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?
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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.
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Thats my philosophy about it.
You just never know.
Eric Olsen and his company had the rights to it and they already had producers.
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They said, Of course, were interested, if you wanna write it.
And I said, Oh, I dont know that thats what my next project will be.
How did this version come about?
Im certainly feeling that, as I get older and move into that next stage of my life.
That was the jumping off point.How do you feel relevant?
Is it okay to feel like that?
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Why does society not value older women?
They have so much wisdom to give us.
How could I create a show that could hold and hug all those things together?
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URMAN: Yeah, exactly.
I hadnt thought of her as a superhero.
Eric Christian Olsen said to me, Shes kinda like Batman.
And I was like, Oh, yeah, thats cool.
I built that take of the title into the character, as well.
Kathy Bates is having a great time as Matty Matlock.
Did you know that you wanted to put the theme song in there somewhere?
That was the musical concept we were working off of.
URMAN: Well do little ones.
Whenever theyre eating hot dogs, its deliberate.
Shell use it as a way to ease into conversation sometimes.
Just that word gives us a lot of different layers of meaning because its a generational word.
Billy and Sarah are like, What?!
And everybody else is like, Matlock!
But then, I knew who Billy and Sarah were and what their relationship was gonna be.
That was the philosophy.
Its 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.
URMAN: I love that episode and what Nicki Renna, our writer, did with it.
Im glad you brought that up because thats a very special episode to me.
She does in the pilot, but she continually does.
I felt that in Kathys performance in her speech to the jury.
Thats 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.
Viewers can’t help but love Matty Matlock.
Did you know that you would be able to get Kathy Bates to do this role?
I said it in the pitch, Imagine Kathy Bates.
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 wouldnt change it.
Lets talk about the character.
That was just a huge gift.
I just feel really honored that shes working on a show that Ive written.
It feels hard to believe.
The generosity with which she moves with the other actors is unbelievable.
Its just such a gift to get to work with her.
URMAN: Yes, and also putting things in the script and seeing her love them.
Im like, Ooh, I can do more of that.
Thats the fun of doing TV.
Its a shame that culture behaves like that, but we use it to our advantage inMatlock.
The series also stars Jason Ritter.
You let the audience in on her true motives by the end of the pilot.
How hard will that continue to make it for viewers to fully trust her?
Wait, why am I rooting for her?
Oh, my God!
I hope that you have that experience.
And then, it becomes more difficult to deceive people.
Shes 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?
Its about how they connect and whether it will break apart.
You had your shot and now youre taking shots away from other people.
She has to really to prove herself.
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.
Shes the hole in the center of their relationship.
And its not always the best thing for him.
Its a complicated thing.
The two of them together is really sweet.
I just love watching them.
This season, you will figure out exactly what happened.
She will solve that mystery.
There will be answers.
I dont want to give spoilers, but there are a lot of things that happen.
New episodes of ‘Matlock’ air on Thursdays.
Do you still have to pitch a five-season plan for a web link TV series?
Because were solving something, what does that leave?
So, I needed to figure that out, which I feel that I did.
Check out the trailer:
Watch on Paramount+
