Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series focuses on the life of Jessica Fletcher, a mystery writer and amateur detective, who becomes involved in solving murders that take place in the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine, as well as across the United States and abroad. The program ran for 12 seasons from September 30, 1984, to May 19, 1996, for a total of 264 episodes and included among its recurring cast Tom Bosley, William Windom and Ron Masak.
The series was a ratings hit during its broadcast, becoming a staple of CBS Sunday night TV schedule for around a decade, while achieving distinction as one of the most successful and longest-running television shows in history, averaging 25 million viewers per week in its prime. In syndication, the series is still highly successful and popular throughout the world. For her role on the program, Lansbury was nominated for ten Golden Globes, winning four, along with nominations for 12 Emmy Awards, earning her the record for the most Golden Globe nominations and wins for Best Actress in a television drama series and the most Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. The series itself also received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series, and six Golden Globe nominations in the same category, with two major wins.
After the series finale in 1996, four television films were released from 1997 to 2003. Two point-and-click video games were released for PC: one in 2009, and a sequel in 2012. The show was spun-off into a bestselling book series in 1989; it continues to be published as of 2026.
History
Origin
Series producers Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link developed the lead role for actress Jean Stapleton, who was initially somewhat interested but eventually turned it down, threatening the project.Scrambling to find another major star, the producers thought Angela Lansbury would be perfect for the part of Jessica Fletcher but did not think that she would be interested in a television series. Earlier, she had acted in two film adaptations of Agatha Christie's mystery novels: as Salome Otterbourne in Death on the Nile and as Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack'd. When the latter film did poorly—despite an all-star cast including Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak and Tony Curtis—the offer for Lansbury to reprise Miss Marple in three more films never materialized.
When she made it known she would be available if the right project came along, the three creators sent her the script, and, almost immediately, Lansbury felt she could do something with the role of Jessica Fletcher. With Murder, She Wrote debuting on Sunday, September 30, 1984, the producers were able to parlay their "mystery writer/amateur detective" premise into a 12-year hit for CBS. It also made Lansbury, known previously for her motion picture and Broadway stage work, a household name for millions of television viewers. The title comes from Murder, She Said, which was the title of a 1961 film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel 4.50 from Paddington.
Premise
The show revolves around the day-to-day life of Jessica Fletcher, a widowed and retired English teacher, who becomes a successful mystery writer. Despite fame and fortune, Jessica remains a resident of Cabot Cove, a small coastal community in Maine, and maintains her links with all of her old friends, never letting her success go to her head.The show usually starts with a preview of the episode's events, with Jessica stating: "Tonight on Murder, She Wrote..." Jessica invariably proves more perceptive than the official investigators of a case, who are almost always willing to arrest the most likely suspect. By carefully piecing the clues together and asking astute questions, she leads the authorities to arrest the real murderer. Murder occurred with such regularity in her vicinity that the term "Cabot Cove syndrome" was coined to describe the constant appearance of dead bodies in remote locations. Indeed, if Cabot Cove existed in real life, it would top the FBI's national crime statistics in numerous categories, with some analysis suggesting that the homicide rate in Cabot Cove exceeds even that of the real-life murder capital of the world. However, Fletcher travels constantly all over the nation and the world. In 12 years, just 54 episodes out of the total 264 take place in Cabot Cove.
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 happy to have her assistance from the start, often because they are fans of her books. With time, she makes friends in many police departments across the U.S., as well as with a British police officer attached to Scotland Yard. At the start of season eight, more of the stories were set in New York City with Jessica moving into an apartment there part-time in order to teach criminology at the city university.
Production
Murder, She Wrote was mostly filmed on sound stages at Universal Studios in Universal City, California. The series also filmed exterior shots and some episodes on location in the Northern California town of Mendocino, which stood in for the fictional Maine town of Cabot Cove. Cabot Cove dockside scenes were filmed a few miles north at Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, California.Bruce Lansbury, Angela's brother, served as producer of 88 episodes of the show. He was also a writer for 15 episodes.
Lansbury considers retirement in 1988
In August 1988, Lansbury expressed weariness of her commitment to the series as she was not sure, at 63, that she could continue at the pace now required of her; she specifically cited the change from seven to eight days to shoot each episode. Thus, Murder, She Wrote went into its fifth season that autumn with the distinct possibility that it would cease production at the end of it and the series finale would air in May 1989.A solution was worked on, however, which enabled Lansbury to continue but also give her time to rest. This also enabled some secondary characters to get significant stories. For the next two seasons, Lansbury reduced her appearances in several episodes, only appearing at the beginning and the end, to introduce stories starring several friends of Jessica, such as private investigator Harry McGraw, reformed thief Dennis Stanton or MI5 agent Michael Hagarty. The "experiment" ended in 1991. In 1992, Lansbury took on a more extensive role in production as she became the show's executive producer.
Move from Sundays in 1995
Murder, She Wrote was renewed for a twelfth season after finishing the 1994–95 season as the eighth-most-watched program on television, tied with NBC's new sitcom Friends for the spot. Despite the continued popularity of the program, Lansbury was considering retirement again after the upcoming season as she would be nearing seventy years of age at its conclusion. The decision, ultimately, would not be left up to her as CBS would make a decision regarding the series that would prove problematic for the network on two separate nights of programming.Murder, She Wrote was, at the time, the most popular scripted series on CBS; in fact, it had been one of only two series on the network to garner a rating in the top ten. Meanwhile, over at NBC, their Thursday night Must See TV lineup had been a ratings powerhouse for years and CBS decided to use Murder, She Wrote in an effort to cut into their viewership. So, after eleven years on Sunday night, the series moved to Thursday for the 1995–1996 season. It would keep the same time slot on its new night, leading off a lineup that included the new drama New York News and the long-running news magazine 48 Hours.
The move was met with protests from fans, and the entire Thursday night lineup for CBS proved to be no match for NBC's lineup. Going up against Friends and a pair of freshman comedies in its time slot, Murder, She Wrote saw its ratings drop significantly on Thursday; in fact, the series dropped below a 10.0 rating when the final season ratings were tabulated.
Meanwhile, in the Sunday time slot that Murder, She Wrote was vacating, CBS elected to try a situation comedy block. Leading off the 8 o'clock hour, CBS went with Cybill, which starred Cybill Shepherd; the show had premiered on Mondays approximately halfway through the previous season and had finished just outside the top twenty in the ratings. Cybill would be paired with the new series Almost Perfect, which starred Nancy Travis as a television producer. The decision made here also failed, as Cybill fell to 50th place in the final ratings. Almost Perfect was moved to Mondays in March as an attempt to salvage the sitcom, and in its place CBS tried a retooled Bonnie Hunt Show, which had been airing on Friday nights; the show ran for five additional episodes before it was canceled.
Ultimately, Murder, She Wrote finished in 58th place in the final ratings and CBS opted not to renew the series for a thirteenth season. The network did, however, eventually reverse itself on the scheduling. Two episodes were scheduled for Sunday nights as 1996 began, with the first airing on January 7 and the second on February 25. Both of these episodes pulled in significantly higher ratings than the show had been garnering on Thursday, approaching nearly twenty million viewers for each of the two airings. CBS elected to return Murder, She Wrote to Sundays for the last four episodes of the series, which began on April 28. Three of the four episodes drew over sixteen million viewers and the finale, which aired on May 19, 1996, finished in the top 20 of that week's ratings.