| Jake and the Fatman | |
|---|---|
 Title screen | |
| Genre | Crime drama |
| Created by | Dean Hargrove Joel Steiger Ann Doherty |
| Developed by | Douglas Stefen Borghi |
| Starring | William Conrad Joe Penny Alan Campbell |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 106(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Dean Hargrove Fred Silverman Joel Steiger |
| Production locations | Los Angeles,California Oahu,Hawaii |
| Running time | approx. 45 minutes |
| Production companies | TheFred Silverman Company Strathmore Productions (1987–1988) Dean Hargrove Productions (1988–1992) Viacom Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 26, 1987 (1987-09-26) – May 6, 1992 (1992-05-06) |
| Related | |
| Matlock Diagnosis: Murder | |
Jake and the Fatman is an Americancrime drama television series starringWilliam Conrad as prosecutor J. L. (Jason Lochinvar) "Fatman" McCabe andJoe Penny as investigator Jake Styles.[1][2][3] Created byDean Hargrove andJoel Steiger, the series ran onCBS for five seasons from September 26, 1987, to May 6, 1992.
Diagnosis: Murder, which aired from 1993 to 2001, was amedical-orientedspin-off ofJake and the Fatman that came to be a popular series of its own.[4][5]
J. L. "Fatman" McCabe is a Hawaii-born, tough formerHonolulu Police Department officer turnedLos Angelesdistrict attorney. He is teamed with a handsome, happy-go-lucky special investigator named Jake Styles. They often clash due to their different styles and personalities. "Fatman" travels hardly anywhere without Max, his petbulldog. The show was set in Los Angeles during the first season. After the end ofMagnum, P.I., the show was moved to Hawaii. The second and third seasons and half of the fourth season were filmed inHonolulu. The show then returned to Los Angeles for the remainder of its run.
Guest stars on the series includedAlex Cord,Robert Culp,Denise Dowse,Scott Marlowe,Leigh McCloskey,Ed Nelson,Leo Penn,Stephen Quadros,Robert Reed,Mitch Ryan,Alan Scarfe,Dwight Schultz,Ray Sharkey andDavid Soul.
Conrad guest starred as an aging prosecutor in a two-part episode ofMatlock during its first season onNBC. Executive producersFred Silverman andDean Hargrove decided to use this character as a model for one of the main characters in a new show they were creating for CBS. Penny also guest starred in these episodes, but his character was not on the same side as Conrad's character in the storyline's legal case.
Following the departure of Hargrove, executive producersDavid Moessinger andJeri Taylor were brought on to run the series with Silverman. They also hiredJ. Michael Straczynski as an executive story consultant.[6] Taylor and Moessinger ran the show for two years before finally leaving in a dispute over control over the show.[6]
Straczynski has written that he was hired after pitching a story that let Conrad sit down for almost every scene,[6] noting his own faux slogan for the show "Jake and the Fatman: He can't act, he can't walk, together they fight crime".[6]
Joe Penny lost a large amount of weight after the show moved to Hawaii, which led to many rumors about his health, including the possibility that he hadAIDS. In actuality, he had suffered from a gastrointestinal virus and was having difficulty regaining the weight he lost. When the show moved back to Los Angeles, it was also suspected that it was on Penny's urging. This was also not true, as the move was CBS's decision.[7]
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | Network | |||
| Pilot | 2 | October 28, 1986 (1986-10-28) | November 4, 1986 (1986-11-04) | NBC | |
| 1 | 23 | September 26, 1987 (1987-09-26) | April 6, 1988 (1988-04-06) | CBS | |
| 2 | 11 | March 15, 1989 (1989-03-15) | May 24, 1989 (1989-05-24) | ||
| 3 | 26 | September 20, 1989 (1989-09-20) | May 16, 1990 (1990-05-16) | ||
| 4 | 24 | September 12, 1990 (1990-09-12) | May 8, 1991 (1991-05-08) | ||
| 5 | 22 | September 18, 1991 (1991-09-18) | May 6, 1992 (1992-05-06) | ||
CBS DVD (distributed byParamount) released the first two seasons ofJake and the Fatman on DVD in Region 1 between 2008/2009. As of June 2015, these releases have been discontinued and are out of print.
Visual Entertainment releasedJake and the Fatman - The Complete Collection on June 23, 2017.[8][9]
| DVD name | Ep # | Region 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Season One, Volume One | 11 | July 8, 2008[10] |
| Season One, Volume Two | 12 | December 2, 2008[11] |
| Season Two | 11 | May 5, 2009[12] |
| Season Three | 26 | N/A |
| Season Four | 24 | N/A |
| Season Five | 22 | N/A |
| The Complete Series | 106 | June 23, 2017[9] |
The nineteenth episode of the fourth season ofJake and the Fatman, "It Never Entered My Mind", featuredDick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, a medical doctor who solves crimes. The success of that episode led initially to a series of three TV movies, and then a weekly television seriesDiagnosis: Murder that debuted onCBS on October 29, 1993.