S1E05 - Murder, She Wrote!

Hi, friends. So I ended up taking an unplanned extended hiatus for no other reason than life. Life happened. I started a full-time job. I went on a little family vacation and then just had no time to sit like this and record. Until now.

But I’ve had so many ideas over the past few weeks of what I want to talk about. But let’s start with a new show I just started watching called Murder, She Wrote. So I think it was a couple months ago I started perusing Apple TV, I like to check it out periodically and to see what kind of TV show box sets go on sale. I do this every once in a while in case something really good comes up and I’ve been waiting for Dallas to go on some kind of sale because I absolutely love that show and I became obsessed with it – I think it was back in my teens when I got the first four or five seasons on DVD. And I still have the DVDs, but as a lot of people these days, I don’t have anywhere to watch them. But I actually have a lot of shows and movies that are on DVD that I haven’t watched in a long time just because of the simple fact that DVD players have become so outdated. Like, who would have thought?

But anyway, I saw that Murder, She Wrote, The Complete Series was on sale for 25 bucks in Canada. So I bought it. And I’d never actually seen a full episode of the show before. But as a huge Magnum PI fan, I was familiar with Jessica Fletcher from the crossover episode where she visited Hawaii and Robin’s Nest on Magnum PI. So I sat down and I watched the first episode. It’s a two parter entitled Murder of Sherlock Holmes.

And I loved it.

So it stars Angela Lansbury, who is an absolute icon. And the first thing I actually saw her in was Gaslight, which is such an amazing movie. It’s actually the origin of the term Gaslight. And it stars Charles Boyer as a husband, who’s basically making his wife believe that she’s going insane. I highly recommend watching that movie. But yeah, the first thing I actually noticed was that Bert Convy is in this episode. And I actually only know him from game shows. He was a host on Tattletales, which I love from 70s and I think early 80s. He was a panelist on The Match Game, which I have been watching on YouTube and the Game Show Network for a very long time. And I knew that he was an actor and I never actually seen him in anything other than an episode of Bewitched. And I had remembered in a couple of episodes of Tattletales that he mentioned that he can sing and he used to be a really good singer. And I had no idea until recently he was actually in the original production of Cabaret. And it was really good to hear him singing in this episode.

And I saw a lot of other familiar faces and I couldn’t immediately place them until I thought about it. Like Dennis Patrick. I knew his face and it took me a second to recognize him as a character from Lost in Space. And his name was Mr. Keema, “The Golden Man” (if you know, you know). And he was also in Dallas. He apparently appeared in more than 1,800 guest roles on television over the course of four decades, which is amazing. Such a prolific actor.

I also recognized Ned Beatty, and he was in an episode of MASH. And also in a really good episode of Highway to Heaven, which is another amazing show from the 80s that I will talk about soon.

And I was really surprised to see all the Star Trek connections too. Like Trisha O’Neill, she plays Ashley Vickers in this episode. And she actually played the ill-fated Captain Rachel Garrett in one of the best episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation called Yesterday’s Enterprise. And she also played a Klingon in Next Generation and a Cardassian in Star Trek Deep Space Nine. And I knew she looked familiar the whole time I was watching it. I just couldn’t place her. And I think it’s because the characters that she plays in this and in Star Trek are just so different that i didn’t connect it in my head until I looked it up afterwards and that just goes to show how great of an actress she is.

And Paddi Edwards who plays Lois was in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. So super cool, I love all the Star Trek connections.

And the episode itself: I really loved the twist and turns, and it was just such a fantastic way to start off the show. It definitely sucked me in. And apparently the show was actually developed for Jean Stapleton. She played Edith Bunker on All in the Family, but she ended up turning it down, so it went to Angela Lansbury. And I don’t want to give anything from the plot away other than to say that I really love Angela Lansbury’s character. She’s so smart. She’s so independent. She’s such a badass. And I love that even as the head of this show, as an older woman, she was given a love interest right off the bat.

And I know I have a long way to go. The show is 12 seasons long. But I do know that there are a lot of guest stars on the show that I’m probably going to recognize. So I really can’t wait to get into it. And I’ll be sure to do an episode overview or two in the future. I was thinking of jumping ahead to watch the Magnum PI crossover and then continue. But no, maybe not. I think I’ll just wait and watch everything in order.

But if you’re a Murder, She Wrote fan or if you just love classic TV like me, I’d love to hear from you.

Message me on Instagram or leave a comment. Tell me what your favourite episode is or what guest star were you shocked to recognize? I’m really enjoying this, really getting into it. It’s just finding the time these days to sit and watch.

Anyways, thanks for listening and until next time, take good care of each other.