Murder, She Wrote

Murder, She Wrote is an American mystery television series, starring Angela Lansbury as the lead character, Jessica Fletcher. It aired as a weekly series on CBS from 1984 to 1996, and continued with several made-for-TV movies into 2003. Lansbury served as executive producer of the series during its later seasons.

Related Topics:
American - Mystery - Television - Angela Lansbury - Jessica Fletcher - CBS - 1984 - 1996 - 2003 - Executive producer

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Jessica Fletcher is a writer of mystery novels, who comes across murders by accident and solves them in much the same way as Agatha Christie's character Miss Marple. Also like Miss Marple, Fletcher lives in a small village: the fictional Cabot Cove in Maine. (Lansbury had played Marple in the 1980 film adaptation of The Mirror Crack'd.)

Related Topics:
Agatha Christie - Miss Marple - Cabot Cove - Maine - 1980 - The Mirror Crack'd

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Despite the leading lady's success in Murder, She Wrote, she was not the producer's original choice of star. Actressess Jean Stapleton and Doris Day were offered, and consecutively turned down, the main part.

Related Topics:
Producer - Jean Stapleton - Doris Day

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The show enjoyed a wide audience, and was for several years the longest-running mystery show on television. Throughout its run, countless notable stars played guest parts, making it a considerably diverse show. In total there were 264 weekly episodes, and Lansbury subsequently reprised the character in four (to date) T.V. movies between 1997 and 2003.

Related Topics:
1997 - 2003

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Although Lansbury was the show's main star, the series was arranged so that several episodes each year would focus upon one of her friends and their mystery-solving exploits, allowing Lansbury to appear only briefly in the episodes and take a break in filming. One of these recurring characters, a private detective named Harry McGraw (Jerry Orbach) was popular enough to garner his own, short-lived spinoff series in 1987, The Law & Harry McGraw. The character of Jessica Fletcher also appeared in an episode of Magnum P.I. in 1986.

Related Topics:
Private detective - Jerry Orbach - 1987 - The Law & Harry McGraw - Magnum P.I. - 1986

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A series of original novels based upon Murder, She Wrote was published in the late 1980s and early 1990s; in keeping with the spirit of the TV show, the author credit for these books was given to the fictitious "Jessica Fletcher".

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Murder, She Wrote is often shown in the United Kingdom in the 14:35 BBC1 time slot on weekdays and on Ten Network in Australia weekdays at noon. Australian cable viewers also enjoy the show on TV1, (During Crime Time AM.) It continues to air multiple times daily in the United States -- on both A&E (a basic cable network) and its sister network on extended cable, the Biography Channel.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - BBC1 - Ten Network - A&E - Biography Channel

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The first season of Murder, She Wrote was released on Region 1 DVD on March 29, 2005 and on Region 2 DVD on August 29, 2005.

Related Topics:
March 29 - 2005 - August 29

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