Murder, She Wrote is a television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996. It was followed by four TV films, aired from 1997 to 2003, and a spin-off series, The Law & Harry McGraw.
Debuting September 30, 1984, Murder, She Wrote, TV's longest-running mystery series, might never have come about had producers Richard Levinson and William Link enjoyed success with their TV series Ellery Queen. The series folded after a single season, but Levinson and Link were still committed to the concept of a best-selling murder-mystery novelist who solved real murders when not at the typewriter. By changing the gender of their protagonist from male to female, and transforming the character from a good-looking, absentminded young pedant to a middle-aged, down-to-earth widow, the producers were able to parlay their "mystery writer/amateur detective" premise into a 12-year hit for CBS.
Premise
The show revolved around the day-to-day life of a retired English teacher who, after being widowed in her early fifties, becomes a very successful mystery writer. Despite fame and fortune, Jessica remains a resident of Cabot Cove, a cozy coastal town in Maine, and maintains her links with all of her old friends, never letting her success go to her head. Exterior shots of Cabot Cove were filmed in Mendocino, California.
Her one eccentricity is an insatiable curiosity, especially whenever murder rears its ugly head ? which it does with great regularity. Critics found it ridiculous how murders seemed to follow Jessica wherever she went. The mystery term "Cabot Cove Syndrome" was eventually coined to describe the constant appearance of dead bodies in remote locations.
In most episodes, Jessica somehow becomes entangled in a murder investigation. The police are almost always willing to arrest the most likely suspect, but Jessica invariably feels that the so-called guilty party was innocent. Carefully and methodically piecing the clues together and asking astute questions, she always manages to trap the real murderer ? who, given the series' "special guest star" policy, was often played by a famous film or TV personality.
Jessica's relationship with law enforcement officials varies from place to place. Both sheriffs of Cabot Cove resign themselves to having her meddle in their cases. However, most detectives and police officers do not want her anywhere near their crime scenes, until her accurate deductions convince them to listen to her. Some are fans of her books and are glad to assist her investigation. With time, she makes friends in many police departments across the U.S., as well as a British police officer attached to Scotland Yard.
In 1991, newly appointed executive producer David Moessinger and producer J. Michael Straczynski were brought aboard in an effort to shore up ratings. They moved Jessica to New York, and revitalized the show, bringing it back into the top ten from the mid-thirties where it had fallen. It was Straczynski who made her an instructor in writing and criminology, and is widely held to have most emphasized her role as a working writer, with all the deadlines and problems involved in that profession.
End
A Sunday-evening tradition for over a decade, CBS decided to move Murder, She Wrote from its winning slot to Thursdays during its twelfth and final season. This was due to a restructuring plan to attract a younger audience to Sunday night. The news was much to Lansbury?s dismay, as CBS was apparently willing to let the show flounder and die due to its age and high production costs. Murder, She Wrote was forced to compete with two of NBC's extremely popular sitcoms, Friends and Seinfeld. Ratings plummeted and in March of 1996 CBS announced that the twelfth season of Murder, She Wrote would definitely be its last. However, the final four episodes were allowed to reoccupy Sunday nights and, not surprisingly, ratings improved. The show ended its twelve-year run quietly with an episode titled Death by Demographics. Jessica?s farewell appears as a voiced-over letter at the very end of the episode. Perhaps ironically considering the motive for the aforementioned shift in time slots, the episode focused on the murder of an ageist radio executive determined to attract younger audiences. Death by Demographics ranked 16th in the ratings and was the most watched CBS program for that week. After the final episode aired, fans could take heart in the fact that Lansbury would sporadically reprise the character of Jessica Fletcher in a handful of feature-length Murder, She Wrote specials for the next seven years.
Cast
Regular cast
Seth Hazlitt, Jessica Fletcher and Mort Metzger in 1996
Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher (1984?1996). The show was originally conceived as a vehicle for Jean Stapleton, who had just finished a nine-year run on All in the Family; when Stapleton decided she didn't want to commit to another television series, the role was offered to Lansbury. Doris Day was offered the part afterwards, and also declined. The character was loosely based on Miss Marple, whom Lansbury had portrayed beforehand.
Tom Bosley as Sheriff Amos Tupper (1984?1988), Cabot Cove's sheriff at the start of the series. Tupper later retires and goes to live with his sister. The actor actually left to star in his own TV series, Father Dowling Mysteries.
Ron Masak as Sheriff Mort Metzger (1988?1996), a former NYPD officer who takes Tupper's place as sheriff in the mistaken belief that he would be living in a more peaceful place.
Recurring cast
Michael Horton as Grady Fletcher (1984?1995), Jessica's not-so-lucky favorite nephew, who (through no fault of his own) always seems to get in trouble with the law. After many romantic disasters, he gets married later in the series. In real life, Horton is married to actress Debbie Zipp, who played Grady's eventual wife, Donna Mayberry. The two had been married for many years before working together on Murder, She Wrote.
Len Cariou as Michael Hagarty (1985?1992), a British MI6 agent of Irish origin, who would appear when Jessica least expected him to drag her into a dangerous case. Cariou had previously starred with Lansbury in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as the titular character.
Keith Michell as Dennis Stanton (1988?1993), a former jewel thief turned insurance claims investigator, who always solves his cases using unusual methods, and sends a copy of the story to his friend Jessica afterwards.
Wayne Rogers as Charlie Garrett (1993?1995), a disreputable private investigator who usually gets into trouble and needs Jessica's help.
Guest stars
Many famous or soon-to-be-famous actors have had guest spots on Murder, She Wrote:
Jessica in the Season 3 episode "The Cemetery Vote"
For several years, the show was the longest-running mystery show on television. In total, there were 264 weekly episodes including the 2hr feature-length pilot episode, The Murder of Sherlock Holmes(265 episodes, since the pilot is now aired as two separate episodes during reruns) . Lansbury is the only actress to appear in all of the episodes and TV films.
Many of the episodes took place in either Jessica's hometown of Cabot Cove or in New York, but her travels promoting books or visiting relatives and friends (of which she seemed to have an endless supply) led to cases throughout the world. A 1986 crossover episode with Magnum, P.I. took place in Hawaii, which began in the Magnum, P.I. episode "Novel Connection" and concluded in the Murder, She Wrote episode "Magnum On Ice".
Beginning in season six, Lansbury cut back her appearances. A handful of episodes purported to be stories "written" by Jessica, or submitted to her by friends. She would introduce each episode, but generally disappear until the end, when she would wrap up the story. Other sleuths, such as reformed jewel thief turned insurance investigator Dennis Stanton (Keith Michell), retired spy Michael Hagarty (Len Cariou), and down-at-heel private eye Harry McGraw (Jerry Orbach), took center stage. Viewers, however, didn't like Jessica's frequent absences, and the "replacement detective" policy was eventually dropped.
Murder, She Wrote: The Celtic Riddle, aired May 92003. Jessica travels to Ireland, where she attends the reading of an old acquaintance's will. The will contains the clues to finding a secret treasure, one that will require an already strained family to work together in order to solve the mystery. It was based on The Celtic Riddle by Lyn Hamilton.
In February 2007 on the ABC daytime talk show The View,[1] Lansbury announced that she hopes to make another Murder, She Wrote TV movie in the near future, if her son, Anthony Shaw, can find a suitable story.[2]
Awards and nominations
Murder, She Wrote received numerous Emmy Award nominations. Angela Lansbury herself holds the record for the most Emmy nominations for outstanding lead actress in a drama series, with 12, one for each season. She never won, which is also a record. The show won only twice, for costume design in 1986 and music composition in 1985.
Lansbury was more successful with the Golden Globe Awards, winning four times.
Emmy Awards
Nominations
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Angela Lansbury) (1985-1996)
Golden Globes
Wins
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series - Drama (Angela Lansbury) (1985, 1987, 1990, 1992)
Best TV Series - Drama (1985, 1986)
Nominations
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series - Drama (Angela Lansbury) (1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995)
Best TV Series - Drama (1987-1990)
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Nominations
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series - Drama (Angela Lansbury) (1995)
Murder, She Wrote Novels
Novels by Donald Bain
In keeping with the spirit of the TV show, the author credit for a series of official original novels, written by Coffee, Tea, or Me? writer Donald Bain, is shared with the fictitious "Jessica Fletcher".
Gin and Daggers (1st edition) (1989)
Manhattans and Murder (1994)
Rum and Razors (1995)
Brandy and Bullets (1995)
Martinis and Mayhem (1995)
A Deadly Judgment (1996)
A Palette for Murder (1996)
The Highland Fling Murders (1997)
Murder on the QE2 (1997)
Murder in Moscow (1998)
A Little Yuletide Murder (1998)
Murder at the Powderhorn Ranch (1999)
Knock 'em Dead (1999)
Gin and Daggers (2nd edition) (2000)
Trick or Treachery (2000)
Blood on the Vine (2001)
Murder in a Minor Key (2001)
Provence - to Die for (2002)
You Bet Your Life (2002)
Majoring in Murder (2003)
Destination Murder (2003)
Dying to Retire (2004)
A Vote for Murder (2004)
The Maine Mutiny (2005)
Margaritas and Murder (2005)
A Question of Murder (2006)
Three Strikes and You're Dead (2006)
Coffee, Tea, or Murder (2007)
Panning For Murder (2007)
Murder on Parade (2008)
A Slaying in Savannah (2008)
Madison Avenue Shoot (2009)
Novels by J. B. Fletcher
During the series many novels that J. B. Fletcher wrote were mentioned. Her first novel, The Corpse Danced at Midnight, was made into a film in one episode.
The Corpse Danced at Midnight
Dirge for a Dead Dachshund
A Faded Rose Beside Her
Murder on the Amazon
Lover's Revenge
The Umbrella Murders
Murder at the Inn
Murder at the Digs
Murder in a Minor Key
The Stain on the Stairs
The Mystery of the Mutilated Minion
The Belgrade Murders
Sanitarium of Death
Calvin Canterbury's Revenge
Murder at the Asylum
Murder Comes to Maine
Good-bye, Charlie
The Corpse That Wasn't There
Ashes, Ashes, Fall Down Dead
The Messengers of Midnight
Mrs. Parker's Revenge
The Poison in My Heart
All the Murderers
Murder at the Ridge Top
The Corpse at Vespers
The Triple Crown Murders
The Crypt of Death
A Killing at Hastings Rock
The Uncaught
Murder in White
The Dead Must Sing
The Killer Called Collect
Stone Cold Dead
Endangered
The Launch Pad Murders
Runway to Murder
The Venomous Valentine
A Case of a Half of Murder
Yours Truly, Damian Sinclair
The Dead Man Sang
The Corpse Swam by Moonlight
The Zero Aspect
DVD releases
Season releases
DVD cover art of Murder, She Wrote: The Complete First Season
Encyclopedia
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