Episodes 1 and 2 - "Death Stalks the Big Top, Parts 1 and 2"
Wow, this is a helluva season opener - circuses! Lecherous sadists, carnies, a grandfather who may have faked his death, a bullied kid, possibly murderous elephants, and - of couse - our beloved Jessica Fletcher right in the middle of it.
Jessica's niece Carol is about to get married in three days, when she receives a secret gift in the mail - a gift that indicates her dead grandfather may be less than dead. Jessica tracks the gift to a nearby pawn shop, who indicates the purchaser originated in the local circus (!). Of course he did.
So Jessica starts poking around the circus, only to discover all is not well under the big top. The circus owner is a louse, there is a sadist wandering around abusing kids and moms both, elephants are restive... and then the sadist is found beaten to death by the elephants. And the man Jessica has been looking for is framed for the murder. Jessica has to fight against a REALLY huge jerk of a mayor just to poke around like she usually does. It's a two-parter, so there are many twists and turns before the bride from the very beginning learns the truth about her mystery gift.
Boy is this chock full of great guests! The bride is a very young Courtney Cox (Friends). The jerk mayor is the great Ronny Cox (the films Deliverance, Beverly Hills Cop I/II, RoboCop, Total Recall, Murder at 1600 the television show St. Elsewhere and others). As far as I know, Courtney and Ronny Cox aren't related.
One of the suspects is the great Alex Cord (long-running part on Airwolf, many roles on other shows). The little kid who gets bullied is Joey Cramer, who I know and love from the '80s children's classic Flight of the Navigator. Making a great appearance here is Florence Henderson, the mom on Brady Bunch! And, finally, the super jerk who ends up murdered is Charles Napier, known either as some kind of military man or as a villain in things like The Blues Brothers, Melvin and Howard, Rambo II, Deep Space, and the judge in Philadelphia. Here's great here - it must be difficult to make yourself that awful.
Episode 3 - "Unfinished Business"
This is a good set-up: retiring detective has The One Case That Haunts Him, and despite being given a retirement gift of a cruise 'round the world, he insists on making the trip to Juniper Lake and trying once and for all to solve the unsolved murder.
Tied up in the mess is Doc Hazlitt, and when he disappears Jessica get on the case... and of course, stumbles into another murder. The episode quickly becomes a locked room mystery like some kind of backwoods Agatha Christie: old detective, determined sheriff, and Jessica are all investigating. Do their motives align? Or are they not quite allies?
The sheriff, who is quite likeable, is played by J.D. Cannon, who we previously saw in the Season 1 finale "Funeral at Fifty-Mile." He's known for roles in Death Wish II, Raise the Titanic, Scorpio, Cool Hand Luke, and the show McCloud. The retired detective is the immortal Pat Hingle, known for great films like Nevada Smith, Hang 'Em High, Norma Rae, Running Scared, Sudden Impact, Brewster's Millions, Maximum Overdrive, Batman Returns/Forever, and Muppers From Space.
Hayley Mills appears! Known, of course, for The Parent Trap and for her too-short role as Ms. Bliss on Saved By the Bell, she sadly isn't given enough to do here. Finally, Erin Moran is here too, best known as Joanie on Happy Days and the spinoff Joanie Loves Chachi.
Episode 4 - "One White Rose for Death"
This is a little bit of a cheat - this episode is basically recycling the Season 1 episode "Death Takes a Curtain Call," only here the musical defectors are East German instead of Soviet Russians. They also up the action a little bit, and then pen Jessica up in an embassy for most of the episode, forcing her to make the rounds of the suspects rather than have the suspects more or less come to her.
But ultimately the impact is much reduced because there is no duel between Jessica and the wily KGB agent. What's interesting is that the character of Michael Hagarty (played against by Len Cariou) appears, again with a fake identity doing high-level British intelligence work that he rather strangely allows our American mystery writer full access to.
The Mueller siblings (defectors) are played by John Glover (Long-running role on the TV show Smallville) and Maria Mayenzet (Tour of Duty and Santa Barbara). The first secretary is played by the great Australian actor Tony Bonner (Man from Snowy River, Quigley Down Under, many more). TV character actor Bernard Fox is also present (too many shows to list). Finally, soap opera legend Eric Braeden is here as well, who has appeared in more than 2,500+ episodes (!) of The Young and the Restless.
Episode 5 - "Corned Beef and Carnage"
This is a great, classic episode in every sense. Returning from Season 1, Jessica's niece Victoria (still married to the cross-dressing singer Howard) has a new job at an advertising company run by the immoral skeezebucket Larry Kinkaid. Larry bullies and abuses all his underlings, including the sad sack Aubrey, all while wheeling and dealing for a "huge" Corned Beef franchise account... but then, of course, one night Larry is killed, and the main clue is a strange uneaten sandwich on his desk. Jessica steps in to avoid her niece getting railroaded by the idiot police, and saves the day.
Boy oh boy!! Where to start with these guest stars? First, Larry. Larry the character is sort of an in-joke, as the actor is the great Richard Kline - who is famous for playing the skeezy playboy character Larry on Three's Company. His much-maligned underling Aubrey is played by the great actor David Ogden Stiers, famous for his role on M*A*S*H as Charles Emerson Winchester III. Victoria is again Genie Francis, and Howard is again Jeff Conaway (who I always enjoy seeing). Larry's brother Myron is played by Bill Macy, who was Walter Findlay on Maude. Finally the idiot cop is James Sloyan, who has another six episodes coming up in the future on Murder, She Wrote - five of them as repeat character Robert Butler.
Episode 6 - "Dead Man's Gold"
Another pretty decent one, although the main plot is a little too opaque, and there is a quasi-romantic sideplot that never really gathers steam and thus generates little interest. A group of treasure hunters has come to Cabot Cove, partially bankrolled by Jessica's old flame David Everett. But the diver's soon run into problems - possible sabotage almost kills one of them! Then, another diver is run down on the road after getting drunk and falling out with her partner. All the while, David is staying with Jessica, partially to flirt and partially to avoid a loan shark and his muscle. It's a big watery treasury mess, and Jessica has to unravel it.
David Everett is Leslie Nielsen, second time he's been on the show and the second time he's played someone involved with the sea. Much of the cast in this one were well-known on soap operas (Grand Goodeve, John Laughlin, more), which I am generally unfamiliar with.
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