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MATLOCK: THE PLAY {SEASON EIGHT PREMIERE} (TV)

Summary

One in this legal drama about Ben Matlock, an expert yet unconventional lawyer and his experiences both in and out of the courtroom.

Matlock is the star of a community theater production of a murder mystery play, and the director, Doug Michaels, despairs at Matlock's continually terrible performance. With only a week left before opening night, Doug tries in vain to get Matlock to become more invested in his role. For his part, Matlock believes that his acting is quite good. Billy, acting as the play's stage manager, overhears a conversation between Doug and Glenda Yarnell, an actress in the play, revealing that she is carrying on an affair with him, but that he wants to break it off. During rehearsal, Doug has a confrontation with Glenda and she slaps him, much to the shock of the rest of the cast. During a break in the rehearsal, Doug tells Matlock that he intends to replace him, much to Matlock's dismay. That night, Glenda is strangled to death with a tie in her dressing room while attempting to replace her contact lenses. Later, Billy finds her dead body and the police investigate the scene.

Leanne and Cliff, who are also appearing in the play, tell Matlock about the incident. Based on the information Leanne gives him, Matlock believes that Glenda struggled with her killer. He finds out that Doug has been arrested and accused of murdering Glenda, and that he wants Matlock to represent him. Billy warns him not to, relating the conversation that Doug had with Glenda before her death and citing it as a possible motive. Nevertheless, Matlock agrees to represent Doug, but demands that he be given his part in the play back. Doug admits that he slept with Glenda a few times; he did so once when he was drink and she threatened to tell his wife unless he continued to sleep with her. The police have determined that Doug's tie was the murder weapon, but he points out that anyone could have stolen it. Leanne and Cliff investigate the bank where Glenda worked, discovering that she was a longtime employee and was promoted several times. They also discover that Jane, another member of the cast, works there as well, and that during the bank's last merger Glenda demoted Jane and gave her a substantial pay cut. Jane doesn't seem to begrudge this decision; she says that the bank's financial problems at the time meant that her only other option was to quit, and she claims that she and Glenda were friends for years.

That night, Leanne enters Glenda's house to collect further evidence, only to find Beth, the play's writer, there searching through Glenda's things. She admits that she broke in to retrieve things that Glenda borrowed from her, but Leanne is immediately suspicious of Beth's claims. Soon Beth admits the truth: Glenda was actually her mother, although she was not aware of this fact. Beth was adopted 25 years ago and only recently learned that Glenda was her biological mother. Afraid to confront her directly, Beth submitted her play to Doug and hoped to use it as a way to stage a meeting between herself and Glenda. Matlock is suspicious of Beth's story, and Leanne recalls that she wasn't with the rest of the cast during the time of Glenda's murder. Doug calls a cast meeting and talks about recent events, announcing that Matlock is rejoining the cast and that his wife Flora will be replacing the deceased Glenda. Meanwhile, Leanne and Cliff question the rest of the cast about Beth's whereabouts at the time of the murder.

At the final rehearsal before opening night, Doug deludes himself into believing that Matlock's performance has improved, when in fact it has not. He announces to the cast that Glenda's death has attracted a great deal of media attention to the play, and Matlock becomes extremely nervous when he hears that a number of theater critics will be in attendance. Carl, another member of the cast, provides Leanne with an alibi for Beth's whereabouts: he lent her his cell phone so that she could call her adoptive parents in New York, a 27-minute call at the time of the murder as recorded by his phone bill. Beth herself corroborates this story, explaining that she was too nervous to remember this detail when Leanne initially questioned her. During the opening performance of the play, Matlock notices that Jane is wearing nail extensions that she didn't previously have. This gives him an idea, and between scenes he conducts an inspection of the crime scene.

In court, Matlock calls Jane to the stand and questions her about the demotion Glenda gave her. He reveals that a week before the demotion, Jane was accused of embezzling funds, believing that the two events are related. He also reveals that Glenda made Jane run errands and chores for her daily, although Jane claims they were "favors" she performed. Matlock implies that the demotion and these chores were a form of blackmail exercised by Glenda, but the judge warns him that he is speculating and is out of line. Next, Matlock's line of questioning turns to her nail extensions, which she claims she got as part of her costume for the play. However, Matlock reveals that the police found fingernail fragments in the pipes of the sink in Glenda's dressing room, and that the lady who did Jane's nails claims that she had broken several of them. Matlock then posits that Jane murdered Glenda in order to quell her constant abuse and blackmail, and Jane's reaction indicates that Matlock is correct. The jury finds Doug not guilty, and Matlock is horrified to learn that the theater critics believed his performance in the play was so bad that it was intentionally campy. Includes commercials.

Details

  • NETWORK: ABC
  • DATE: September 23, 1993 9:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:57:22
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: B:30386
  • GENRE: Drama, legal
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, legal
  • SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1986-1992; ABC, 1992-1995
  • COMMERCIALS:
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    • TV – Promos – "20/20"
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    • TV – Promos – "Cocktail"
    • TV – Promos – "Good Morning America"
    • TV – Promos – "Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman"
    • TV – Promos – "Matlock"
    • TV – Promos – "NYPD Blue"
    • TV – Promos – "The Commish"
    • TV – Promos – "Whose Child Is This? The War for Baby Jessica"

CREDITS

  • Joel Steiger … Executive Producer
  • Andy Griffith … Executive Producer
  • Fred Silverman … Executive Producer
  • Dean Hargrove … Executive Producer, Created by
  • Gerald Sanoff … Co-Executive Producer
  • Jeff Peters … Supervising Producer
  • Anne Collins … Producer
  • William S. Kerr … Co-Producer
  • John M. McLean … Associate Producer
  • Christopher Hibler … Director
  • Phil Mishkin … Writer
  • Bruce Babcock … Music by
  • Dick de Benedictis … Theme Music by
  • Andy Griffith … Cast, Ben Matlock
  • Brynn Thayer … Cast, Leanne McIntyre
  • Daniel Roebuck … Cast, Cliff Lewis
  • Rene Auberjonois … Cast, Doug Michaels
  • Leslie Wing … Cast, Jane Dryden
  • Amy Parrish … Cast, Beth Samuels
  • Deborah Winstead … Cast, Glenda Yarnell
  • Warren Frost … Cast, Billy Lewis
  • Candy Aston … Cast, Flora Michaels
  • Michael Camden Richards … Cast, Carl Sedgewick
  • Al Wiggins … Cast, Judge Clagett
  • Nello Tare … Cast, Jury Foreperson