Matt Houston

June 2025

I have just gone through all episodes of Matt Houston for the first time, although i had seen some episodes when they originally ran.

I like Lee Horsley in the lead and it is a decent detective series.

After series 1 they made changes to some of the main cast members, and for me because of this series 1 was the best. I preferred his cop buddy in the first series over his next cop buddy for the remaining episodes.

Then is series 3 they felt the need for more changes and he has his Uncle living with him, again this didnt do anything to improve it.

It is decent and above average.

7 out of 10.

A wealthy Texan named Matt Houston (Lee Horsley) who also happens to be from Houston lives in Los Angeles where he has a penthouse office, helicopter and fleet of cars. He keeps an eye on various divisions of his company and rather improbably works as private investigator too with the aid of his paid staff including his girl Friday C.J. Parsons, a Harvard educated lawyer. Houston also worked closely with his friend LAPD Lieutenant Vince Novelli (John Aprea).

Early on in the series Houston investigated the deaths of rich friends in whodunits with an ironic tone. By the second season, the show having jettisoned numerous supporting actors from the first season, took on a more serious edge and Houston began to distance himself from his business interests while investigating darker criminal cases with the grudging co-operation of grouchy police lieutenant Michael Hoyt (Lincoln Kilpatrick).

By the third season Houston and C.J. are living together in a smaller apartment and operating a private investigation business as Houston has turned his financial assets over to his Uncle Roy (Buddy Ebsen). The attempt to align the lifestyle of the main characters with other detectives on TV did not improve the ratings.

Matt Houston was an accidental success on the ABC network that copied other detective shows and stayed on the air defying most expectations because the competing networks (CBS and NBC) had long-running series (Archie Bunker's Place and CHiPS respectively) in the same time-slot with declining viewer-ship that they would end up shelving.

After ABC moved its time-slot opposite Falcon Crest on CBS on Friday Nights at 10 pm Matt Houston rode off into the sunset in Spring 1985 having lost the ratings shootout over the course of its remaining two season.

A lot of people remember it as a show they only watched during commercial breaks on the other networks or when the other shows on the other channels were showing reruns especially during the summer.

This was one of the shows in the 80's that I really enjoyed watching. I do have two questions that I hope someone can answer.

This was another show that was doing well and they had to "retool" it by making basic changes. They had him putting his money in a trust and became a full time investigator. I think he left his ranch when caused Paul Brinnegar to be dropped. I have not seem too many show that were retooled that did any better. Why was that done?

The other question is does anyone know why Pamela Hemsley quit acting after this show? She was one of the actresses that I enjoyed watching in various parts.

TNN (The Nashville Network) recently began airing reruns of this show at 7:00 EST. I never watched it in it's initial run, but I've quickly learned to appreciate it as a campy hoot filled with goofy situations, some fun stuntwork and most importantly of all....a potpourri of cheesy, "Murder She Wrote"-style guest stars. No lover of has been, quasi-stars can afford to miss an episode of this show. I don't know if the entire run of the series kept it up, but the ones I've watched so far had fun combinations like David Cassidy, Troy Donahue, Monte Markham and Jessica Walter in one show and Hugh O'Brian, Cesare Danova and Tina Louise in another and then Britt Ekland, Carol Lawrence and Christina Ferrare in another!! An added bonus is the occasional glimpse of Lee Horsley in a speedo or other skimpy attire. Check it out!

Typical 80s cheesy detective series with tons of action, lots of eye candy, but most of all fantastic chemistry between the leads. Their interactions made sometimes lame plots more interesting to watch. Sometimes stories unbelievably made Matt into some sort of superhero who could withstand almost injury. C.J. was a unique female figure in a male-dominated era: professional, sexy, intelligent, role-model type who could handle her risk-taking, charming, ladies-man BFF just fine. If producers had capitalized on their unique relationship some more, and not changed direction so often, it might have garnered more ratings in its day. Worth to watch selective episodes!