Shouts of "kill the umpire" turn out to be deadly accurate when a softball-league ump calls his last strike, leaving Matlock to sort through a team full of suspects.
A pyramid-scheming huckster is murdered, and Matlock hopes to sell the jury on the idea that his client was framed by one of three suspects, all with motive and opportunity.
Matlock sorts through the complicated family 'affairs' of a popular romantic advice columnist, while he offers his own advice to his client who's accused of the columnist's murder.
Matlock defends his nephew, a certified genius charged with murder, who helps his own case by matching wits with a computer to identify the person who killed a think-tank director.
A British ambassador is accused of murdering his lover's husband, but rather than hiding behind diplomatic immunity, his New York attorney sends for Matlock to negotiate a solution.
Matlock reluctantly agrees to try to keep Michelle's caustic deejay friend from facing the music when he's accused of canceling a rival jock's show, permanently.
Matlock does the investigating when his friend, a burned-out police captain, constructs an elaborate frame to escape a young cop's accusations of murder.
A distraught man (Mitchell Laurance) takes Matlock's friends hostage and, while they wait for his return, Michelle, Julie and Tyler try to dissuade the gunman with tales of Ben's sly detective work and courtroom heroics.
Reporter O'Neill tracks the mayor's killer to Texas while, back in Chicago, Matlock uncovers the motive - a dirty real-estate deal involving a respected judge.
Matlock analyzes the case of a psychiatrist accused of murdering the abusive husband of an emotionally disturbed patient, whose missing diary may hold the key.
