Jake and the Fatman

First Air Date: 1987-09-26

Status: Ended

Rating: ⭐ 6.041/10 (49 votes)

Genres: Drama, Crime, Action & Adventure

Overview: Jake and the Fatman is a television crime drama starring William Conrad as prosecutor J. L. "Fatman" McCabe and Joe Penny as investigator Jake Styles. The series ran on CBS for five seasons from 1987 to 1992. Diagnosis: Murder was a spin-off of this series.

Seasons: 5

Episodes: 106

Top Cast

William Conrad

as Jason McCabe

Joe Penny

as Jake Styles

Alan Campbell

as Derek Mitchell

User Reviews

GenerationofSwine

⭐ 10/10

Jan 12, 2023

Magnum P.I., Riptide (my personal favorite), Simon & Simon, and all the other little detective shows that were on during the late 70s and early 80s network battles were light entertainment.

It's not to say that they weren't great entertainment, but just that the tone of the shows were less stressful and more family friendly.

Jake and the Fatman got a bit darker. The action and comedy were still there, but it sort of feels like the older sibling of detective shows. And it does so in almost the same way that Columbo feels like the adult in the room of detective shows from that era.

However, it's still entertaining fair that I would love to see brought back in some form. Buddy detective shows are a lot better than police