TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, Jessica is investigating the death of the fox-hunting Virginian patriarch of the worst family ever, which she refuses to believe is an accident. 

She might be right, as the greedy children (the deadwood, the kook, the lush) are shocked to learn they've been passed over for his inheritance. The actual beneficiary? The family dog Teddy; and they are all peeved as hell.  Chaos is amplified when an unexpected decapitation(!) in the second act points the finger squarely at Teddy. (It'll make sense when it happens, sort of.) 

Could the darling pooch actually have done it? Or was it Jessica's beloved cousin, Abby (Lynn Redgrave), the groundskeeper (Tom Cassidy), the opportunist hick next door (Gregory Walcott), the despondent niece (Cherie Currie), or the not-a-big-city lawyer (Dean Jones).  

"It's a Dog's Life" also stars Cathryn Damon, Jared Martin, and Lenore Kasdorf as the spoiled rich kids, and Roger Miller as this week's detective who resents that Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is smarter than him. It's a mystery with drugged horses, casual confederate flags, and missing bicycle clips, all leading to a shocking courtroom finale that'll push all your buttons.