Murder, She Wrote

[Franko]

Before I forget, I should mention the YouTuber PushingUpRoses, who has done several hilarious recaps of MSW. 

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[Khan]

Ah, "If It's Thursday, It Must Be Beverly."  A personal favorite, if only for the scene in Seth's office with him, Jess, Amos Tupper and Seth's nurse/assistant, the titular "Beverly."  It's possibly the funniest scene in MSW history.

I tell you, there is nothing filthier OR funnier than hearing ever-adorable Dody Goodman utter the sentence "It was good, clean sex once a week!".

Edited February 13, 2022 by Khan

[Soapsuds]

Curious as to why Jessica never drove a car during the whole series. She either asked for a ride or rode her bike.

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[AbcNbc247]

Angela Lansbury didn't drive, so she asked that it be written in that Jessica couldn't drive either 

[Khan]

Actually, there's a good explanation for why Jessica never drove a car.  If she drove a car, you see, she'd never be able to pump people for information or clues that would help her get closer to solving the mystery.

Well, that, too, lol.

[FrenchBug82]

Jean Stapleton discusses why she turned down the role.
 

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Angela also talks about Jean being offered the role first and her take why she declined it.
 

 

[Khan]

IIRC, Peter S. Fischer and the show's other creators, Richard Levinson and William Link, also considered Doris Day.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Khan

[Franko]

Doris is an interesting possibility. If the production of her sitcom is any indication, she would have taken anything given to her and tried her darndest to make it work. On the other hand, she was probably okay with not wanting another go-around with the marathon of being on a weekly TV series.

[Soaplovers]

I liked that Jessica didn't drive.  She was ahead of her time with the walking, biking, and 'lyfts'.

 

[Khan]

Agree.

One of the strangest episodes, if not THE strangest, was "Menace, Anyone?," which aired toward the end of the second (1985-86) season.  That was the episode set at a tennis tournament, with guest stars Dennis Cole (ex-Lance, Y&R), Bryan Cranston, Linda Hamilton, Van Johnson, Kelli Maroney (ex-Kimberley, RH) and Doug McKeon (ex-Timmy, EON) and Betsy Russell ("Private School"). 

First of all, it was a particularly violent episode by MSW's standards, featuring a car explosion AND a grisly stabbing.  Second, the chief investigator on the first murder (the car bomb), played by David Spielberg, gets whacked (the stabbing) halfway through the episode; and his partner, played by Barry Primus, has to take over, even though he's barely mentioned OR seen before then.  Third, there's a rather turgid backstory about Linda Hamilton's character developing a split personality out of guilt over her sister's death...except, as it turns out, the sister is still very much alive (with hair that's as red as the herring she is).  Fourth, when Jessica finally pieces together that the culprit in both murders is Betsy Russell's character, who was jealous that Bryan had moved on with Linda after breaking up with her, it's not Betsy who confesses to Jessica, but rather, her father (Johnson).  His explanation: she's back home, sedated and ready to be shipped off to the insane asylum.

My theory: either Betsy Russell was so awful in the few scenes she had leading up to the murders that Fischer and his team couldn't trust her to handle the climactic confession scene properly, or someone tipped them off about her porn career (yes, she had one), so they had to do some fast rewrites and/or reshoots (and break one of their own rules in the process) to get her out of there before Angela or anyone else found out.  In turn, if reshoots had occurred, there's the possibility that Spielberg wasn't available, thereby necessitating the OTHER rule-break that resulted in his character's own murder.  (If you watch the episode, and you see that sequence in particular, you'll see that the editing is downright ghastly, lol.)

Edited February 13, 2022 by Khan

[Khan]

Fischer/Levinson/Link didn't want J.B. Fletcher tied down with some adult son or daughter who would always question why she would routinely put herself in danger, so they gave her a nephew (and an "official" niece, played by Genie Francis) instead; but I think Fischer and his writers (Robert E. Swanson, Robert Van Scoyk, etc.) realized that even Grady wasn't necessary.  

Look, when I was growing up, not a Sunday night passed in our household without football and MSW, which was Mama Khan's favorite show back then.  There was just no way around it, lol.

True, but it was somewhat contradictory how she wasn't eager to get behind the wheel, yet was all set to ditch her old typewriter for a brand-new, then-state-of-the-art desktop computer.  Either get completely with the times, Jess, or don't bother, lol.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Khan

[BetterForgotten]

They don’t write much about television Q ratings anymore, but I recall Angela Lansbury’s being extremely high during MSW’s run. Meaning, the American audience generally regarded her highly and trusted her personality.

[DaytimeFan]

Which lead to very lucrative endorsements with top tier brands:

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Lansbury's natural warmth lent itself beautifully to television and the 'cozy mystery' genre in particular. There is an oddly timeless quality to Murder, She Wrote that translates internationally.

Although Lansbury has openly said she did the show for the money, she raked in $300,000 an episode and owned a piece of the show, which they later sold to Universal, the product was of high quality and has stood the test of time.

[Paul Raven]

Poor Doris only found out that she was signed to do her series after her husband died and being the professional that she was she gave it her all. I think that dear Marty had worked his way through most of her money and she had to do the show to get back on a stable financial footing. the day production finished she leapt for joy and headed for the hills.

She was also mentioned in a Falcon Crest spinoff set in a SF ad agency, although this probably went as far as a vague proposal sent her way which she promptly rejected.

It would have been great to see her back in the 80's as she looked great. The most we could hope for is some TV movies about an animal loving lady crime solver.

Why not? She had earned every cent by that time. 

How many times did we see movie stars talking about taking on a series because they loved the idea of the stability, or the scripts were so good etc when really they just wanted(needed) the bucks.

[DaytimeFan]

Oh, please don't misunderstand my point, I don't begrudge Angela a single dollar - I love her and applaud her business acumen. I only wish other actresses had been as smart as she was.

What I meant by my comment is that despite only doing the show for the money, Angela invested herself professionally in putting out a product that was first class. You can tell from her interviews that she really cared about the show, cared about how Jessica's portrayal translated to the audience, and cared about her crew. Like she said in her Archive of American Television interview, she always wanted to make the show better.