Picket Fences

- Season 4

(1995)

Kimberly throws Sheriff Brock and Jill for a loop with her college plans of leaving Wisconsin for law school. Meanwhile, Brock frets over Mayor Laurie Bey's new police uniform regulations. Maxine turns up sporting a new feminine look. Elsewhere, Carter's house burns down, leaving questions about attempted suicide.

As a tornado threat hangs over Rome, Wambaugh and his wife quarrel over his remarks at their 50th anniversary party. Meanwhile, the Brocks worry over Kimberly who's away at college. Kenny risks his life and career over a woman. Also, Carter considers quilting as a new hobby for himself to ease his depression.

A uptight doctor from Milwaukee, named Dr. Joanna "Joey" Diamond, who's also a TV personality, joins Jill in her practice. Meanwhile, Kenny looks into a video-dating service. An Asian immigrant is arrested while trying to marry a woman according to his ancient culture's customs.

Littleton faces a troubled figure from his past when two escaped prisoners make their way into Rome, one of them is his brother seeking revenge against him for sending him to prison nearly five years ago. Meanwhile, Matthew pleads with Zack not to tell their father about a potentially dangerous accident after Matthew accidentally started a fire while smoking a cigarette.

Max gets into serious trouble when she shoots a man dressed in a bratwurst costume. Jill thinks Kimberly is pregnant because she goes to Dr. Joey and tries to cover it up.

Saturday night in Rome. Matthew goes cruising with his pals. Jill and Jimmy's attempt at romance leaves him in an extremely painful position. Meanwhile, Judge Bone and Wambaugh's poker gang loses a player when one of them drops dead at the table.

Cryptic dreams after his brother's death lead Littleton to make some drastic changes, including leaving Rome. To satisfy a charity request, Sheriff Brock prepares to do polka with the very pregnant Mayor Laurie Bey. Meanwhile, Jill faces a day of personal and professional turmoil as she contemplates her scheduled tubal ligation.

The pope comes to Rome, Wisconsin and witnesses a murder. The court case that follows tests Judge Bone and Douglas Wambaugh's friendship.

Kimberly is arrested for freeing the pigs set for pig-wrestling at the town fair. Meanwhile an elderly man's medical treatment is inhibited by his daughter's religious beliefs.

When the bones of a Nazi sympathizer killed in 1943 are found, suspicion falls on Jacob Levine, the son of a Jewish butcher persecuted by the dead man and his friends. Wambaugh springs to Levine's defense and find himself facing his long-estranged son, David, as the opposing counsel.

Sheriff Brock tries to help Matthew deal with the suicide of one of his school friends by taking him on a hunting trip for an elusive bear roaming the countryside. Meanwhile, Wambaugh tries to persuade Judge Bone to comfort the dead boy's mother by pretending to be someone who has also lost a son to suicide.

A huge blizzard strikes Rome, and strands Jill and Kimberly at the high school with others during Lydia's singing debut. Meanwhile, Sheriff Brock and Skeeter are snowed in at the police station with Mayor Bey who goes into labor. Kenny is stranded in his patrol car after it breaks down, Maxine is stranded at her place with the Bratwurst guy and Dr. Joey. Elsewhere, Wambaugh and Judge Bone are stranded at in the hospital ER and are forced by the staff to help them out with the patients.

Carter has a near death experience and sees his late grandfather, which shakes his skepticism. Zach falls for a slightly older cellist who likes Matthew. Judge Bone meets an old flame and they spend a day together reminiscing.

When Zack's friend sends him a picture of his attractive teacher over the Internet, Zack creates a computerized pornographic picture of her and shares it with him but he puts it up on the Internet. She sues the school over this and Zack gets into trouble. Even Edward, the top computer technician in town, can't help him. Meanwhile, Maxine finally meets the person she has been chatting with over the Internet and he's surprisingly dreamy. However, when he turns up for their date in a dress, she realizes that the chat service they met through was meant for male and female...

Zack is allowed to invite 4 people to his birthday party. He invites Judge Bone, Henry Wambaugh, Maxine Stewart and Kenny Lacos. Jill's bottled up feelings come out at Zack's birthday party, which finds Jill going through a mid-life crisis, Matthew and Zack with green and red hair, Wambaugh up in arms over Judge Bone's lack of respect and Kenny trying to psycho-analyze his break-up with Max.

Maxine becomes the acting mayor. When she supports a business decision half of the town opposes, she becomes the target of local sexist shock jock Chuck Dante, who constantly humiliates her and even calls for her death. She's soon shot.

At the christening of Mayor Laurie Bey's baby, Michael, the Rome residents are flabbergasted when Laurie announces that she had the baby for her brother Jerry and his gay lover Gordy, who plan to raise the baby in the town. The Beys' estranged mother, Christine, who turned her back on her children because she was deaf and he was gay, turns up and announces she is taking them all to court to get custody of her grandson. Tension brews in Rome as the people, from Sheriff Brock to Jill, take sides on the issue and a campaign begins to have Laurie removed as mayor, ...

In the series final, Carter inadvertently proposes to Sue after she gets her wires crossed. Nevertheless, he's a man of his word and they announce their engagement to the people of Rome. Their sudden decision to wed prompts Kenny and Maxine to do the same, although they later begin to experience cold feet. Digging in her friend Selma's backyard, Myriam Wambaugh discovers human remains and Selma goes on trial for murder. Persuaded to defend her by his ex-wife, Wambaugh manages to get her off and passion erupts again for him and Myriam, who decide to get re-married in a...

The coach of the kids' basketball team collapses at a game and the parents group appoints Jill as interim coach. At first she is determined to play fair and give all the boys a chance, but under pressure from more gung-ho adults, she becomes as obsessed as the rest of them. Fed up with all this, Zack and the other boys on the team take out a court injunction against them. Meanwhile, Matthew becomes hooked on gambling and gets himself into serious trouble.

Wambaugh hopes to win Miriam over again but her new charming boyfriend Hal stands in his way. Wambaugh gets suspicious of him when Hal suggests Miriam to let him invest her, Selma's and their friends' money.

A young Amish girl, Hannah Beiler, is attacked in the streets of Rome and raped, but the Amish community decide not to press charges against the rapist because of their religious beliefs of tolerance and being forbidden to swear oaths. An attempt is made to force Hannah to testify against her rapist but she refuses, on the grounds of her religious convictions. With no other options or evidence, Sheriff Brock has to let the rapist go free. Shortly after this, a second girl, Peggy Patterson, is also raped by the same man. This time, the guy is put behind bars but ...

Sheriff Brock is called out when a homeless man is found murdered behind Reverend Novotny's church but is suddenly stricken with terrible pains at the scene. Dr Joey discovers he has a potentially cancerous growth on his liver and she takes samples from it, telling him they'll know for sure by the end of the day. He pushes on with the murder investigation to take his mind off it. The victim is identified as a former army veteran and a boy named Jack Klausner, known to Kenny through the basketball team, comes forward as a witness and describes the two men he says were ...