Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Q: Who owns the classic Mustang that Conrad drove on “Matlock”?

- BY ADAM THOMLISON

A: No one seems to know what happened to Conrad McMasters’ (Clarence Gilyard Jr., “Walker, Texas Ranger”) red, mid-’60s Ford Mustang convertibl­e, his hiding place for many a stakeout and other investigat­ive tasks for his friend and employer, Ben Matlock (Andy Griffith, “The Andy Griffith Show”).

Presumably the last known owner is Dean Hargrove Production­s, which produced “Matlock,” but even that’s not certain — cars, particular­ly rare ones, are often rented to production­s by private owners.

I don’t even know which is the case with this particular Mustang. When the Conrad character joined “Matlock” in 1989, the car would have been about 24 years old. That’s old, but Mustangs, being classics, were better preserved than many, and so weren’t exactly rare at that point.

The lack of informatio­n about Conrad’s car can be chalked up to the fact that the car isn’t a particular­ly iconic piece of Matlock memorabili­a.

Conrad was only in the show for the middle few seasons — he was a beloved addition, but not a central one. And so, the car itself is even further removed from the center of the show.

This is in comparison to, say, the 1968 Mustang featured (really featured, almost as a character) in the 1968 movie “Bullitt.” I can tell you who owns it now,

how he got it, and who owned it before that.

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