Notable Guest Stars
- Randy Travis – Country music star Randy Travis, like Griffith a North Carolina native, appeared in the season six episode "The Big Payoff" (1992) as Billy Wheeler. In the season seven episode "The Mark" (1993), Travis reprised the role of Wheeler, an aspiring country singer who wins the lottery and shortly thereafter finds himself framed for the murder of his cheating business partner.
- Dick Van Dyke – Before his small but memorable role as D.A. Fletcher in the 1990 movie Dick Tracy, TV legend Dick Van Dyke had a villainous role in Matlock's very first regular episode, "The Judge" (1986). He played a judge who murdered his lover and then presided over the murder trial in which Ben was trying to clear someone else's name for the crime. Van Dyke later hired Griffith to reprise his Matlock role in a 1997 episode of his own CBS series Diagnosis: Murder, which completed a connection between Matlock and Diagnosis: Murder (Jake and the Fatman, which was a spinoff of Matlock but aired on CBS instead of NBC, was the connecting series as Diagnosis: Murder was spun off from that).
- David Ogden Stiers played a murderer in the season 2 episode "Blind Justice" (1987) and a crook in the season 3 episode "The Ambassador" (1988).
- Bryan Cranston appeared in two episodes – "The Gift" (1987) and "The Marriage Counselor" (1991). In "The Marriage Counselor" he plays the titular character who is murdered by not one but three patients with whom he is having affairs.
- Famous silent film actor Eddie Quillan made his last television appearance on Matlock in the season 1 episode "The Author" (1987).
- Author Patricia Cornwell appeared in the season 5 episode "The Formula" (1991).
- Jeri Ryan guest-starred in the season 8 episode "The Fatal Seduction: Part 2" (1993)
- Jonathan Frakes played a prosecutor in "The Angel" (1986).
- Nana Visitor appeared as three different characters in three episodes: "The Best Friend (1987)", "The Other Woman" (1989) and "The Divorce (1993)".
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