As we reported early last year, Kathy Bates is re-entering the procedural workforce with Matlock, a reboot of the classic series known for inspiring classic jokes in early seasons of The Simpsons, such as “I’m an old man. I hate everything but Matlock.” But we’re not talking about TV’s original Matlock—and we’re certainly not wasting any more time quoting The Simpsons (Okay, one more: “Mr. Simpson, don’t you worry, I watched Matlock in a bar last night.
The sound wasn’t on, but I think I got the gist of it.”) We’re talking about TV’s new Matlock, in which the Matlock is an “old TV show,” and Bates plays Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a “brilliant septuagenarian” returning to law firm after decades on the sidelines. However, if a new profile in The New York Times is to be trusted like it’s a simple white-haired country lawyer, Matlock will also be her final role.
Following a disastrous, aborted production which Bates refused to name, the actor called her representatives and told them it was time to pack it in. (For context, Bates describes her acting process as “Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain.”)
But being Kathy Bates, the woman who played Jay Leno’s anything-for-her-client agent, Helen Kushnick, in The Late Shift, she has excellent representation, who responded to the retirement threat with a script for a Matlock reboot. Now, she’ll retire after the show, which could take a while. Announcing her retirement two weeks before the show premieres, Bates could be on television for the next decade if Matlock has the staying power of Matlock.
Luckily, Bates has found the role of beacon of fairness and justice in an overwhelmingly broken legal system invigorating. “Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it, and it’s exhausting,” she told The Times of her experience taking on the role that gave Andy Griffith’s career a third act in the ’80s and ’90s.
The role spoke to Bates because Matlock uses people’s agism to slip into a case unnoticed, allowing the actor to channel the frustration of being underestimated because of her age, appearance, or gender. We just don’t want it to end up like her last lawyer show, Harry’s Law, which was canceled after two seasons. Kathy Bates and Matlock deserve better than that.
