Original title
Jake and the Fatman
Released
9/26/1987
Origin country
US
Genre
Action & Adventure, Crime, Drama
Production companies
Viacom Productions, Dean Hargrove Productions, Fred Silverman Company, Strathmore Productions
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
5
Number of episodes
106
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.
Senator candidate Kyle Williams' lover is killed after she threatens to reveal their affair. His speechwriter admits to him that he was the murderer, but threatens to frame him unless he cooperates.
Carson Warfield is having an affair with his stepmother, and together they kill his father and frame a thief who used to work for them. When things don't add up McCabe gets suspicious, and starts nosing around.
Carson Warfield is having an affair with his stepmother, and together they kill his father and frame a thief who used to work for them. When things don't add up McCabe gets suspicious, and starts nosing around.
Jake's former partner is killed by his fiancée in an alley. She blames the murder on a Latin kid she saw stealing a VCR just before she pulled the trigger.
A wealthy lawyer kills his ex-wife's new man and frames her for the murder. She is arrested, and he takes the job of being her lawyer.
A call girl discovers that her pimp uses her to smuggle drugs. She contacts McCabe, but is killed just as they meet.
For some time David Thompson has gone out and killed bums, so that the police believe a serial killer is loose. Then when he lures his brother to an alley and kills him the same way, he won't be a suspect.
""Mad"" Marvin Michaels, the owner of an electronics store, is killed, and ex-con Bradford Long is the main suspect. McCabe assigns the case to the cop Karen Stetson, whose father was killed by Long.
Glen Latimer pushes his newly married rich wife Nancy of their boat, but she survives and is brought to a hospital. She is unsure if it was just an accident, so Jake goes befriends Glen posing as Nancy's brother.
Ed Galvin escapes while he is being transported to prison, after threatening the life of McCabe and Andy Harmon (the cop who arrested him) during his trial.
A burglar kills a woman and blinds her nurse before fleeing. The police catch him, but have to let him go because the nurse can't identify him. When she is scheduled for an operation that could restore her eyesight, they fear he'll try to kill her.
One of the deputy DAs finally gets her first murder case when a man she was investigating for skipping alimony payments turns up dead.
Jake spots the hit man Sagittarius at the airport and follows him, but he spots Jake and is fatally wounded in the following gunfight. Jake takes his place to try to find out who the target was.
Leslie Randall, a former PR manager for McCabe is raped. The rapist, a psychiatrist, frames one of his patients with an anonymous tip to the police.
A known mob man is killed in the home of star reporter Candace Morgan. She says he was shot through the window while she was interviewing him, but McCabe gets suspicious when there is one too many bullets.
A man takes a courtroom hostage - with Derek and McCabe in it.
A friend of McCabe is murdered just as he is about to fake his own death so his wife can collect a 4.5 million-dollar life insurance.
A small time crook comes to McCabe offering to testify against the crime boss O'Rourke, after laying low for ten years. McCabe is suspicious, but is more than willing to go along with anything that can get O'Rourke behind bars.
The daughter of the wealthy Amos Banning arranges her own kidnapping, and murders her accomplice once she has the ransom.
Jennifer Wilding gets a surprise when her identical twin sister turns up wanting to resume their previous partnership - one steals jewelry and the other provides an alibi.
A friend of Jake, Matthew Hammond, is having an affair with a rich lady. They decide to marry, but when she asks her husband for a divorce, he kills her and frames Hammond.
A former cop who is now a crime writer commits a clever murder so that he can write a book about it that is likely to become a best seller.
Ned Covington and his wife plan to kill his boss, Phil Duncan, when he is passed over for promotion, but they kill another employee by mistake. Realizing this they try to frame Duncan for the murder.
Jake goes to Hawaii to visit a longtime friend, John Graney, but finds him dead when he arrives. Meanwhile McCabe resigns his position as district attorney and decides to move to Hawaii.
Jake continues trying to find Graney's murderer, now while under suspicion of John's partner's murder.
A tourist tries to stop a mugging, but he is grabbed from behind and the mugger stabs him. When the police arrive, the tourist is still alive, but the mugger is dead from a bullet wound and on the ground lies a gun used to kill several muggers. The third man is nowhere to be seen.
Jake investigates a robbery of a transportation company, and gets involved with its owner.
A friend of McCabe, senator Brandauer, is killed in a plane crash, and investigation reveals it was no accident. The plane had substandard parts bought in a deal brokered by McCabe's son, Daniel.
Jake goes after a pimp, who killed a prostitute who was to testify against him.
A burglar surprises Wallace Cogan, a publisher of adult magazines, and his wife Marina when they are returning home from a holiday. He kills Marina, but is wounded by Cogan before he gets away.
A young woman is found dead on the beach from a drug overdose. The immediate suspect is her ex-boyfriend, Sonny, so Jake goes pick him up for questioning. But a mysterious gunman is also interested in Sonny, and tries to kill him before Jake can get to him.
Jake and two friends participate in a drug bust that goes sour. The next day those friends are found dead - killed by a shotgun blast while they were in their car at the docks.
McCabe and the son of a friend go fishing, and discover a bomb on the their boat. Unable to disarm it they jump in the sea and swim to a nearby island. Meanwhile Jake and Derek presume they're dead, and go looking for the bomber.
The Secret Service gets help from Jake in catching a money counterfeiter, who trades his product for cocaine. It becomes personal for Jake when a friend is killed during a failed raid.
A newly released convict starts terrorizing the woman who witnessed against him. She goes to McCabe for help, who was prosecutor who put him in jail.
Ed Delaney, an ex-cop and an old friend of McCabe, is killed when he comes close to solving ""The Lady in Red"" Murder - a 20-year-old unsolved murder case that got him fired from the police.
Jake and Stg. Danoho (a LAPD cop) are transporting a prisoner to Los Angeles, when the prisoner escapes and Danoho is killed. Danoho's partner, Sgt. Walker, goes to Hawaii to assist in the investigation and it turns out there's bad blood between her and Jake.
A young lady is acquitted for killing her mother, and wants to hire Jake privately to find the killer. Jake turns it down because he's on his way to a vacation, but then McCabe refuses to let him take any days off. So Jake quits his job and takes the assignment.
A cat burglar robs a hotel while McCabe is hosting a district attorney convention there. The immediate suspect is Harry McGuinn, a recently released cat burglar. He insists that he is innocent, and tries to help Jake solve the robbery.
Derek gets his first case - a drunk driver who assaulted a police officer. But the driver is a powerful man, and suddenly Derek's main witness lies and the judge dismisses the case.
Jake and the FBI go after Victor Potemkin, a suspected drug smuggler. But when they raid his house they find no drugs, but Jake finds someone he knows - a woman who disappeared overnight just as he was about to propose to her.
An unknown girl washes up on a beach murdered, and a friend of McCabe, the newspaper columnist Leilani Simons, takes an unusual interest in the case.
Jake helps out the actor, Tom Cody, who played his childhood idol - the Skyhawk. Tom has been reduced to an alcoholized, broke veteran plane pilot, and no one believes him when he witnesses a murder.
Judge Smithwood starts receiving death threats after sentencing a young man to 20 years for rape. And a mysterious man in an army captain uniform steals a high precision sniper rifle from a local military base.
It's Christmas, and pregnant young lady is on the run from two mobsters. Gertrude makes a surprise visit to McCabe, and helps with the Christmas celebration.
Derek gets Jake to look into things, when the sister of a good friend is arrested for possession of drugs. She says they were planted by her mother-in-law, who is angry with her son for trying to take control of the family company, and at her for marrying him.
After several failed raids on mafia boss Everett Ashford, it appears the PA's office has a leak. Evidence starts to point to Leigh Perry, a rising star in the PA's office and the head of the organized crime division.
Derek collides with a pedestrian on his way home from a beach party. When the man dies, Derek is charged with manslaughter.
Nick Voss, a wanted criminal whose brother is about to be executed, kidnaps McCabe. Voss demands that his brother is released, or McCabe will share the same fate.
Jake travels to Los Angeles to attend his sister's wedding. The groom has a shady past, but he swears it's all behind him. But then, why is he working for a local gangster?
Jake catches a young girl picking his pocket. He tries to help her home, but she is very uncooperative. Meanwhile McCabe has problems with a murdered money counterfeiter.
A rapist is loose, attacking single women in their homes. Meanwhile McCabe takes Max to the ""Happy Dogs"" class.
A woman disappears when looking into her mother's death at a health resort. Jake and LA cop Karen Stetson go undercover at the resort, posing as a married couple.
Jake is undercover on a plane transporting drugs, when his real identity is discovered. The pilot fatally wounds him, and jump out with the only parachute. From the control tower McCabe tries to keep Jake conscious by talking about their previous adventures while the plane flies toward the airport.
Jake gets a visit from an old classmate with a heavy obligation - he must kill Jake Styles.
McCabe prosecutes a man for murdering his wife, when the man's story about them being assaulted by gang members doesn't check out.
Dr. Carmichael is charged with murdering his wife, but is given an alibi by her secretary. McCabe smells a rat and sends Jake undercover - getting a job as Carmichael's chauffeur.
Jake and Derek negotiates with a slightly paranoid man who has evidence against a crocked oil company, while McCabe gets a visit from a young woman claiming to be his daughter.
When a gang marks him for death, Daniel joins a group about to escape from the prison. To insure his cooperation the escapees frame him for murder.
Jake investigates the murder of a journalist working in Chinatown. He gets help from Chinatown cop Tommy Min Tang, the son of the local godfather.
Two siblings kill their parents when their father threatens to remove them from the will.
Derek's uncle reveals he's about to get married. But Derek becomes suspicious because the bride is nearly half his uncle's age, and starts digging into her past.
A friend of McCabe is killed execution style. A witness identifies Lyle Wicks as the murderer, and Wicks confesses. But several parts of his confession don't add up, so Jake continues the investigation.
Jake isn't very happy when his friend's Porsche is taken at gunpoint. He tracks down the robber, but holds off when he finds the carjacker associating with an infamous jewel thief. So posing as an alarm cracker, Jake goes undercover to find what their target is.
Jake goes under cover investigating industrial espionage, trying to find the top man. Things get complicated when an acquaintance for LA comes to visit.
A deputy PA is blackmailed into losing a case by kidnappers that have her son.
Jake investigates a serial killer that leaves an orchid on all his victims, while McCabe gets his biography written.
Jake and private investigator Casey Quinn go after her husband's murderer - suspected smuggler Peter LaMotta.
Jake gets in trouble with a group of crooked LA cops when he discovers a body in the water while fishing on Maui. They intercept Jake's call about the body, and hide it before dispatching someone to pick it up. Frustrated, Jake starts investigating the man who received his call about the body.
Jake is in LA and has to clear himself of murder charges.
A woman is found murdered in her home after she surprised a burglar and triggered the alarm. The burglar is found and convicted for the murder, but McCabe thinks something is wrong and gets Jake to snoop around.
McCabe is prosecuting Robert Burgess - a big crime boss, when his main witness is murdered on his way to court. Jake tracks down Burgess' ex-girlfriend, and has to bring her to court before the judge dismisses the case.
A South African diplomat is killed by a car bomb with the mark of an extreme South African racist group know as ""the Order of Blood"" near by. South Africa sends a black cop to LA who immediately goes after Vanessa Kruger, the leader of a group allied with the Order.
Jake is at his niece's christening, when his long lost father suddenly appears - after being gone for 27 years. It turns out he's in trouble after stealing $50,000 from his former employer.
An accountant is witness to a murder, and is very keen on helping Jake out with the investigation. But a few days later he turns up at Jake's apartment wanting to report another murder - the murder of him...
Cindy O'Malley, a friend of Jake's, is witness to a murder, but is spotted by the killer and he chases her and shoots her. McCabe & Co has to take care of her baby while they try to find her and the killer.
Derek gets a visit from a childhood friend who is trying to turn his life around. The next day he's found dead, filled with drugs and alcohol. The police believe he killed himself, but Derek refuses to accept it.
His wife and her lover Gregg Hatton remove Andrew Blane, a good friend of McCabe and head of Blane Electronics, from his position. The next day Hatton is killed in an explosion in his home.
Dr. Sloan is charged with murdering hospital director Havilland, who was investigating him and two other doctors.
McCabe sees a man supposed to have been murdered 5 years ago, and has Jake look into it.
A psychiatrist is having an affair with a patient and her husband finds out and wants a divorce. So she manipulates her lover into killing him.
McCabe is showing a school class around the courthouse, when a man dressed as clown tries to kill him with a shotgun. The man misses, but gets away. McCabe goes over past convictions to see witch of them might be the would-be assassin.
A priest is having an affair with a woman half his age, and becomes the prime suspect when she is murdered.
Todd Kurtin kills his wife in an alley, and makes it look like a mugger assaulted her. But the story doesn't convince McCabe, who prosecutes Kurtin - even though the case is weak.
PI Ed Delaney sees a man die and calls the police, but when they come for the body it is gone. He identifies the man as millionaire Richard Rose, who as it turns out, is still alive...
Jake goes undercover as a middle man between Rose and a rebel army wanting to buy Rose's hi-tech rifles, while Delaney finds proof that Rose isn't who he claims to be.
A young graffiti painter witnesses a murder and takes the victim's wallet. Jake finds him, but he refuses to talk, figuring that if he could solve the case himself he'd get a reward.
Jake kills a 14-year-old boy. He claims the boy had a gun and fired upon him, but no gun is found and the neighbors didn't hear anything.
A writer is just about to publish an incriminating book about his ex-wife, when he is found dead in his bathtub.
A woman follows a client of her sister's law firm, and sees him rob a store and kill the attendants. She confronts the man, and threatens to tell the police unless he kills her sister.
A friend of Neely's is killed by a heroin overdose, just as she was about to quit modeling. Neely goes undercover as a model to find out why.
Neely and Jake investigates a case where dead bodies are found with their livers surgically removed.
McCabe is prosecuting Mitchell Lazarus for murder and has just placed him at the scene, when another man steps forward claiming to be the murderer.
A trio of high-class pickpockets gets in trouble when they pick a mafia hitman's pocket and get a piece of paper with his next target on it.
Derek is shocked when he finds out that a woman he loved didn't die in a plane crash 6 years ago.
Jake helps out a shop owner who refuses to obey a local gang's order to close 3 hours early.
A porn producer is killed in a way quite similar to a murder 5 years ago for witch McCabe got a young boxer convicted. Jake investigates, and gets involved with a reporter who seems to know things before the police do.
Jake continues investigating the murders of Strobach and Blore, and evidence starts to point at Warren's old corner man Doug McKeown. But whom is he working for?
A doctor is murdered, and is discovered to have been making child pornography. The prime suspect is Elliot Edwards, a city council member with a spotless record.
A singer is planing to make a comeback after a year in drug rehab, when a stalker tries to kill her.
Someone is giving out money to poor people or those who have done good deeds, using the name ""the good fairy"". But it turns out the faire's money is from a bank robbery.
Jake's girlfriend Sherry is badly hurt by a car bomb, after Jake received a letter threatening to kill her for revenge against him. Devastated, he looks trough previous cases to see who the bomber could be.
A psychiatrist who Neely helped put away 5 years ago stars harassing her after getting out of prison.
Bondswoman Ethel Mae Haven has to track down a client who she posted a $1 million bail for.
Jake teams up with top homicide cop Hank Goldman to catch a serial killer who strangles women from escort services.
Notorious New York cop Mickey Daytona pursues the legal counsel Thomas Chetwin suspecting him of rape. Jake, who is a friend of Mickey and his old father, reluctantly teams up with Mickey. Chetwin is trapped and commits suicide.
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