[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Matlock.]

The Big Picture

‘Matlock,’ a modern reboot on CBS, features Kathy Bates as Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a retired lawyer seeking justice.
Showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman developed an unusual take on the classic series with personal inspiration.
The series explores different generations in the workplace, and will reveal answers to the mystery Matlock is trying to solve, by the end of the season.

Inspired by the classic TV series of the same name and developed by Jennie Snyder Urman (Jane the Virgin), the CBS series Matlock follows Madeline “Matty” Matlock (Academy Award winner Kathy Bates), a 75-year-old lawyer who’s been out of the law game so long that people can’t seem to help but underestimate her. Her unassuming demeanor, willingness to prove herself, and ability to win over her co-workers at the prestigious law firm she was able to convince to take her on, all help to distract from the real motive behind returning to the workforce. Enlisting the help of her grandson Alfie (Aaron D. Harris) would raise eyebrows, but is easier to understand once you learn just how personal Matty’s mission is and how important it is for her to obtain justice.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, showrunner Urman talked about how this more unusual take on a classic TV series evolved, that it was partly inspired by her own life experience, Easter eggs, the opportunity to explore different generations, when the dream of casting Bates became a reality, hoping she decides against retiring from acting, the fun of putting dirty things in Matty’s mouth, the love story between Matty and Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) that’s at the center of everything, and that you will get answers to the mystery that Matty is looking to solve.

Related ‘Matlock’ Review: Kathy Bates Commands the Screen in CBS’s Surprisingly Solid Legal Drama The reboot not only makes the case for its existence but stands on its own two feet.

Collider: I read that you had been in search of a pre-existing series to produce. What were you looking for with that? Did you have anything specific in mind, or were you just open to everything?

JENNIE SNYDER URMAN: I was just looking. The landscape is so difficult and in our company we always wanna do a bunch of new things. With reboots, if the property exists and has great bones and you can do something different that hasn’t been done. That’s my philosophy about it. We were just looking at the landscape, and it was very difficult and hard to sell things. I’ve always loved legal shows, so we were thinking about Matlock. I just wasn’t thinking that I was gonna write it. I was thinking that it would be a cool project to produce and find the right writer for, but then I surprisingly became the writer for it. You just never know. Eric Olsen and his company had the rights to it and they already had producers. They said, “Of course, we’re interested, if you wanna write it.” And I said, “Oh, I don’t know that that’s what my next project will be.” And then, I took a walk and I thought about this character, and it just struck and I had to write it.

Once Showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman Knew Her Matlock Would Be a Woman, Everything Else Clicked Into Place
Image via CBS

This is certainly a very interesting approach to a known property title. As you were thinking about whether you wanted to do this, what was the first thing that you thought of? How did this version come about?

URMAN: It’s hard to talk through how the creative process hits your brain, but when I was walking, the first thing I was thinking about was this older man who was Matlock and what that meant. I always write female-driven projects, so that was an obvious thing that was gonna happen if I was gonna do it. And then, I started to think about what it means to be an older woman, as opposed to an older man, and how, from presidential elections on down, we see older men in positions of authority and we are told that they are older and wiser. I’m certainly feeling that, as I get older and move into that next stage of my life. I’m gonna be 50, and I feel so much more settled and smarter, and I feel like I have more things that are worthy than I did when I was younger. Is that gonna start to become less valuable because, as I get older, I’m less valuable in society? Those things started to shoot around in my mind a lot, and I started to think about this woman who left her career early. I was thinking about myself too and when I retire. If you define yourself so much by your career, what happens, as a woman, when you don’t have it anymore? That was the jumping off point. How do you feel relevant? Is it okay to feel like that? Why does society not value older women? They have so much wisdom to give us. All the things that made me excited about the project were just that character and what would bring her back. From there, I kept following the train of thought of, what would be the circumstances that I could create that would make this as full of different moments of drama – family drama, legal drama, aging drama – as possible? How could I create a show that could hold and hug all those things together?

As you were developing that and going down that road, did you think about the fact that this character is Matlock but not really Matlock, so it’s a secret identity with a secret lair at play going on, and that she’s simultaneously a superhero and a super villain?

URMAN: Yeah, exactly. I hadn’t thought of her as a superhero. Eric Christian Olsen said to me, “She’s kinda like Batman.” And I was like, “Oh, yeah, that’s cool.” I wanted to make it really clear what the relationship of the original show was to the show, right away. I wanted her to use the title in the same way that I am using the title, which is lulling the audience into something familiar and giving them all the contours of that show that really made it magical and fun and funny and quirky and all that, but then hide something else underneath it. I built that take of the title into the character, as well.

Related ‘Matlock’ Director Explains How CBS’ Smash Hit Subverts the Age Trope Kathy Bates is having a great time as Matty Matlock.

Did you know that you wanted to put the theme song in there somewhere?

URMAN: Yeah, I knew I would wanna hear it because it’s so iconic, but I also knew that we had to have our own theme. So, I started to talk to the composer, Zach Robinson, who’s wonderful, about our theme, right when the show got picked up. What I knew was that I wanted to hear the old theme at the end [of the pilot], and then I wanted the old theme merge with our new theme for that final reveal, so that you’re taking the old, mixing it with the new, and it becomes something else. That was the musical concept we were working off of.

Because of the way the show is set up, you don’t have to make specific references, but is that something you still want to do sometimes?

URMAN: We’ll do little ones. Whenever they’re eating hot dogs, it’s deliberate. If she meets an older person, they’re gonna say, “Matlock!,” and then she’s gonna talk about it. She’ll use it as a way to ease into conversation sometimes. Just that word gives us a lot of different layers of meaning because it’s a generational word. Billy and Sarah are like, “What?!” And everybody else is like, “Matlock!” You get the generational world, which our show is so much about, off of that title in interesting ways. We bring it up when it’s useful and we put Easter eggs in there occasionally, but we’re very conscious of her being on her own mission and this is its own show.

The True Heart of ‘Matlock’ Is the Love Story Between Matty and Olympia
Image via CBS

Obviously, I’m watching this show because Kathy Bates is Kathy Bates. But at the same time, all of these characters are so interesting and have such interesting lives that I could watch any of them, and I love Billy and Sarah. When you look at the levels of employment in the office, they’re the underdogs, which makes them endearing, even when they’re sometimes annoying in their own ambitions. Did you realize, from the beginning, that they were going to be stealing the show any chance they got?

URMAN: I love the different generations in this show, so I always knew I wanted to have the youngest generation, the middle generation, and the older generation, and see how they all rubbed off on each other and worked together and challenged each other. The heart of the show, for me, is the love story between Olympia and Matty, so I knew that was gonna be the central piece. But then, I knew who Billy and Sarah were and what their relationship was gonna be. They really arc over the season, so I was looking forward to that. What I wanted to be mindful of with the writers is just that everybody gets their own story. They’re all the stars of their version of Matlock, and they all have arcs and they all have a beginning, middle and end in every episode, and they have movement and growth. That’s how I think you can build up a robust ensemble that are not just there to create obstacles for the main character. That was the philosophy. I think that David [Del Rio] and Leah [Lewis] have this very special comedic energy together that is just like working with your brother in the law firm. It’s a brother-sister dynamic that they have in real life, and it shows on screen.

I really love the play on the generations of the characters within the show. I really particularly enjoyed the case in the third episode because there was something really beautiful about watching this older woman that feels invisible, the Black woman who has had to work harder than her colleagues, and this attractive woman whose own looks are used against her. What’s it like to have a show where you can have all those on screen at once?

URMAN: I love that episode and what Nicki Renna, our writer, did with it. I’m glad you brought that up because that’s a very special episode to me. What we tried to do in that episode is make the audience understand that Matty is going to be learning a great deal. She does in the pilot, but she continually does. She came of age in a different time, and to see her learn and change and grow, I just found it really moving to think that at 75 or 76, the world can suddenly shift a little bit this way and you look at it in a different way. I felt that in Kathy’s performance in her speech to the jury. It was so moving to me, her re-evaluating those little micro moments that affected her life and the choices that she made. That’s a really special episode to me. Women are not a monolith. Everybody has different wants and different needs and comes with their own backstory and history and difficulties. Just seeing that and opening up spaces of empathy for all the characters, and that they can be wrong and they can be right, and they can find each other even though they’re different, and they can create these connections, is a really optimistic thing. It’s complicated because you’re rooting for Matty and Olympia to have this friendship, but Matty’s lying to her the whole time, which is a big tension.

Related Kathy Bates’ Matlock’ Is Already Better Than the Original in One Major Way Viewers can’t help but love Matty Matlock.

Did you know that you would be able to get Kathy Bates to do this role?

URMAN: No. I said it in the pitch, “Imagine Kathy Bates.” You just take some swings at the beginning, but I did not expect that she would really love the script. When I met with her about it, she really gave me a gift because I was terrified and like, “What am I gonna say? Am I gonna seem smart enough or interesting enough?” I just had so much respect and so much awe. But right away, she told me, “I love this script. I wouldn’t change it. Let’s talk about the character.” So, I went into the meeting like, “Oh, my gosh, what am I gonna say?” I was just nerves, but she put them at ease, and then we could talk about the material. That was just a huge gift.

‘Matlock’ Showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman Hopes Kathy Bates Never Retires From Acting
Image via CBS

How do you feel about her saying this is the final role of her career and that she’s going to retire from acting after this?

URMAN: I feel emotional, but I just love Kathy so much and the work that she does is so detailed and so meaningful. I just feel really honored that she’s working on a show that I’ve written. It feels hard to believe. That it means a lot to her and that she finds all these levels in it is amazing. I hope she never retires from acting because it’s a life force that she has. It’s also so great to watch. The generosity with which she moves with the other actors is unbelievable. It’s a hard job being number one on the call sheet and carrying the hours and carrying the weight of it, and she does it so beautifully. It’s just such a gift to get to work with her.

One of the really fun things about her is that she is this woman of a certain age, but she also has an edge to her that she can get away with, which really helps with the deception and deceit of it all. Are you able to push things with the character even more than maybe you had realized, just watching what she does?

URMAN: Yes, and also putting things in the script and seeing her love them. I’m like, “Ooh, I can do more of that.” You’re in a constant loop with the actors where you’re learning what they love and what they do great and what you want more of. That’s the fun of doing TV. You keep evolving together. When I put really dirty things in her mouth, it’s so fun because it always works. It always makes whoever she’s with take their eye off the ball because hearing an older woman talk about sex and sexuality is something that people aren’t used to, which is always when Matty can accomplish what she’s accomplishing. It’s a shame that culture behaves like that, but we use it to our advantage in Matlock.

Related Kathy Bates’ Reboot Legal Series Just Got Renewed for Season 2 The series also stars Jason Ritter.

You let the audience in on her true motives by the end of the pilot. We know that she has a mission that she’s not letting anyone else in on, except her husband and grandson. How hard will that continue to make it for viewers to fully trust her?

URMAN: I hope that it sucks you in and you feel yourself being like, “Go, go, go! Wait, why am I rooting for her? Oh, my God!” I hope that you have that experience. With the pilot, it had to be a fully sunshiney fish-out-of-water comedy, so that you didn’t smell the ending coming. But once we got to the second episode, we could bring everybody on the inside with us, so that they get to really understand Matty’s motivations and the really deep root of it and understand what she thinks she’s making up for in her life. Being able to be on the inside of it, even if you don’t agree with the things that she’s doing, you can at least understand them and understand how this thing gets harder, all the time, because the relationships become more deep and more complicated and more real. And then, it becomes more difficult to deceive people. She’s not gonna always be hitting home runs. There are gonna be a lot of setbacks.

We get to learn so much about Matty through her interactions with Olympia, but also with her grandson. Both of those dynamics are so interesting because they show different sides of her. What do you love about Matty and Olympia and how their relationship develops? And what was it like to also find that relationship between her and her grandson?

URMAN: Because Olympia and Matty is the love story of the show, it’s that will-they-or-won’t they and the push-and-pull. It’s about how they connect and whether it will break apart. Because they are from very different places, walks of life, generations, races, and their entire experience is so different, Olympia started off like, “You don’t get to just walk in here. You had your shot and now you’re taking shots away from other people.” She has to really to prove herself. So, to me, watching that relationship, and watching them learn about each other and respect each other and get deeper with each other is, to me, the deepest part of our show and is a big part of the beating heart and the spine of the show. And then, the other part is the home and the relationship with her grandson. Her grandson is a really, really smart kid, but a little bit lonely. His grandmother is, in a lot of ways, his person and his best friend, and they’re doing this together as a way to bond and keep the absence of the mom alive for both of them. She’s the hole in the center of their relationship. They have both attached to this idea that, if they can do this, they’re doing something for her. And it’s not always the best thing for him. It’s a complicated thing. How she loves him and how she parents him and what she’s making up for and what she’s trying not to repeat is a big central vein in our show. The two of them together is really sweet. I just love watching them.

Matty Matlock Will Have Answers to the Central ‘Matlock’ Mystery This Season

Do you have a very clear plan for how long Matty can keep her deceit going? Do you know what will happen and how it will play out once her secret is out there, or is that something you try to stay a little more fluid with?

URMAN: There are a few central moments, and I knew them at the beginning. I had to pitch the first season as a big story. While there are a lot of details that change as the writers’ room discovers and we morph and we move along, the start and stops are the same. This season, you will figure out exactly what happened. She will solve that mystery. There will be answers. I don’t want to give spoilers, but there are a lot of things that happen.

Related Olympia’s Reaction to ‘Matlock’s Secret Might Not Be What You Expect, Says Star New episodes of ‘Matlock’ air on Thursdays.

Do you still have to pitch a five-season plan for a network TV series?

URMAN: For me, I need to know the first season plan really strong, and I have to know what the second season would go into. Because we’re solving something, what does that leave? So, I needed to figure that out, which I feel that I did. But I haven’t thought of Season 5, or anything like that, because I do wanna see what happens and see it evolve.

Your changes have been saved Matlock Release Date September 22, 2024 Cast Kathy Bates , Jason Ritter , Skye P. Marshall , David Del Rio , Leah Lewis , Aaron Harris , Eme Ikwuakor , Beau Bridges , Sam Anderson , Jordyn Weitz , Henry Allen , Colleen Camp Seasons 1 Writers Jennie Snyder Urman Network CBS

Matlock airs on CBS and is available to stream on Paramount+. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Paramount+