Jake and the Fatman(1987)

Jake and the Fatman is a crime drama that pairs a sharp-witted prosecutor with a street-smart investigator. William Conrad stars as J. L. "Fatman" McCabe, a veteran legal mind who relies on Joe Penny's Jake Styles, a tenacious field operative, to build airtight cases. The duo tackles complex crimes across five seasons on CBS between 1987 and 1992, blending courtroom strategy with gritty detective work. Their partnership balances McCabe's legal expertise against Styles' instincts and connections in the criminal underworld. The show's success spawned the spin-off series Diagnosis: Murder, extending the universe beyond their original cases. Jake and the Fatman delivers the procedural thrills and character dynamics that defined late-80s network television crime drama.