These days legal dramas are a dime a dozen, but part of the inspiration for their popularity comes from one very popular retro series. Matlock was a mystery legal drama starring Andy Griffith that’s still beloved to this day. One of the most memorable elements of the show was the main character and his eccentricities.
From the dramatic courtroom speeches to the mysterious elements throughout, Matlock was a true gem. And the main character, the cantankerous yet brilliant lawyer Ben Matlock, really made the series shine.
‘Matlock’ star Ben Matlock thought his fees were a ‘bargain’
Ben Matlock went to Harvard Law and set up his own law practice in Atlanta after serving a few years as a public defender. Though Matlock accepted pro bono work occasionally, he mostly charged clients $100,000 due up front. Adjusted for inflation, that’s a fee of close to a quarter million dollars. His defense for exorbitant fees was his court record for acquittals.
His staffers defended the fees, saying, “He’s considered a bargain,” according to IMDb. But even though Matlock wasn’t scared to charge his clients a lot of money, in his personal life he was downright stingy.
Andy Griffith as Matlock always ate hot dogs and wore the same suit
Sometimes the richest people in life have the cheapest habits, and that’s true enough with Matlock. On the show, Matlock is always eating hot dogs and constantly recycling the same suit. The explanation for his behavior comes courtesy of Griffith reprising the role in a 1993 episode of Diagnosis Murder.
In the episode, fans learn that Dr. Mark Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) gave Matlock some bad investment advice which he never recovered from. Dr. Sloan convinced Matlock to sink $5,000 (the equivalent of around $34,000 today) into the 8-track tape industry.
When that decision didn’t pay off, Matlock was forced to buy cheap suits and eat dog dogs to survive. Meanwhile, Griffith personally had a penchant for peanut butter — not hot dogs — during filming, Social Gazette reported.
Thanks to his legal fees and future success, Matlock could later afford fancier meals and clothes. But that sense of frugality stuck with him instead.
Even decades later, Matlock is considered a cult classic thanks to clever writing and a few unique elements that made it special. The show was filmed in Los Angeles but based in Atlanta, which made it a bit of a novelty. Plus, the format varied slightly from other contemporary crime dramas.
Besides just his same gray suit, Matlock always drove the same kind of car. His gray Ford Crown Victoria was reminiscent of the Ford Galaxie 500 Andy Taylor drove on The Andy Griffith Show. Still, the role was quite different from his old show, and highlighted darker moral themes on many episodes.
Griffith intentionally tried to distinguish Matlock from Andy Taylor. But one thing he managed brilliantly was creating two exceptional characters who fans won’t soon forget.
He explained it in an episode of Diagnosis Murder. He lost money in a bad investment when he was starting out as a lawyer, and that was all he could afford at that time. That's when eating Hot Dogs became a habit.
Nope. The suit's part of the character. As Andy Griffith explains it, it started out as a seersucker suit, but that didn't photograph well. Now, it's plain gray, and he has a batch of them, all the same.
Matlock also has conspicuously finicky fashion sense; he generally appears in court wearing a trademark light gray suit and, over the series' entire run, owned three generations of the Ford Crown Victoria—always an all-gray model (Griffith's character had always driven Ford products in his 1960s series, The Andy ...
Andy Griffith initially did not like the character due to his vanity and cheapness. Matlock is reported to be based on Georgia defense attorney Bobby Lee Cook. Steve Witting played a young Matlock in two episodes, with Griffith playing his father.
Years later he got to join him in the cast of In the flashback episodes of Matlock's early career, Andy Griffith played Matlock's father. Did you know Ben Matlock's favorite food was hot dogs?
"When a man carries a gun all the time, the respect he thinks he's getting might really be fear," he said during an episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" (1960-68). "So I don't carry a gun, because I don't want the people of Mayberry to fear a gun. I'd rather they respect me."
For decades, lower cost “roper boots,” similar to Wellington boots, have been worn. They're round toed with medium height tops, like those Highway Patrolmen, vo-ag teachers, and TV sheriff Andy Griffith wore.
What was Andy Griffith's net worth and Salary? Andy Griffith was an American actor and singer who had a net worth of $25 million at the time of his death. After adjusting for inflation, that's the same as around $66 million in today's dollars.
And for almost two decades after it ended in 1968, finding another hit show eluded him. So he was only a few months away from turning 60 when “Matlock” premiered on NBC.
The series filmed in Wilmington from 1993 through 1995. Chet Spier, a video producer who worked as propmaster on "Matlock," remembered Griffith as a professional and generous actor who stood up for cast and crew members and joined in Christmas celebrations.
Andy Griffith and Frances Bavier did not get along during the series. According to Griffith and Howard Morris, Bavier was extremely sensitive, and resented her role of Aunt Bee. In 1972 Griffith and Ron Howard paid her a visit at her home in Siler City, NC, but she turned them away.
Andy Griffith and Don Knotts were more than just sheriff and deputy on The Andy Griffith Show, the two stars also developed a strong friendship off-screen.
As a struggling actress, she was mentored in the business by legendary actor/comedian/singer and writer Andy Griffith. After becoming a lifelong fan of Griffith's, since girlhood, her first television exposure with Griffith was a co-starring role opposite him in the Matlock (1986) series.
Especially interesting were the costumes. The suit above was Barney Fife's (as portrayed by actor Don Knotts) best suit, “the old salt and pepper” . The suit has a label from the Cotroneo Costume Shop with Knott's name typed on the label. Andy Griffith almost always wore his sheriff's uniform that included this shirt.
As for brands, Harvey Specter's style is very much in line with that of Ralph Lauren (particularly the American giant's Purple Label line) and early Tom Ford suits – which the character was known to wear in the show.
The original Ben Matlock was loosely based on a legendary real-life defense attorney with the same folksy demeanor and legal skill Griffith portrayed on the small screen: Vanderbilt-educated U.S. Navy veteran and Georgia lawyer Bobby Lee Cook.
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