Murder, He Wrote! (Season 2, Episodes 10-14)

Episode 10 - "Sticks and Stones"

This is a pretty good one - Sheriff Amos retires (with gusto) and hands the badge over the former realtor Harry Pierce (seen in several recent episodes). At the same time, the lovely Bev Gareth is electrocuted in her bath when he tries to adjust her TV that has a badly (and intentionally?) frayed cord - and with her death, the way is clear for hundreds of condos to spring up on a beautiful Atlantic bluff in Cabot Cove. Hmmmmm.


And just after THAT, dozens and dozens of poison pen letters are circulated througout town - but Jessica figures out that only ONE of them is real! But which one? And then the prime suspect in sending the letters, old Elvira Tree, is found hanged in her backyard! Is it the greedy realtors? The TV cord repairman? The shady character boarding with old Elvira?? Jessica is on the case, and the real culprit is a doozy. 

This is John Aston's final turn on Murder, She Wrote - which is too bad, he's fun in a whiny, nervous kind of way. Paul Benedict appears, who is The Mad Painter on Sesame Street and also appears as Harry Bentley on The Jeffersons. The hanged woman, Elvira, is played by Marsha Hunt, who is 99 at the time of this blog post (2016)!!! Congratulations to her. Her career goes WAY back, to 1935, and I bet she has some great stories to tell. She appeared in many many decent B-movies and transitioned easily to television in the late 1950s. 

I want to make a special note here about Doctor Seth Hazlitt, who has become Jessica's closest friend and confident in Cabot Cove. He's played by William Windom, and he's really effective in that role - wise, funny, a little sour, a little taciturn, intelligent, and loyal. I miss Claude Atkins, but Windom is a really great addition. William Windom, who died in 2012, appeared in many, many TV shows starting in the mid-1950s, and 53 episodes of Murder, She Wrote. 

Episode 11 - "Murder Digs Deep"

An odd duck, but a pretty good mystery - Jessica and Doc Hazlitt visit an archeological dig at an Anasazi site, where the rich jerk in charge is hunting for Coronado's City of Gold. There is a lot of discussion about sensitivity towards American Indians. 

Virtually every character here is unlikeable - the professor leading the dig, the TV celebrity who has the digging rights, the avaricious moneybags paying for the whole thing, his young and stupid wife, the suspiciously ignorant Navajo guide, the thuggish security crew... all of them! Jessica has to unravel the truth under pressure here, and of course she does it, and it's interesting. 

Guest actors here include Randolph Mantooth (Detective School, Operation Petticoat, and a very long-running role on '70s show Emergency!), Connie Stevens (Starting from Scratch, Wendy and Me, Hawaiian Eye), and Robert Vaughn (Hustle, The A-Team, Emerald Point NAS, and The Man from UNCLE). 

Episode 12 - "Murder by Appointment Only"

When Jessica comes to New York to visit her nephew Grady, who has applied for a job at Lila Lee Cosmetics (think Mary Kay), which happens to be having a giant convention at a fancy hotel that weekend. 

Jessica gets caught up in a murder when she discovers her most promising former student is dating company CEO Norman Amberson... and is then found murdered, her oil painting defaced with a shade of lipstick that was supposed to be discontinued. The case gets juicier, with high class prostitution, affairs, insane jealousy, and the kookiest lavender laboratory you will EVER see, filled with what looks like mad scientist equipment. 

This one is fun, and is helped along enormously by the great Robert Culp, who long and worthy career includes starring turns in Trackdown, I, Spy, and The Greatest American Hero, and appearances in films like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Turk 182!. Lila Lee herself is played by Jayne Meadows (who died last year at age 95), and who appeared in films like Lady in the Lake, Dark Delusion, City Slickers (I and II), and more. Finally, Police Lieutenant Artie Gelber is played by the great Herb Edelman, who plays the role in ten different episodes, and is probably best known as Stan Zbornak (Bea Arthur's awful ex) on Golden Girls, a role he played to the hilt 25 times. 

Episode 13 - "Trial by Error"

A variant on the Twelve Angry Men scenario, Jessica is the foreman in a rather complex trial - a man stands accused of killing the jealous almost-ex-husband of his one night stand, in self-defense, the same night he is in a tremendous car wreck that nearly kills his wife. WTF? It's a labyrinth, and the jury has its hands full trying to sort everything out. I know I got lost more than once and had the rewind things to make sure I understand what was happening. 

Involved here are actors like David Ackroyd (AfterMASH), Tony Bill (Less Than Zero, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Ice Station Zebra), Macdonald Carey (154 episodes of Days of Our Lives, Lock Up, Dr. Christian), and DRUMROLL, Alan Hale, Jr.! Better known as The Skipper from Gilligan's Island. Also, Vicki Lawrence appears in her second Murder, She Wrote appearance, as a juror. 

Episode 14 - "Keep the Home Fries Burning"

What a weird one - a new diner, The Joshua Peabody Inn, steals business away from Dixon's (the mainstay, seen in other episodes), and Jessica and her pals go to check it out. But when poisoned preserves make several customers very ill, and kills one of them (!), Jessica has to investigate and figure out who would serve poison, who was the intended recipient, and why they would do it. Like many episodes, what seems simple is complicated and what seems complicated is simple. 

Actors here include Orson Bean (Desperate Housewives, a very long run on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman), Norman Alden (films like They Live, Ed Wood, Back to the Future),  and the great Alan Young - whose Scottish voice millions know and love as Disney's Scrooge McDuck, and here plays the owner of the new diner. His voice is unmistakable.