Matlock

The Madam - S5-E3

Factual error: Radio talk show host David Campbell works at "WRQE 480 AM." There is no such frequency. The AM radio dial begins at 530.

The D.J. - S3-E5

Factual error: This episode involves the murder of Bobby Moore, a program host at Atlanta radio station 98.6 WBW. In the United States, all FM stations end with an odd number.

Steven Lee

The Professor - S1-E11

Plot hole: Matlock figures out that The Professor wouldn't have been able to see the security guard from 50 yards without glasses, and that's what tips him off about The Conspiracy: the guard testifying that the man wasn't wearing any. However, when we see the scene happen at the beginning of the episode, the person posing as Prof. Erskine Tate is, in fact, wearing glasses. (00:04:15 - 00:22:15)

Sammo

The Abduction - S6-E15

Continuity mistake: Michelle Thomas, Ben Matlock's assistant, has been abducted and is being kept in the home of mobster Jay Cutler. Ben attempts to scale the wall surrounding the property. A close-up shows him with both arms resting atop the wall. In the very next shot, his arms are extended, his right leg is over the wall and he is raising his left leg.

Steven Lee

The Fisherman - S2-E22

Continuity mistake: Matlock is inside a jail cell, speaking to a man who has been accused of murder. In an outdoor scene, someone throws a raw egg at the window as Matlock looks out. Inside the cell, as Matlock turns away from the window, the splattered egg has vanished.

Steven Lee

The Judge - S1-E2

Continuity mistake: Ben joins Judge Carter Addison in his room in the first part of the episode. Addison is on the phone. Before he finally hangs up, he says, "Okay, I'll see you then." Before it cuts away, you can see Dick Van Dyke putting down the smoking pipe that is firmly between his teeth in the following close-up. (00:10:05)

Sammo

Diary of a Perfect Murder - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: Ben Matlock is in his office, angrily polishing his boots while he listens to the interview of the brash prosecutor on TV. The leg of the boot is under, then above, then under his forearm again in the span of three shots. (00:43:30)

Sammo

The Professor - S1-E11

Plot hole: The forensics for this case have been quite shoddy at best, considering that Tate was drugged and not simply intoxicated (yet no toxicology test was performed) and the dog wasn't run over but repeatedly beaten with a tyre iron (which is a wildly different kind of injury). Nobody brings this sort of objection forward - the dog one would have easily destroyed the prosecution's case right away since The Professor was asleep at the wheel and not in shape to beat assault dogs up.

Sammo

The Professor - S1-E11

Continuity mistake: When Professor Tate congratulates Eric Lane for the improved grades, the two have a playful banter, and Tate says he's "happy to be proven wrong." Christopher McDonald has to wipe off some streamers that got in his hair. In the next close-up, he still has streamers on his shoulder despite the fact he brushed them away entirely. A similar mistake happens later on when he is carrying the unconscious professor out of the room; streamers suddenly are all over him from one shot to the next. (00:02:40)

Sammo

Matlock mistake picture

The Angel - S1-E10

Visible crew/equipment: On the last day of the trial, Matlock, his daughter and Angel all rise at the arrival of Judge Richard Cooksey. The boom mic pops up at the top of the screen (spotted in the DVD version). (00:35:05)

Sammo

The Angel - S1-E10

Continuity mistake: During the deposition of Danny Blaster, Matlock asks him if he trusted his manager. He pauses in a specific pose that is only approximately replicated after the cut, same as Mr. Blaster's hand position. (00:35:30)

Sammo

The Affair - S1-E4

Continuity mistake: When Matlock talks to Sonia after the attempt on Rodriguez's life, Theresa Saldana plays with the wedding ring in different ways as the different angles alternate. (00:33:20)

Sammo

The Affair - S1-E4

Revealing mistake: The attempt on Rodriguez's life is quite phony looking; leaving aside the trope of a person who wants to avoid being murdered by a car by trying to outrun it instead of getting out of the way (the first semi-POV of the car does a terrible job at that, since the car looks much closer to The Victim and slower than it should be, and wide room for Rodriguez to escape sideways), the impact does not happen and the stuntman jumps into a pile of garbage without anything remotely close to connecting. (00:32:00)

Sammo

The Affair - S1-E4

Continuity mistake: At the Latino bar, Matlock begins playing pool to look cool with the local gang crowd - it is just as believable as it sounds. The positions of the billiard balls keep changing between shots. (00:30:00)

Sammo

The Affair - S1-E4

Continuity mistake: Tyler makes his exit from the bar, switching the power off; Kene Holiday pulls the lever down, and you can see him in the darkness go past the man by him and push the door open with a clean way out. In the shot from the exterior, though, he still has to push the man out of the door and goes around him, coming out by the side of the lock instead of the hinges. (00:20:40)

Sammo

More trivia for Matlock

The Temptation - S8-E14

Question: A couple of scenes show Leanne at the beach. At the end, Ben in his usual suit, is walking on the beach, saying, "I thought I might find you here." If Ben has a practice in Atlanta, lives in an Atlanta suburb, isn't the beach a bit of a drive - about 2-3 hours from Atlanta? Of course, it's not impossible. I just don't see Ben or his daughter taking a quick jaunt to the beach.

Answer: Leanne often went to the beach whenever she was upset about something. In this episode, Leanne realised that Kevin, the guy she had been seeing, had broken into her home and taken her diary in hopes of learning everything about her. This upset her because her privacy had been invaded and Kevin thought that the entries in her diary described the kind of man she was looking for. Ben drove down to the beach to comfort Leanne.

Only problem with that is that earlier in the episode LeeAnn went for a jog on the beach. She drives three hours to jog?

She didn't go for a jog. She went there because she was upset.

More questions & answers from Matlock

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