow. So diverse. What a GIRLBOSS. Hard pass.

Surprising they didn’t make her black too

You know they'll never do a "Murder He Wrote".

Matlock only existed as a vehicle for Andy Griffith. There is literally no reason to ever bring it back. It's as bad an idea as bringing back Fresh Prince of Belair.

"Remember that successful entertainment property that had a male lead? Well what if we just swap out the male lead for a female and still call it the same entertainment property?" OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN

They couldn’t have made this a sequel to the original series and Kathy Bates is just the current custodian to the Matlock Law Firm? I can’t wait until they reboot the Golden Girls with a bunch trans women and they navigate their later years when nature and body modifications rear their ugly heads. Tagline: “The laughs and adult diapers run wild on Golden Girls, er um Guys?”

Wow is this everything I hate about modern TV. A reboot that just uses the name to get in audiences and has nothing to do with the original? check. A classic male lead replaced by a woman? Check. White guy villains? Check. All cases pertaining to modern politics (defund corrupt police who are out to get diverse people, and corrupt rich white people and their opioids)? Check. Mystery box plot? check. And weirdest of all Kathy Bates...she doesn't look like herself. You execs might greenlight, but if I want Matlock, I'll go watch the original.

That's like rebooting Monk with some random Asian lady

No. The 50+ demographic isn't going to buy into the show. The biggest mistake is naming the show Matlock and gender swapping the character. Audiences are tired of lame reboots.

You got about 4 sentences in before I started to cringe. Way too many characters. Soap opera relationship setups. Obvious political messaging right off the bat. DEI casting. Will the women and POC triumph over the "evil racist system" and the men that make it up or get in their way? The twist was good and almost got me but...Pass.

Columbo starring Kathleen Turner, Rockford Files with Patricia Heaton as Jaime Rockford (shame Doris Roberts has passed, we could have had her as Rocky), Courtney Cox as the new Kolchak the Night Stalker... have I got what it takes to be a tv studio exec?

Omg gender swap mattock

Good job on creating a synopsis of this but I'll go for the classic 80's version instead.

Why not just make a new "sleuth" show starring Kathy Bates? Why does she have to be Matlock? Ridiculous.

They didn't need to swap Matlock's gender. They could have just did another Murder She Wrote series (just as popular).

This made me go yuck. I even like Kathy Bates, it's just I consider Matlock sacrosanct. I have fond tv memories of TBS network and Matlock. Andy was America's dad. You don't mess with that memory.

Doesn't this portray MATLOCK as a likely absent mother, who's daughter became a drug addict and I assume died of an overdose? If you raise a happy well adjusted daughter then she should have had to worry about the kid being 'murdered' by a corrupt? pharmaceutical company? Is the twist going to be the Matlock turns out to be a cold bitch, instead of the folksy lawyer form the original show?

Just from your description, I hate it!

Grandpa Simpson is going to write an angry letter.

I am guessing it was the old white guy...

I like Kathy Bates but why didn't they just cast her in her own show instead of riding on the coattails of an IP that is decades old, no one remembers, and unnecessarily gender swaps? Wat.

I'm not keen on dredging up golden moldies, much less a swap meet, but I'm sure Bates will do a fine job. They could've changed the name to something like Lickmat and let Bates earn her own instead of kicking Andy's corpse for viewers.

It's CBS so a hard no.

I remember a time when CBS had original shows with original ideas like Person of Interest

I watch your videos even when the subject matter is of no importance to me. Network TV is as you described it and I long ago became 100% apathic towards it. The last good network program I enjoyed was Elementary - and that was the only show I watched. And I remember McCloud. Dennis Weaver and company did all right. Thank you for your take on this new show. The premise sounds ridiculous - but hey, it's network TV. 😲

To make this work on a trivial level, it needs to turn out that she is Matlock's (Andy Griffith) daughter. I looked up their ages and it does work. She can then continue the series working under her maiden name. This would allow for a few callbacks to the original series as time goes by, and the plot ideas start to dry up.

Next 'new' series from the network genuises: Lady Barnaby Jones, Lady Cannon and the The Simon & Simon Sisters. 😄

Can't wait for the Rocky remake starting Janet Jackson taking down the boxing patriarchy

Oh no... I'm embarrassed to admit, but two of my 'regular' shows when I was in High School were MATLOCK & GOLDEN GIRLS... As a young teenage male. lol

What kind of vetting did that law firm have... didn't even check her name for licensed attorney in NY? Any case she worked on would be reversed, and she is a criminal for inpersenatating a lawyer in court, plus possible stolen identity.

Gender swap for Bates is good, but seems like the show will be about social justice and racism, a weekly which white guy did something bad show. Not for me.

Matlock was 40 years ago. How can this audience still be alive? Why is it called Matlock? Will there ever be television again?

This show makes No sense. A law firm would have veted a new associate, gotten her address, past history, Bar association number, past legal history, etc...

Looking forward to The Queens of Hazard.

Maybe go with a Murder , She wrote reboot

Matlock but with a gender swapped protagonist? Oh F@$k off, just create a new show and call it something new. Why does Hollywood keep doing this kind of shit it never works.

It's obvious how much work you put in!

Frankly, the gender-swap is enough for me to hate it. But the title will get people to watch an episode or two, and then they'll realize it isn’t Matlock at all and drift away. It actually sounds more like Burke's Law.

She could have claimed to be related to Jackie Chiles, Cosmo Kramer's attorney. Let the fun ensue.

Modern Hollywood often fails to grasp that some TV shows were vehicles designed to utilize the talents of a specific star to the best light. Any reboot is bound to come out a distant second best because the built-in audience that you are trying to attract is already lost to you because they know they are getting an adulterated fix. Since it's just one of a number of new shows, the more current audience is no more likely to be drawn in than they are to other new shows and you have no advantage. For example, Andy Griffith IS Matlock. James Garner is Jim Rockford ... and Brett Maverick. Edward Woodward IS the Equalizer. Harry Anderson IS Judge Harold Stone. Tom Selleck IS Thomas Magnum. Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell ARE Sam Beckett and Albert Calavici. Tim Allen IS Tim Taylor. And so on.

Leslie Jones staring as Colombo will be interesting m, but seriously I don't feel fussed about this swap.

I wish I could sit at the table of these pitch/development meetings so I could immediately say "that idea's gonna tank, give that wasted money to me!" Eventually I'd be rich enough to buy my own studio and make some GOOD television again!

Can't wait for Bonanza with the Wayons brothers. If I want to watch Matlock, I will watch it on MeTV.

When I was a kid in the 70's I loved going through the TV Guide to see what horror and sci fi shows/movies were coming up. MASSIVE nostalgia factor indeed!

I was thinking of just this over the weekend, glad to see you do did this. I watched the first 10 minutes and got out after the initial "Matlock, like the TV show" quip". I read about the twist and got even angrier. Even if this show is good and would be in my wheelhouse, I refuse to watch it. I do not want to reward the producers and network abusing another beloved IP. I could have accepted Bates as Ben's daughter or a relative. But this is the ultimate example of skinning an IP and using its carcass to get a few extra views because of nostalgia. I've probably watched every episode of Matlock at least 4 times over and I want this show to die a slow, painful death. I wish that would mean the producers would learn a lesson but they won't. They will just move on to the next old IP they can exploit for their own story they can't sell on their own.

Don't forget there were two Matlock series. The first series, seasons 1-2, was about a brilliant, cagey southern lawyer who is consistently underestimated by his opponents due to his folksy charm. Then the second Matlock series , seasons 3-9, introduces Don Knox as a bumbling sidekick and a stingy, past-his-prime Matlock who stumbles his way through cases

I reject on the pure principle of it's an unnecessary reboot of a dead ip.

Mr. Chato, I have a question for the Former Network Executive: Do the network higher ups have so little confidence in this show's formula and cast that they didn't think this show could stand on its own? Why did they have to tack it on to the coattails of Matlock? Do they really think these days that a new show just has no hope of gathering an audience if they don't slap a label with "name recognition" onto it? It wasn't all that long ago that after the long successful CBS run of Muder, She Wrote, that ABC said, "we need to do something like that, too" and they created their own show about a murder solving mystery writer. But, instead of calling it "Murder, He Wrote" - they made their own NEW thing and called it "Castle". By tacking the name "Matlock" onto this show it will FOREVER live in Matlock's shadow. It will forever be compared to it's predecessor. Kathy Bates performance will always be compared to Andy Griffith's. And, because of the rose colored nostalgia glasses fans of the original have when remembering watching the original Matlock, it will almost NEVER LIVE UP to that nostalgia. To allude to another Kathy Bates roll, this new Matlock will be hobbled out of the gate by its apparently RANDOM (in name only) association with the original Matlock - which the network could have avoided by simply calling the show "Kingston" or something. Rather then "helped" (the way the network execs who _insisted_ on hitching this show's cart to the Matlock horse seem to think would happen). The show certainly seems capable of standing on its own and becoming its own thing. It's got a decent cast. It's using the tried and true "old person" with two "young sidekicks" formula that Matlock and Diagnosis Murder used. We'll have to see how its writing goes after a few episodes. My own fear is that most of what the show will end up being (if Hollywood trends keep going the way they're going) is that rather than Kathy's older, wiser, cagier, "down home" character mentoring the two "citified" young lawyers with her "southern charm" and common sense wisdom - it will feature a LOT of the younger, hipper, woke-er characters woke-splaining the woke whys and wherefores to the old fuddy-duddy lady to get her to see how racist and sexist everything is.

How about..."Designing Men,"..."That Guy,"..."I Love Larry,"..."The Golden Guys," ..."The Maury Tyler Moore Show."

Ugh, the "twist" would be mildly interesting, except the name thing is absurd.

Ultimately, I don't care. I was around for Matlock, but too young to care. I'm beyond caring about this show. I wish it well. Crews are working, and that's good. But I won't spare a second for it.

Abe won't be screaming "Matlock!!" any more after seeing this pilot. Watched it, hated it. Shame as they got a great actor in Kathy Bates.

I'm 41 and Matlock was long before my time. Nobody was asking for this least of all the modern audience. My great grandma watched Matlock.

Debut in 1986, bloody hell,I always thought it was from the 1960's and brought back in the 80's,can't get over that .was sure I watched it earlier in life (English time) .

Ah I remember Matlock! It and the reruns of The Next Gen was what got me up for school in the morning when I was in 2nd grade.

Nobody beats 'Miss Marple' in this 'gendre'. She might be asking herself, why do some people try . . . When the old re-runs are so very good ?

It's simply beggars belief that they cannot come up with new original content.

My cousin, Dean Hargrove actually created this show back in the day. I'm going to have to call him about this one. First I've heard of this. However, last time I heard from Dean, he was working on a TV series about Joan of Ark. He said that Hollywood was interested in making it with an all woman cast and crew for the most part. So yeah, Hollywood has gone crazy with all sorts of agenda crap.

I think I'll stick with the original show. It's dated, but that theme tune that's brass heavy and ends on whistle and bass trombone blast.

My poor father (RIP) got stuck watching the original "Matlock" every week. To his credit, he never complained. I guess: "Happy wife, happy life." Why would they reboot it? The original audience were the WW2 generation and some "old soul" Silent Generation people like my mom. Sadly, most of that audience is gone. My mom is now 81, and she was among the original show's "younger" fans. It's like rebooting Lawrence Welk.

You're right the "twist" is pretty much limiting the show. It lures viewers into the mystery but it hurts it in the long run. Unless the show is not intended to last long that is.

I grew up on Matlock back in the 70’s - it was good father-son fodder. Haven’t watched the new version, but I like Cathy Bates, and think this is about the best possible casting for a gender swapping retool like this. I hope it works out.

Saw the pilot and it wasn't bad. Nice twist at the end and Kathy Bates did a great job. However, don't see that this will last beyond the first season. Matlock was carried by Andy Griffiths and there were 3 US networks and 1 Canadian network that provided TV. With 5 million programs streaming at any one time, I don't know about this.

Grandpa Simpson is already yelling at the clouds: "Bring back OUR Maaaaaatloooock!!!!!" 🤣🤣🤣

Their feminizing matlock and your for it????? Im impressed at your openness. I hope they make it work

Former television NEWS producer here… *yes, I know it’s a completely different beast than network programming. However, it’s TV. So let’s go with it… Anyhoo, I agree with you 100%, Chato!

Honestly, i would love you to do this on a lot more shows! Its a unique take, that no one else is doing on YT.

As if there was ever a doubt we live sea of remakes, reboots & sequels - all retcon'd for the 21st century. The difference is, this isn't driven by a studio system repurposing "Pygmalion" into "My Fair Lady" because audiences like musicals in the 1960s, so it's a safe, bet-to-win money maker. No, it's more like running a reboot of "Seabiscuit" because we must have a female horse. (Uh... but we'll tell the investors they should probably place bets to show). :p

Paul's gna build the Maaatlock Expressway

I think it’s a green light, but only because the show (and the trailers) made it very clear that Kathy Bates is NOT playing a gender-swapped version of the same character-that Andy Griffith’s “Matlock” is actually a TV show in-universe. Indeed the twist that (spoiler alert……)…..her name isn’t even Matlock, but simply a name borrowed from the fictional TV show as part of an undercover investigation, is a surprising but odd twist (but odd isn’t necessarily bad). So, I think the fact that Kathy Bates (already a beloved legend) is clearly NOT playing the same character as the beloved Andy Griffith goes a long way to soften the gender swap to potentially skeptical fans. At the same time, I read a quote by the showrunner talking about how (I’m paraphrasing) they needed to find a clever way to do the gender swap, because it obviously had to be a female lead. It did? Obviously? It HAD to be a female lead? Why? At any rate, as a big Matlock fan myself, I went in a little skeptical and thought overall it was well done and I’m going to continue to give it a chance. However, it doesn’t yet feel like “Matlock.” Yes, it does involve a death in the A-story of the specific episode…but it’s a lawsuit involving that death, rather than the traditional Perry Mason/Matlock style whodunnit, where the real killer is revealed on the stand. While that’s not entirely realistic, it’s a more traditional murder mystery, while this feels like a modern lawsuit procedural where someone’s suing for damages rather than a whodunnit. I like murder mysteries. I don’t care so much about lawsuits. But we’ll see how it develops.

The trailer seemed like a Mid court room TV show that blends in with all the others that we used to get all the time. I can see why you green lit it. It's perfect background noise for seniors.

I always stood by the logic that if a book/comic/manga is adapted to tv/movie it always should be as faithful to the source material as humanly possible. But if said source material already has a adaptation, then the newer one should be allowed to take some liberties in order to produce something new. Not so much that the end product is unrecognizable, but some to have a fresh approach.

I hear another series... single female lawyer..oh wait that's a Futurama parody.

Matlock! CBS had a number of shows back in the day that were geared towards seniors. They were pretty much the only network doing that. I think the original was a success because Andy Griffith had a following of silver haired viewers. That's it. I only turn the over the air rabbit ears on for what NFL and baseball games are left.

Catlock could keep Bridges drugged in the basement with a pair of broken ankles calling him a Dirty Birdie…

If you do a Matlock reboot you need one of Ben Matlock's daughters from OG series played by either Linda Purl (playing younger daughter Charlene Matlock) or Brynn Thayer ( playing older daughter Lynn MacIntyre).

Here’s how I learned about Macloud Joel: Chief? Crow: Macloud!

Mr. Canoehead is upset!

The twist at the end is the one thing that’s going to keep me watching… at least for a few episodes. The writing was horrid, but the actors tried really hard to make it work. We’ll see if they can transcend the pilot at all over the next few weeks

From a real life practical stand point, I could see where the series was simply going to be Matlock, and the twist ending was created and tacked on at the last minute at the 're-tool'. Also: Bridges out... let's see Dreyfuss in???

"Gen Z's institutional knowledge does not go further back than Rick and Morty." That one sentence described the majority of the obstacles I've experienced in my career in the last ten years.

A lot of credit to you for giving this show a fair shake. And I will leave it at that ;)

Back in the day, I enjoyed shows like Matlock and Diagnosis Murder and even Barnaby Jones but it's 2024 and I'm watching shows like Dark Matter and The Penguin.

Typo in title, "Green Light or *Not*" Thanks Chato!

"He wasn't cheap but.... his suits were." (You see....it is comments like that one that keeps me coming BACK to this channel.) It IS true that the old, 'Seersucker," suit was re-name colloquially as the, "Matlock Suit," in the late 1980's/early 1990's.

I never even WATCHED Matlock, but they should've made Kathy Bates the daughter of the original Andy Griffith Matlock, and taking the mantle from dead dad and continuing his legacy.

"Maaaaaattttllooooocccckkkk" - Grandpa Simpson.

I remember the original Matlock. I wasn't really a fan back then and I didn't think I would care about a modern reboot. However, after hearing your overview of the pilot, I care even less.

I'm not bothered by the idea of a geriatric male lawyer being swapped for a geriatric female lawyer. That's just about the least impractical swap possible. It might also be noted that older actresses seem to be even worse off now for substantial roles than they were in the "bad old days." Blame it on younger writers with no life knowledge? But I would have greenlit it as a crime-of-the-week show like the real Matlock rather than as yet another serial about yet more morally conflicted characters.

Thanks for this. I've been seeing adds for this since football season started every Saturday and Sunday, but didn't wan't to take the time to watch it myself. Max redid Perry Mason a few years ago. They only race swapped Paul Drake and implied Della was gay.

Bates has an amazing batting average and is from my town. Im just head scratching why she chose this project.

"What can be, unburdened by what has been." US President Kampala Harris

I watched Perry Mason when my parents watched the show but the first role I saw Raymond Burr in was the Americanized version of the first Godzilla film.

Please tell me that this is a joke. Pleeease!