Thanks @Khan @soapfan770 for the views. I've just started reading some of the books (I'm not going in order) but I know this is for the show and the books are probably more divisive (I know some fans were upset over how Mort's wife was treated in the books) - I appreciate you responding.

Season 1 was my favorite. The first four seasons were great!!

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks @Khan @soapfan770 for the views. I've just started reading some of the books (I'm not going in order) but I know this is for the show and the books are probably more divisive (I know some fans were upset over how Mort's wife was treated in the books) - I appreciate you responding.

TBH, @DRW50, I don't think I've ever read any of the MSW tie-in novels, and I think that's because they don't have any bearing on the TV show.

50 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Season 1 was my favorite. The first four seasons were great!!

S's 1-5 certainly were MSW's most inventive seasons.  The plots were formulaic, but Peter S. Fischer knew how to keep the show from becoming stale.

S's 6 and 7 had their moments, too, but as a whole, they're bogged down by the "bookend episodes," which are polarizing, to say the least, lol.

S8 sees new showrunner David Moessinger attempting to "shake up" the show - shorter scenes, quicker pacing, less reliance on humor/comedy, edgier music, fresher guest stars, NYC as a permanent locale - but, as I've said in the past, there is a feeling that the show is being "dumbed down" in order to boost the ratings.  (For one, the concept of J.B. Fletcher teaching criminology at a university, despite having a background as an English teacher and mystery novelist only, is one of those only-on-TV conceits which, thankfully, gets downplayed and then eliminated entirely as the season wears on).  If you ever wondered how Dean Hargrove would've produced a cerebral, non-violent show like MSW, then S8 provides you with the best answer.

The last four seasons - S's 9 through 12 - are probably when MSW begins to go on auto-pilot, so to speak.  J.B. remains as endearing as always, but other shows that Bruce Lansbury had produced in the past - "The Wild Wild West," "Mission: Impossible," "Wonder Woman" - tended to become generic after awhile, and his sister's show was no exception.  No offense to him or to the rest of the Lansbury clan, but Bruce always struck me as a production executive-turned-creative who thought more about budgets than about creativity.

By S12, there *is* this feeling that either MSW probably needed to end or that Lansbury and Co. are so miserable over how Les Moonves has treated them that episodes become more by-the-numbers than ever.  I've always said that having back-to-back episodes ("Death Goes Double Platinum" and "Murder in Tempo") centered around the music industry was a sure sign that somebody at the show or the network just plain didn't care anymore, lol.

Edited September 18, 20241 yr by Khan

7 hours ago, Khan said:

My thoughts pretty much echo @soapfan770's: it's always a treat to see Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury together, given their history.  After his first couple of appearances, however, Michael Haggerty does start to wear out his welcome a bit.  Also, in his last appearance on the show, "Sugar & Spice, Malice & Vice" (S9, episode 7), they pretty much acknowledge that, with the real-life Cold War coming to a close, a character like Haggerty isn't as relevant anymore - and indeed, that is the last time we see or hear from him (books notwithstanding).  Of course, I'd take another appearance from Haggerty over one from Grady any day, lol!

My favorite recurring character - hands down - is Seth Hazlitt, followed by Harry McGraw and Lt. Artie Gelber.

To me, Harry is one of the best TV gumshoes I've come across - a modern-day Sam Spade, if you will, with a dash of Jim Rockford's propensity for getting himself into the most comically absurd messes; and IMO, they couldn't have found a better actor to portray him than Jerry Orbach.  EP/Showrunner Tom Sawyer tried to replicate Harry in the later seasons (after Orbach's "Law & Order" gig ruled out further appearances) with the more Mike Hammer-like Charlie Garrett, played by Wayne Rogers, but Charlie was such a pale imitation.

Overall, I loved Dennis Stanton, too, but his last appearance (in "Ship of Thieves," S9, episode 20) was a total letdown.  Not only was he not featured as much - I could've used more of him and less of Mary Wickes' klepto and her wimpy son - but a lot of his panache was gone as well.  It's clear that Peter S. Fischer was the only one who could write for that particular character.

 

There is only one Grady episode I like and it's Season 6's The Szechuan Dragon which is the sole time Grady is funny and the whole episode is one calamity after the other for him and his (real life and in the show) wife. Lansbury only appears in short telephone calls but somehow her presence is used effectively for comedic effect and is much more useful than the awful 'bookend' episodes. 

2 hours ago, Khan said:

By S12, there *is* this feeling that either MSW probably needed to end or that Lansbury and Co. are so miserable over how Les Moonves has treated them that episodes become more by-the-numbers than ever.  I've always said that having back-to-back episodes ("Death Goes Double Platinum" and "Murder in Tempo") centered around the music industry was a sure sign that somebody at the show or the network just plain didn't care anymore, lol.

Season 12 also shaded both Friends and CBS. I will always point out my love for the episode that shaded Friends. Yeah, it may seem angry to some, but after seeing Angela Lansbury cry on 60 Minutes I totally get why those episodes happened.

It bears repeating that Murder, She Wrote deserved to have a proper final season farewell on Angela's terms after all she did for CBS primetime.

Les Moonves will forever be on my s--- list for the way he sabotaged Murder, She Wrote and his notorious "when I got to CBS" comment.

Les Moonves is the reason Angela cried on 60 Minutes. There is a special place in hell for him for that alone.

Edited September 18, 20241 yr by kalbir

Angela did also say she was tired by the 12th season and it was definitely time to go. Just wish it was on better terms with CBS.

And shout out to 60 Minutes too, lol. The 60 Minutes and MSW Sunday night combo is what kept CBS alive for a decade.

1 hour ago, BetterForgotten said:

Angela did also say she was tired by the 12th season and it was definitely time to go.

I agree.  By S12, MSW was at the point where the clunker episodes were becoming more noticeable. 

Not only did you have the back-to-back music industry episodes that I've been mentioned above, but you also had the back-to-back western-themed episodes early in the season, with "A Quaking in Aspen," followed by "The Secret of Gila Junction"; a two-parter ("Nan's Ghost") that was filled with a negligible amount of filler (and was pretty much like every other Ireland-themed episode, right down to the use of several of the same guest stars); the show's one Japan-themed episode ("Kendo Killing") that suffered from the fact that it was clearly taped (like all episodes were) on the Universal Studios lot; an episode ("Something Foul in Flappieville") where the milieu was too vague (sometimes, it seems like it's taking place BTS at a live-action children's TV show; sometimes, it seems like it's really taking place at a cartoon show or puppet theatre; and sometimes, it feels like we're at a toy factory!); an episode ("Southern Double-Cross") that finally sent Jessica "down under" for the first time in 12 years, but throws every stereotype about Australians at us in the process; a Cabot Cove episode ("Evidence of Malice") that revolves around Deputy Andy Broom and reveals just how thin and serviceable the character has always been; an episode about teenagers ("What You Don't Know Can Kill You") that was written by someone who hadn't been a teenager since the 1940's; and a next-to-last episode ("Mrs. Parker's Revenge") that was so un-MSW-like in its' plot about biological warfare that I still suspect it was an unused "Matlock" or "Wonder Woman" script that was refashioned for this show.

Frankly, whenever I get to "Death by Demographics" on my PlutoTV rewatches, I am READY to start the whole series over again, lol.

2 hours ago, kalbir said:

Season 12 also shaded both Friends and CBS. I will always point out my love for the episode that shaded Friends. Yeah, it may seem angry to some, but after seeing Angela Lansbury cry on 60 Minutes I totally get why those episodes happened.

I get it, too, lol. 

TBH, I go back and forth on "Murder Among Friends."  Sometimes, I appreciate the episode for its' satire on MSW's main competitor (and ultimate show-killer) that season; other times, I feel like most of the characters in that episode are REALLY unpleasant to watch. 

If "Friends" had been produced while Peter S. Fischer was still showrunner, I think he would've softened the blows with more humor, just as he had done with the "Hunter" spoof on "Murder, According to Maggie."

3 minutes ago, Khan said:

TBH, I go back and forth on "Murder Among Friends."  Sometimes, I appreciate the episode for its' satire on MSW's main competitor (and ultimate show-killer) that season; other times, I feel like most of the characters in that episode are REALLY unpleasant to watch. 

“I mean, who would have thought a group of twenty-something young people sitting around all day long discussing their sexuality would turn out to be a top TV show?”

Oh, the shade by Jessica/Angela. I love it.

I can't recall Murder, She Wrote shading the new hotness Miami Vice (although Angela herself shaded Miami Vice by referring to it as Miami Heat) or cool and trendy dramas like Moonlighting and L.A. Law.

 

1 minute ago, kalbir said:

I can't recall Murder, She Wrote shading the new hotness Miami Vice [...] or cool and trendy dramas like Moonlighting and L.A. Law.

I don't think there was any reason to shade them since MSW outperformed them all in the ratings and none of them were up against MSW on Sunday nights either.  On the other hand, it's pretty clear MSW was taking a few jabs at "Hunter" in "Murder, According to Maggie," even though "Hunter" aired on a different night, but it was done in such a way that you wouldn't have known unless you watched "Hunter" regularly.

@Khan There were three episodes that I think were homages (or could have been shade) to other CBS dramas: A Very Good Year for Murder (season 4), Northern Explosion (season 10), Crimson Harvest (season 11).

We're getting close to the 40th anniversary. Speaking of "The Murder of Sherlock Holmes," I've headcanoned it that Jessica made many of her future longtime friends (at least the ones that weren't likely to have lived in Cabot Cove) at that costume party she attended. Granted, this means that she would have spent the entire party being introduced to people.

1 hour ago, kalbir said:

@Khan There were three episodes that I think were homages (or could have been shade) to other CBS dramas: A Very Good Year for Murder (season 4), Northern Explosion (season 10), Crimson Harvest (season 11).

Yep, lol.  "A Very Good Year for Murder" and "Crimson Harvest" definitely were homages to FALCON CREST, while "Northern Explosion" was more than a little inspired by "Northern Exposure."

There's also "The Wearing of the Green" (S1, E6), which features two female detectives (played by Patty McCormick and Lucie Arnaz) who were spoofs of "Cagney & Lacey," which had ended its' run on the network only months before.

59 minutes ago, Franko said:

Speaking of "The Murder of Sherlock Holmes," I've headcanoned it that Jessica made many of her future longtime friends (at least the ones that weren't likely to have lived in Cabot Cove) at that costume party she attended.

I love that, lol!

Jessica Fletcher seemed to have travelled everywhere and met everyone.  Yet, they never had her travel to Africa and go on a safari as research for one of her novels. 

Edited September 19, 20241 yr by Khan

Today (September 30) is the 40th anniversary of Murder, She Wrote. 

Good reads for the anniversary:

Column: On its 40th anniversary, "Murder, She Wrote" remains the best (chicagotribune.com)

Murder She Wrote Turns 40 | Opinion | yesweekly.com

Damn, I hit a paywall with the Tribune article.

If nothing else, I credit Angela Lansbury and everyone else involved for crafting every week a show that presented a positive image of older women and that never resorted to pushing sex and violence in order to entertain.  Even in the latter seasons, when the mysteries became less challenging, MSW remained a classily produced effort and a real testament to shows that had something for just about everyone.

Edited September 30, 20241 yr by Khan

@Khan Text from the Chicago Tribune article.

Quote

On its 40th anniversary, ‘Murder, She Wrote’ remains one of the best of its kind

 “I may be wrong. But frankly, I doubt it.” That line, or words to that effect, are a common refrain on “Murder, She Wrote.” It takes a certain amount of flinty self-confidence for a character to pull that off without sounding smug. We live in uncertain times. Hollywood is in its flop era. But when all else fails, there’s always Jessica Fletcher.

No matter my mood or what other TV offerings may be available, I find myself returning to “Murder, She Wrote” over and over again, at least once a week, spotting new details in episodes I’ve seen countless times before. It is my comfort watch, but it has also been instructive for me as a TV critic. Once you start analyzing the show’s various components, it becomes clear that too many of those elements are missing from more recent case-of-the-week procedurals. These basics were once considered standard but I suspect writers are out of practice. For the last decade or so, they’ve focused on the short seasons and serialized format of streaming endeavors. But writing 22 crackerjack stories a year? A lost art, I fear.

“Murder, She Wrote”  — which celebrates its 40th anniversary on Sept. 30 —  ran for 12 seasons on CBS and wouldn’t have worked half as well with another actor. Angela Lansbury built her career playing all kinds of eccentrics on stage and screen. But with “Murder, She Wrote,” she understood that wasn’t needed. Give us a personable woman with a good head on her shoulders and let compelling writing do the rest.

The premise is simple but wildly effective every time: Mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher goes about her day — whether at home writing or out traveling the world — when someone turns up dead. Suddenly her common sense and all that background research for her books comes in handy. Sometimes she has a personal connection and that’s why she’s compelled to help. Sometimes she’s just aggravated — offended, even — by incompetent police work. Either way, she’s going to get to the bottom of things. She’s dogged and not above a little subterfuge. But she always comports herself with class, no matter how lurid the circumstances.

There’s something so thrilling when you come across an old show and belatedly realize it’s good. Really good. That happens often with “Murder, She Wrote,” which people seem to discover and rediscover with a wonderful frequency. “Started ‘Murder, She Wrote’ for the first time,” said the comedian and writer Becca O’Neal recently. “Thought it was about a nosey lil’ old lady. Oh no, Miss Jessica Fletcher was an It Girl.”

Jessica is practical but cosmopolitan. Smart but approachable, and compassionate when the circumstances warrant. Infidelity and corruption do not shock; she’s too well-versed in the human condition to be naive about any of it. She never doubts her self-worth or instincts, nor does she let fame go to her head. She’s not impressed by wealth, though her own wealth must be considerable. Even so, we never see a wayward relative come out of the woodwork looking for money and she never splurges on any updates to her chocolate box house in Maine. If asked about her finances, she would probably demure and simply say she’s “comfortable.”

She always looks put together and just so but her wardrobe became noticeably more sophisticated a few seasons in, and even by today’s standards she never looks out of style thanks to the classic cut of her tailored skirt suits and pant suits. No one ever refers to her as old, nor is she portrayed that way. She’s surrounded by people of all ages and she makes friends easily. Men are interested! (She usually laughs off their flirtations.) She is comfortable in pokey small towns, glamorous ski chalets or fast-paced urbane settings, and eventually she buys a pied-à-terre in New York. She’s always at work on her latest novel, with no signs of slowing down. She lives a full life! And she’s a character who fits in anywhere, regardless of the company, which is why a crossover episode with “Magnum, P.I.” from 1986 somehow works.

O’Neal is right, she really is an It Girl.

The show’s writing, though, is just as key as Lansbury’s performance.

Great television “brings you in, keeps you there and lets you go satisfied,” said the screenwriter Javier Grillo-Marxuach in an interview last month. He wasn’t talking about the “Murder, She Wrote” specifically, but more broadly the kind of dramas like it that were once the bedrock of television, telling a new story each week and then bidding you adieu — letting you go satisfied — until next time.

Somehow that format has deteriorated over the last decade or so. Streaming rode the prestige wave launched by HBO, and ongoing storylines, parceled out chapter by chapter, became the default. Suddenly, the skill needed to write stand-alone episodes — short stories, really — was less in demand.

There aren’t many shows of this type anymore, but the handful that have premiered in the years since have a sad trombone quality to them. The mysteries are poorly constructed, the writing hacky and immature. Audiences watch anyway because we are desperate for the pleasures offered by this genre, but these efforts are too often a simulacrum of better shows that came before. It’s not like “Murder, She Wrote” was trying to be anything other than easy viewing, but it was written with real intelligence, complexity and wit.

Jessica is as steady as they come, but occasionally the writers carve out room for Lansbury to show a broader range of her talents, whether she is playing Jessica’s daffier British cousin, the music hall singer Emma (a character who shows up only twice in the show’s entire run, but makes such an indelible impact), or briefly posing as a barfly in order to get information out of a sports bookie. She’s funny — I think sometimes people forget that – and those moments reveal Lansbury’s looser side. But she was a brilliant actress when it came to drama, as well. In one episode, Jessica has to contend with the possibility that her late husband had an affair and fathered a child while serving overseas. Her pain is very quiet and very nuanced, but she is shaken to the core.

That’s a rarity, because otherwise she’s rarely off her game. We never know the character’s age, but Lansbury was in her 60s for most of the show’s run, and Jessica is undaunted by anxieties related to technology. My Tribune colleague, the sports writer Shakeia Taylor, reached out recently with this observation: “I’ve been watching ‘Murder, She Wrote’ and I think it’s interesting how Jessica Fletcher was an early adopter of the computer, at least in her TV timeline.”

Yes! After spending years writing her books on a manual typewriter at her kitchen table, by the early ’90s she buys a desktop computer and the episode uses this premise as the basis for a murder mystery. It’s a creative way to bring her into the computer age. In another episode, a company has contracted with her to write a virtual reality video game. When her best friend, local doctor Seth Hazlitt, scoffs at the idea, she tells him to get with it — the 21st century is around the corner! In another episode, she’s on a plane, tapping away on a laptop computer. As a character, she isn’t one for nostalgia.  She adapts to change and is engaged with the world around her.

“She’s a whole human,” as Taylor put it.

Not long ago, the architecture critic Anjulie Rao wrote about the series, which, she said, is really about real estate. “Jessica Fletcher may have been investigating murders, but the show explored the anxieties of modern development.” There are countless episodes about one developer or another looking to horn in and exploit an area. They are always up to no good, whether they’ve set their sights on small-town Maine or tearing down a historic brownstone in New York.

The show also loves to satirize show business and multiple episodes are set in Hollywood. One is an obvious parody of “Friends.” Another centers on the “Psycho” house at the Universal Studios lot. Another takes place at a film festival in Milan. Her books were always being adapted — and badly, to her chagrin. When a network head pitches her on a weekly series called “The Jessica Fletcher Mystery Hour,” about “the real-life adventures of a crime-busting mystery writer,” Jessica stops her cold with a meta response. “I don’t write gunfights, car chases or bedroom scenes. Who would watch?”

So many of us, it turns out.

I asked Taylor why she started watching the show. “My new TV came with a channel that shows ‘Murder, She Wrote’ all day.” (The show is also airs in reruns on various cable channels and is available to stream on Peacock; though it aired on CBS, it was made by Universal Television, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal.) “I’ve been watching it for daaaaays,” Taylor said. “There were a lot of actors I recognize on this show.” Bryan Cranston. Courteney Cox. Adam West. George Clooney. Neil Patrick Harris. Jerry Orbach.

The show had its favorite actors, too, that was clear — Gregg Henry, Kate Mulgrew, Jeff Conaway, Jessica Walter, to name a few — who would return season after season to guest star in a new role.

You buy it every time because the show’s format can plop Jessica down anywhere, allowing for varied locations and scenarios, whether she’s on an archeological dig in the Southwest or visiting a Ben & Jerry’s-esque ice cream company in middle America, or traveling in Russia promoting the latest translation of her books. The show is not trapped by its setting, but follows a wanderlust that allows it to take on just about any kind of premise and be assured that Jessica would fit in somehow. Would it surprise you that fewer than 60 of the 264 episodes take place in her hometown of Cabot Cove, Maine?

By Season 6, Lansbury was exhausted, so producers came up with a workaround: Stories anchored by someone who isn’t Jessica Fletcher, though they sometimes include intros and outros provided by her, which is why they’re often called the bookend episodes. The skill level here is off the charts: Introduce a brand new world and a main character who is fully-formed from the get-go, then drop them into a murder mystery that’s as compelling as any Jessica might solve.

Audiences didn’t love the idea and after two seasons Lansbury went back to a full schedule. But watching those bookend episodes now, I’m impressed with how they’re executed. So much storytelling economy is required, and yet they feel rich and lived-in. You need to care about these new protagonists instantly, and you do. Any one of them could have led a full-blown series of their own, particularly jewel thief turned insurance investigator Dennis Stanton, played by Keith Mitchell. The character is not possessed of unique talents, except that he’s wonderfully debonair and understands the mind of a criminal, having been on himself. He’s fond of a quip, keeping everything light, but he’s never unkind. And like Jessica, he feels like a real human being, not just a construct. He appears in nine episodes over the course of the show’s run, but the world of his character — with his impossible-to-please boss and loyal but ambitious girl Friday — was such an obvious contender for a spinoff, it’s too bad that never came to be.

At first glance, the writing on “Murder, She Wrote” doesn’t stand out. It’s a well-built narrative each time that avoids being self-serious, immature or hacky. This is standard, you think. It’s the job. But then you watch more recent attempts at the procedural format and realize how challenging it is for TV writers today to approximate anything even close.

People want procedurals because they fulfill a certain craving. Sometimes you’re not in the mood for the knotty complications of a serialized streaming drama. Sometimes you just want to be told a story, from beginning to end, in a single episode. Sometimes you want a story that allows you to believe, if only for an hour, that we live in a world where fair play exists and the no-nonsense efforts of a retired school teacher-turned-celebrity author can put things right.

There’s an old joke that Jessica Fletcher is actually the real killer. How else to account for all those murders every time she’s around? But a different thought comes to mind: How is she not profoundly depressed by all this death that follows her everywhere?

Well, she’s not. Because “Murder, She Wrote” is not that kind of show. Jessica is alert and chipper at the start of each episode, as if all the tragedy that came before has been zeroed out. That’s OK. That’s what TV used to promise: Consistency.

And “Murder, She Wrote” is nothing if not consistent.