TONIGHT on Murder, She Wrote

And weeeeeeee're off to the races TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE! Place your bets* on the killer of the week or on our favorite dirty nose* Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), persistent meddler and murder mystery writer who this week is at the track to help exonerate yet another family member, this time niece Tracy (Linda Grovenor). 

Detective of the week Misko (Roy Thinnes in a stupid hat) joins Jessica to determine who's behind the murder, centered around Anchors Away, a 20-to-1. The usual jockey, Carlos Gallegos (Bert Rosario), gets replaced by Tracy at the last minute, a major boon for a rookie steeplechaser*. It's all just in time for Aunt Jessica to learn from his wife, Vicky (Priscilla Barnes), and a couple of gambling eccentrics (Carole Cook and Jack Carter) all the reasons why the sleeper won't win; but when he does, it's almost more shocking than the corpse found soon after. Is it a ringer?* A fix* Something clubhouse turn?*

It's a story of mob ties, undocumented Panamanians, food poisoning, lip tattoos, and carrots; this is DEAD HEAT. 

Norman Fell joins the cast as a mobster in a great suit, Clu Gulager returns as a horse vet whose medical bag goes missing, Ramon Bieiri is the cranky security guard, and Derrel Maury is Cookie the horse wrangler and our latest inductee into the #HotGuysOfMurderSheWrote.

(* horse racing talk, sorry.)

TONIGHT ON MURDER SHE, WROTE, we are heading for a restful jaunt to a local lake resort to enjoy the company of new friends, get in some nature walks, and catch up on our sun.  Oh, sorry, no. This one has dead bodies, lascivious affairs with the staff, fugitives, mental abuse between spouses, and naked women running in the woods. Bring your binoculars because things are about to go down. 

Intrepid murder mystery writer Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is persuaded by a friend in real estate (John Astin) to visit this perilous cabin in the woods. We get a quick glimpse of the matron of the property (Lee Meriwether) staring threateningly out of the upstairs window, setting the tone that this week may have more in store than planned. 

The players are many: the nebbish birdwatcher Hollis (William Christopher), the outgoing naturalist (Lee Purcell), and two sets of unhappy couples! There's the uncharismatic Turneys (Lauren Tewes and Charles Frank), where the wife is having an affair with the pool house boy/handyman (Charles Taylor); and the bickering Cranes (Susan Blanchard and Laurence Luckinbill), who give us all an unpleasant look into their home life during a particularly aggressive card game. 

When a body fails to wash up after going overboard during a morning boat ride fight, the question is how and why, as the who seems pretty straightforward. Naturally, Jessica is not convinced and will have to spend the rest of the week letting Sheriff Tupper (Tom Bosley) know how incorrect he is every step of the way.  We also have William Windom returning as Dr. Seth Hazlitt to provide medical clues that will shock everyone... except our fearless protagonist, who's one step ahead in this mystery of A LADY IN THE LAKE. 

Hope you know your regional birds' nesting patterns. It'll be on the quiz. 

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, are you ready to face your REFLECTIONS OF THE MIND?! The music boxes are going off on their own, ghastly visages of mutilated bodies are in the bathroom, and the canaries are of uncertain vintage. 

Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is a noted mystery writer who has scads of friends and family members who find themselves in trouble. This time around, she's visiting the hysterical (the freaking out kind, not funny kind) pal Francesca Lodge (Ann Blyth), who's convinced someone is sneaking around her house, and who's to say she's wrong?

She's recently lost a husband, has a new hot race car driving one (Ben Murphy), is still reconnecting with a daughter (Stacey Nelkin) who's in recovery from drugs and rock and roll, and even the hired help are suspicious: the gardener Carl (Wings Hauser) and the maid Margaret (Esther Rolle). Perhaps the only one in her corner is her doctor/pill provider (Steven Keats), if he's not the one causing her mental break. 

When things keep going wrong (cars going off the road, possible ghosts, and really bad album art), Jessica is the one to bet on to get to the bottom of it, alongside the sheriff (Martin Milner), who actually seems to listen to her this time.  

Your intrepid podcasters, Viktor and Petra, can't wait to see how this turns out, but we may need a drink (wait, is that right?) to prepare for the drive. 

SING A SONG OF MURDER features our most illustrious special guest star yet: Angela Lansbury herself!

We meet Jessica Fletcher's English cousin Emma MacGill, headliner of the Mayhew Music Hall, which is only filling at partial capacity these days. Her co-star, Shakespearean actor turned terrible vaudevillian comic, Oliver Trumbull (Patrick Macnee), is of no help in getting folks in the seats, and his daughter, Kitty (Olivia Hussey), is hoping he sees the light and goes legit. She spends most of the time yelling his name; buckle in.  

Her business partners, the Weems (Sarah Douglas and Kenneth Danziger), want to sell to shady local character Danny Briggs (Gregory Paul Martin). Still, Emma is holding things up, much to their chagrin--and the frustration of her personal assistant Bridget (Glynis Johns). 

Jessica is brought into the fray when an attempt is made on Emma's life--which means we're going full on Parent Trap with Lansbury meets Lansbury on screen.  Plus, we get a musical number, mistaken identities, and an inspector (Barrie Ingram) who actually listens to our intrepid mystery writer. 

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE we're goin' back to school where the teachers are all sluts who are lying to each other, the typewriters are ever so distinctive, and the train station attendant is just out to mess with you. 

Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), noted mystery writer and murder solver, has been asked to speak at the commencement for Grenshaw College. She is quickly witness to the extracurricular activities of the faculty, made up of professors who are either sleeping with each other or utterly shocked at the notion that they're sleeping with each other. Things get wild at the party held by English department head Dr. Jocelyn Laird (Polly Bergen) when a frequently shirtless, up to no good former student (Morgan Stevens) shows up with Laird's daughter, literary smut writer Daphne Clover (Mary Kate McGeehan). 

Mother and daughter are both suspects when the hunky alumnus is found dead on campus the next evening. Detective of the week, Police Chief Griffin (Jack Kehoe), is certain it's either of them, but Jess is unconvinced when there are so many other partygoing academics that it could be instead. 

Could it be Dr Kenyon (Roddy McDowall) or Professor Mercer (James Sutorius), who are both up for the next promotion, or the easily appalled Henry Hayward (John Vernon)? Mrs. Mercer (Darleen Carr) also seems to know the murder victim, and Beryl Hayward (June Lockhart) seems to be the only sensible one who knows what everyone's been up to.  Train schedules, candlesticks, and curved typography all factor into the conclusion of SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL. 

This is going to affect enrollment, isn't it?

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, we're gettin' soapy.

Anyone alive in the '80s knows that we were an American culture obsessed with bitchy women in shoulder pads duking it out and saying nasty things to each other in the world of soap operas.  We meet a cast of actors who either want job security or want to be off the series, and no one is getting what they want.  Villainous writer Joyce Holleran (THE Jessica Walter) is making massive changes to the series OUR SECRET LIVES, and TV characters are getting killed off left and right by an in-universe masked and cloaked assassin, The Avenger.  When Joyce herself falls apparent victim to the mysterious figure, the question is, who was in the disguise?  

Perhaps it was the actress Nita (Alice Krige) who donned the visage for the show, or is that all a distraction from one of her more ambitious co-stars, afraid of Joyce's pen?  The possibilities include longtime legend of the show Julian Tenley (Lloyd Nolan), series sex object Todd Worthy (Nicholas Hammond), the lascivious lead Bibi Hartman (our patron saint, Tricia O'Neil), the recently ousted Martin Grattop (Robert Lipton), or maybe it's the show's detective Herbert Upton (Paul Burke).

Since Nita is Jessica Fletcher's niece, you know she needs to get involved; our intrepid murder mystery author and busybody (Angela Lansbury) storms the set to determine if someone may be responsible. On the call sheet, it's our director Gordon LaMonica (Terry Kiser), assistant staff writer Carol Needom (Mackenzie Phillips), and Joyce's very own boy-toy husband Larry (William Atherton).  Robert Walden is our Watson of the week, Lt. Antonelli, and Lurene Tuttle is a delightful 2-scene wonder as Nita's grandmother, all while Jessica explores the secrets to be revealed via teleprompter; it's MURDER IN THE AFTERNOON.

When is it a good idea to lie to the FBI? We may learn TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE! 

This week, we return to Cabot Cove just as a skeleton is unearthed on the construction site of a controversial hotel project. When the body is a likely candidate for either the town's revolutionary hero Joshua Peabody, some rando who liked reenactments, or this week's local good guy with a shameful secret, it's up to local celebrity busybody Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) to lead the case. 

The town is appropriately aghast when the hotel project's opportunistic businessman Henderson Wheatley (John Ericson), whom no one likes, soon joins the unknown body on the morgue slab. Now the question is who killed the terrible man and what connection may he have to corpse #1?

Suspects include the construction tough with a mysterious hand wound (Ken Swofford), the sultry and dedicated blue-eyed newscaster with a vendetta (Meg Foster), and a real estate money man (John Astin)--plus nice guy (Michael Sarrazin) who the FBI (represented by the granite jaw of Chuck Connors) who it Just Can't Be. 

Jessica, Sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley), and newcomer to the series Dr. Seth Hazlitt (William Windom) try to decide whether or not JOSHUA PEABODY DIED HERE... POSSIBLY. Grab a tarp and ready the wheelbarrow because this one's a doozy!

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, let's go on a vacation... of death!

Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is undercover at the resort where a dear friend has been murdered, and she's determined to find the culprit.  Along the way, she finds the dashing Michael Haggarty (Len Cariou) who seems to know more than he's letting on, the suspicious hotel security (Howard Hesseman), the cornfed midwest darling schoolteacher Veronica Harrold (Anne Lockhart), the hotel manager Eric Brahm (Mel Ferrer), and the fabulous Ms. Alva Crane (Mary Wickes), who's after what we're all after: the man in the tight pants with the drinks.

Jessica's detective chort this time is Raymond St. Jacques as Chief Inspector Claude Rensselaer, who would be more helpful if he didn't constantly blow her cover in public.  When another murder takes place, it's up to them to suss out what the connection is... and why everyone's jewelry seems to be really fake.  Expect it to require invigorating iced tea (no chemicals), a purple turban, misplaced safe deposit keys, and an accent that can intimidate even Cyd Charrise. Our taste is expensive; we only drink Rothschild '61.  If you don't have it, get it, and turn on WIDOW, WEEP FOR ME.

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE: We are stretching, candlelit bathing, and taking time for ourselves between jaunts on our bikes and bouts of on-land swimming. That's right, folks, get your peach onesie because we're exploring Angela Lansbury's POSITIVE MOVES.  

This landmark in celebrity lifestyle, wellbeing, and fitness videotape is full of advice for the mah-tour, sexual, and active woman. Viktor and Petra are going to do their best to keep up in this bonus episode as we cap our season 1 of MURDER SHE WROTE. 

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, it's a full-season review with Viktor and Petra to share the highs and lows of our first year of Jessica Fletcher, the denizens of Cabot Cove, and the many people who live and die in and around it. 

In this special edition of the pod, revisit the hot guys, thrilling locales, sizzling action sequences, our favorite one-scene wonders, the most deserving to get bumped off, and more.