Random Thinking

Murder She Wrote (Season 1)

My daughter and I watch this show at midnight every Saturday night. It is our opportunity to bond as together we make fun of what is one the worst television shows I have ever watched. Yes, I know I am going to be stomped on by the many fans of this horror but I can’t lie. I wasn’t a big television watcher back in the 80′s so if this is an example of great TV from then, I can only assume that TV was awful (or should I say offal).

The DVD set includes the pilot. How did this show ever get past the pilot? The inane plot, the overacting of Bert Convy and Arthur Hill, the underacting of Brian Keith, the lame attempts at comedy, and the incredibly doltish ending. It also creates a conundrum for the script writers as J.B. Fletcher gets her start when her nephew (who has a recurring role in the series) secretly sends her first manuscript off to the publishers. Future episodes, however, make J.B. out to be a modern day Agatha Christie with a boatload of novels and new ones on the way all the time (although how she finds the time to write a novel with all the murders going on around her is beyond me). And speaking about all the murders, how could one person possibly know so many murder victims? It’s frightening how often murders occur around this woman. If I found out that J.B. Fletcher was visiting my town, I would certainly head off on a vacation immediately!

It’s hard to pick out the worst episode of the actual first season but probably the last one, Funeral at Fifty-Mile could qualify although Murder to a Jazz Beat could give it a run for its money. As to the least worst, Death Takes a Curtain Call with William Conrad playing a major in the Russian army wasn’t bad. And there was actually one good episode in the season. Footnote to Murder with Paul Sand was actually quite funny and the mystery itself wasn’t bad. Sand does a great job playing the drunken poet Horace Lynchfield. But these are the exceptions. The typical episode features a confused plot performed by actors who once were famous (Cesar Romero, Jose Ferrer, Herschel Bernardi), who were never famous, or were on the D-List at the time. The best part of the episodes is the opening credits when you can play “try to recognize the name”. The worst part is the usually incredibly stupid joke that is inserted at the end of most episodes. They are generally not funny but more the type of joke that makes you roll your eyes in disbelief.

OK, I am willing to admit that Angela Lansbury is probably the reason that this show was on for so long. She generally plays the character of J.B. Fletcher quite well in spite of the terrible scripts that she must endure. Lansbury is a fine actor and she deserved much better than the words she is forced to regurgitate but she does a good job nonetheless. In fact, Lansbury keeps this from being a one-star rating, as tempted as I am to give it only one star.

Anyway, in spite of all this, I can recommend this show as a guilty pleasure. It is so bad that it is good (well, sometimes).