The quality of her vehicles took a swift and precipitous dive when Matthews landed in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s. She appeared in five short-lived, mostly panned sitcoms: as Peter Boyle's love interest in "Joe Bash" (ABC, 1986), the law comedy "Eisenhower & Lutz" (CBS, 1988), the radio comedy "FM" (NBC, 1989-1990), the delightful Julie Brown's less than delightful "The Julie Show" (NBC, 1991) and her own star vehicle, "Laurie Hill" (ABC, 1992), in which she was cast as a pediatrician. In the late 80s and early 90s, Matthews also guested on such series as "Dear John", "American Dreamer", "Murphy Brown" and on former "Eisenhower & Lutz" co-star Scott Bakula's popular "Quantum Leap".
Good luck finally came her way with the role of Beth Barry, a humor columnist's unflappable wife, on the hit sitcom "Dave's World". She also co-starred in a handful of TV-movies, beginning with the sports comedy "Dead Solid Perfect" (HBO, 1988) and including the sci-fi thriller "The Invaders" (Fox, 1995) and the drama "Every Woman's Dream" (CBS, 1996). More low-brow exposure came with one-time specials such as "Here Comes the Bride...There Goes the Groom" (1995, and its 1996 sequel) and co-star Harry Anderson's magic special "The Tricks of His Trade" (CBS, 1996).