Murder, She Wrote

[Khan]

I kinda like those episodes as well.  They really shake up your expectations (which isn't easy for any long-running series to do) without turning MSW into an entirely different show.  I just wish Lansbury and her team had taken more chances like that in subsequent seasons, because it seems like once they had cracked the formula, they never strayed from it not even a little bit.

[DaytimeFan]

94 is a good life and he had tremendous success all his own. I hope he is resting in peace, reunited with Bruce and Dame Angela. 

[soapfan770]

@kalbir and @Khan

Fun little article on MSW from the Guardian that just got published/posted the other day:

https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/may/22/murder-she-wrote-episodes-where-to-watch-streaming-angela-lansbury

[Khan]

Thanks, @soapfan770!  That WAS a fun little read!

I can't tell you how much I'm still enjoying MSW reruns on PlutoTV, even if I've seen the entire series at least a half-dozen times through, lol.

Edited May 23, 2024 by Khan

[kalbir]

Thanks for the link @soapfan770

Murder, She Wrote was a show I took for granted as a kid/teen but its a show I appreciate so much more as an adult. Even though it's been almost 40 years since the show began, it doesn't feel outdated and there's still that feeling of comfort and warmth when watching it.

Edited May 24, 2024 by kalbir

[Soapsuds]

The article says the show is available on Apple plus which is incorrect.

It's only available on Pluto TV, FreeVee or Peacock.

I'm currently watching ..Murder Takes the bus on FreeVee. It's clearly HD quality.

[Neville]

Is the twist one you mentioned the episode

[Soapsuds]

That episode was a letdown. 

Reminded me of the Dream season from Dallas.

[Khan]

Yep!  That's the one!

Like I said, it's either really clever or a total cheat, depending on how you look at it, lol.

(I, myself, was happy to see MSW still playing with the format by that point.)

[Soapsuds]

Imagine had Angela been shot. She goes into emergency surgery and we see Angela revisiting her previous mysteries and then flatlines. End credits.

[Khan]

You seriously want to kill off Jessica Fletcher, lol?

[Soapsuds]

No

It would've been a two part episode. Where she ponders if being a mystery writer and solver was alk worth it. Just to almost lose her life because of it.

[Khan]

Frankly, I don't think that kind of story would have worked on MSW.  That's more like something you'd see from the Dean Hargrove/Fred Silverman Mystery Factory.

Edited May 24, 2024 by Khan

[Soaplovers]

I second what @Khansaid...  MSW is a cozy mystery series with only one firm rule... Jessica Fletcher is spared from anything too intense and major.

Though I do admit the one episode with Andrew Stevens as a man interested in her and the underlying darkness of the episode was interesting.  And it was early enough in the run of the show where you could get away with something like that

[Khan]

The first season's tone is interesting to examine, as you can see how Peter S. Fischer is determining the right tone for the show going forward.

For one thing, as has been mentioned upthread, Jessica herself is quirkier and decidedly more New England-y than she would be in later seasons.  Furthermore, the mysteries themselves are more "serious" and cerebral, with more clues than you'll ever see in subsequent years. (In the final season, you're often given only one clue!)

Look, for example, at how Harry McGraw is presented for the first time (in "Tough Guys Don't Die") and then compare it to his subsequent appearances.  In his first go-round with Jess, Harry isn't nearly as offbeat as he would become later on.  Aside from his brief disguise as an oilman to get some info from someone, a lot of the heavy comedic lifting falls more to Jessica/Angela than it does to Jerry Orbach.

You don't hear the unique turns of phrase that, for better or worse, would come to define Harry's way of talking.  The pacing isn't as comedic and the music isn't played for laughs either.  Even the police detective, played by Paul Winfield, isn't as comically combative with Harry as subsequent leadfoots would be. 

Instead, it's a fairly straightforward introduction for McGraw, one that goes along with the darker and (for lack of a better word) grittier tone of many S1 episodes, when they still toyed with Jessica exposing herself to real danger from time to time. 

And as for the other guest stars in S1 - they're probably the most motley crew you'll ever find on this show, too.  I mean, only in S1 will you see the likes of Gabe Kaplan and Jo Anne Worley, lol.  In subsequent seasons, perhaps as a result of the show's success, there seems to be a more concerted effort to hire guest stars of a better caliber.

By S2, though, the tone that will come to define MSW at least until David Moessinger's arrival is set. Jessica is more the "everywoman" that Angela wanted her to be.  As such, it falls more to the guest stars and recurring characters to be comical and quirky - which, in turn, forces the writers to write more lighthearted (and perhaps, less challenging) mysteries.  A format or approach that works pretty much until S6, when MSW becomes almost TOO cute - a corniness that isn't helped by the presence of the bookend episodes.

In some ways, then, the changes that Moessinger and his team make in S8 are welcome, but the show itself is "dumbed down" a bit more in the process.