SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details about the premiere episode of Matlock on CBS. Although Matlock has returned to the screen in name, that’s about where the similarities end with the new reboot.
CBS chief marketing officer Mike Benson recently explained why the Kathy Bates-led reboot of the 1986-’95 legal drama ventures so far away from its source material, following the show’s debut and surprise twist last month. “We certainly would never set out to disparage what Matlock was,” he explained to Vulture. “But this is a wholly different show.
What [showrunner] Jennie Urman envisioned was something that has the name ‘Matlock,’ but the reason for the name of the show has a twist behind it.
So while we knew there were audiences out there who knew what Matlock is, we didn’t really want to actually utilize that. We didn’t want to go out and leverage the strength of the old Matlock, per se.
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