Matt Houston

I used to catch this show when I was a kid in the 80s and remembered it to be an entertaining crime drama - a story about the wealthy Matt Houston (Lee Horsley), who oversees his family's drilling enterprises while getting into action as a private investigator. He pairs up with C.J. Parsons (Pamela Hensley) in his adventures.

Classic 80s nostalgia with decent acting, past-paced stories, and appealing plots. For the longest time, I couldn't remember the name of the TV show after it went off the air, thinking it might be Hart to Hart or Hunter. But, I was adamant that the lead male character had a mustache. Thanks to a little research on the internet, I've finally found the show's title, plot outline, and photos.

Grade A

This show followed up the great classic 70's detective show's: Barnaby Jones, Cannon, Banecek, McMillan and Wife, Mcloud, Starsky and Hutch, Ironside, Longstreet, and Columbo, and was equal on par in terms of quality. I used to watch this show every Sunday night with my family. CJ was hot, Murray was cool, and the Lts where always willing to help solve the crime. What better premise can you have than A millionaire Texan that has nothing better to do than solve crimes. I even remember the running "baddie" in a couple of episodes who was Houston's arch nemesis played bu Chuck Connors. And when Buddy Ebson joined the cast as uncle Floyd it added some credibility to the show.

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!

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.

Matt Houston debuted in the Fall of 1982. I found out sometime later that Aaron Spelling had been pressing Gene Barry to revive his classic character of millionaire L. A. Captain of Homicide Amos Burke as early as 1980 (Barry eventually gave in, and a lackluster reboot of Burke's Law aired for two half-seasons in 1994 and 1995). Apparently, Spelling and his old friend, movie producer Larry Gordon (who'd written at least one episode of the original Burke's Law) retooled the concept, and came up with this series about a Texas oil millionaire who becomes an L. A. private detective, starring Lee Horsley (who previously played Archie Goodwin in a short-lived Nero Wolfe series a year and a half earlier) as Houston, with Pamela Hensley as his lawyer/sidekick/girl Friday C. J. Parsons and John Aprea as Lt. Vince Novelli, his surprisingly patient friend on the LAPD.

And for the first season, they seemed to be going for an updated version of Burke's Law, with outrageous murders and the all-star cast of familiar TV and movie faces as only Aaron Spelling could bring. If you ever wanted to see Natalie 'Lovey Howell' Schafer blown to bits by a rigged 'test your strength' bell at a carnival, with the likes of Ron 'Horshack' Palillo and Bo Hopkins as suspects, this is for you! Or maybe you've always wanted to see Troy Donahue blown away by David Cassidy's killer robot, with Jessica Walter, Norman Fell and Monte Markham along for the ride? That's in the first season as well. 'Skipper' Alan Hale done in by a snake hidden in his jacket? Check! And those are a few of the stories in the promising first season, which deftly combined murder mystery and humor.

So what happened to make them abandon this concept for subsequent seasons? I'm guessing two things...one, the ratings weren't good enough for Spelling, and two, he read all the reviews comparing Horsley to Tom Selleck (in both style and looks). So for the second season, Spelling jettisoned the all-star cast idea and turned Houston into more of an L. A. version of Magnum, but totally forgetting that what made Magnum, P. I. so appealing was the combination of action and humor (which they had ALREADY DONE in the first season of Matt Houston!). Horsley and Hemsley had undeniable appeal and great looks to boot and went from playing charming characters to dead serious characters. In keeping with the new serious Matt Houston, that meant that friendly Lt. Novelli was out and gruff Lt. Hoyt (Lincoln Kilpatrick) was in.

Those changes didn't work, so for the third and final season, they gave Houston some help in the form of Uncle Roy, portrayed by none other than Buddy Ebsen, and one has to sense that Ebsen had to have a chuckle about being brought in to help a younger hero, as when he was starring as Barnaby Jones, the producers there brought in a younger actor (Mark Shera) to take some of the load off Ebsen. Result? Bringing in the reinforcements didn't help, though one episode reunited Ebsen with his former Beverly Hillbillies co-star Max Baer, Jr.

So this year marks the 40th Anniversary of Matt Houston, and I can't help but wonder just what would've happen had they not abandoned the original concept and turned it into just another generic action show. Would it have been considered an '80's classic instead of just another curio? Who knows? But the first season at least is worth a look. 5 stars out of 10.