Ah, two of America's actors who had played two of America's favorite family men in the 1960's get to meet up playing two of America's favorite crime solving codgers (sorry guys) in the 1990's. Dick Van Dyke, former star of The Dick Van Dyke Show, starred in the 1990's as the crime solving Doctor Mark Sloan on the show Diagnosis Murder. Andy Griffith, former star of The Andy Griffith Show, starred in the 1990's as crime solving lawyer Ben Matlock on the show Matlock. Two years after the cancellation of the show Matlock, Matlock and Doctor Sloan teamed up.

   Diagnosis Murder started out as a sort of Murder, She Wrote knock off. Every week somebody would die, the wrong guy would get accused of murder and out of a big barrel of guest stars Mark Sloan would pick the real killer. But even when the show premiered Murder, She Wrote had already largely wore out that format and so soon Diagnosis Murder started playing around to keep things interesting. In particular they started doing shows with a gimmick to get viewers to watch. They would, for instance, have a show where all the guest stars were actors who had previously starred in popular cop shows. And sometimes they would actually have crossovers with actors playing the characters they made popular on other shows. They had on characters from Mannix, Mission: Impossible, Promised Land and... duh... Matlock.

   Attorney Ben Matlock was pulled out of retirement for the two parter "Murder Two". In the story, Mark Sloan's colleague Doctor Jesse Travis was falsely accused of murder (gee, what are the odds of that happening) and Mark asked his good friend Ben Matlock (again, what are the odds) to come and defend him. It was a gimmick that worked on just tons of levels. Matlock fans got to see their favorite old fart back in action alongside the Diagnosis Murder folks. And everybody who has grown up with the Andy Griffith and Dick Van Dyke Shows got a chance to see these two legends reunite and meet for the same time as it were.

   Wanna get my attention? Here's what I'd like to see. I'd like to see either of these guys figure out what happened to Andy Taylor's wife, Opie's mom, on The Andy Griffith Show. That show started with mom dead and not only never explained her absence, never even gave her a name! HEY ANDY! WHAT THE HECK WAS YOUR WIFE'S NAME???? In the reunion movie Return To Mayberry, Andy visits Aunt Bee's grave but do we see him go visit his wife's grave? Nooooo. What is up with that? Solve that mystery suckers!

Other Diagnosis Murder Crossover Links
Diagnosis Murder and Jake And The Fatman
Diagnosis Murder and Mannix
Diagnosis Murder and Mission Impossible
Diagnosis Murder and Promised Land

Click here to return to main Crossover List

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