Not all television sleuths are exactly alike, though they all seem to share the same nose for sniffing out trouble. Still, if you're an avid consumer of crime shows, you might find a few comparisons between some television protagonists.

This isn't necessarily an accident; creators like Dean Hargrove worked on popular detective shows like Columbo before going on to develop Matlock. Hargrove's series focused on defense attorney Ben Matlock, played by Andy Griffith, and his search for the truth when defending his clients against some particularly heinous charges.

However, the character of Ben Matlock frequently drew comparisons to another well-known defense attorney, Perry Mason. The two men shared a desire for truth and justice. However, Hargrove was adamant that a show like Perry Mason was incredibly different from Matlock.

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"Well, Perry Mason as a character, if you look back through the old series and even into the books that Earl Stanley Gardner wrote, was rather narrow in terms of his character behavior," said Hargrove during an interview with The Birmingham News. "His relationships and his home life, and all of that, didn't exist in the series. He always had a relationship with Della Street that people wondered about, never knew."

By contrast, Ben had a rich inner life that audiences were directly involved with. "Matlock is entirely different, to our way of thinking," said Hargrove. "He deals not only with his daughter, but there is a great deal of humor in his family, and his personal and professional life is very much a part of the show."