NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well...

[MacLeod]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

I'm afraid they're going to go too edgy with Murder, She Wrote by making her a lesbian pop singer or something who writes books and solves crimes.

They're making her an African-American "hospital administrator and amateur sleuth... who self-publishes her first mystery novel." I guess the self-publishing thing is trying to be trendy.

The premise for MURDER SHE WROTE stretches credibility to the breaking point, at least for the original series. 22 times each year for 12 years the same woman just happens to be in the vicinity of one murder virtually seven days. I long ago came to the conclusion that the 264 ''murderers'' were framed and Jessica Fletcher was guilty as hell.

Yep, that's a popular theory, Jessica Fletcher as the world's most brilliant serial killer. Although it still doesn't explain why anyone was still willing to invite her anywhere after a while...

Or why Cabot Cove was still populated. Seriously given the murder rate there is a wonder anyone stayed and didn't move somewhere safer.

 

[scotpens]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

Yep, that's a popular theory, Jessica Fletcher as the world's most brilliant serial killer. Although it still doesn't explain why anyone was still willing to invite her anywhere after a while...

Or why Cabot Cove was still populated. Seriously given the murder rate there is a wonder anyone stayed and didn't move somewhere safer.

Considering that Cabot Cove was supposed to be a small fishing village in Maine, it's a wonder anyone was still alive!

 

[Zaku]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

Considering that Cabot Cove was supposed to be a small fishing village in Maine, it's a wonder anyone was still alive!

It's been calculated that Cabot Cove has a murder rate of 86 per 1000; by comparison, the most murderous city in the world, Caracas, has a murder rate of 1.1 per 1000.

 

[Orac Zen]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

[...] What made it work was Angela Lansbury's talent and charisma [...]

Bingo. Even though the show required Angela Lansbury to utilise perhaps 2% (at most) of her extraordinary talent, it was that talent that made the show work. It's somewhat depressing that M,SW is what most people will remember Ms Lansbury for.

To each their own and all, but I won't be watching any remake, regardless of who's involved.

 

[Silvercrest]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

What made it work was Angela Lansbury's talent and charisma, and the legion of name guest stars she was surrounded with, and the cleverness of the writing and the mysteries.

Was it clever? Whenever I watched it, Jessica solved the case by pulling heretofore-unknown facts out of thin air and fingering a suspect who hadn't been discussed before. I figured out pretty fast that you can generally tell "whodunit" by observing which character figures into the story the least.

 

[Christopher]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

^Some seasons of M,SW were clever, others not so much. As with any long-running show, it was variable. But at its best it was a pretty solid mystery show. Remember, it was co-created by Richard Levinson and William Link, who also gave us Columbo. (Hey, I just learned on Wikipedia that it was based on their failed Ellery Queen series -- they just took the idea of a mystery writer-cum-amateur detective and gender-swapped it.)

 

[Silvercrest]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

At least with Ellery Queen you had a chance to decipher the clues! (Not that I ever succeeded, of course.)

 

[Christopher]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

I don't agree with your characterization of M,SW. As far as I recall, it played its mysteries as fairly as any other TV show. There's no way Levinson and Link would've tolerated a mystery that handled its clues as unfairly and shoddily as you imply.

 

[Silvercrest]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

I'm not making a blanket characterization... I'm only reporting what I saw and why I wasn't particularly compelled to continue watching. It could be that I was unlucky enough to catch the worst of the episodes.

Besides, Ellery Queen's structure was unusual compared to most mystery shows, what with the TV equivalent of the novels' "Challenge to the Reader." That was all I meant. But it's certainly true that the Ellery Queen creators would know better. I didn't realize M,SW was created by the same people either.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

Beyond what's been mentioned, one of the things about Murder, She Wrote that I liked was that not only did Jessica figure out who did it, but also she figured out why. Even if it became trite, I still thought that the sympathy she often displayed for the killer, because of whatever sad story that had led them to murder, was kinda touching. Columbo was often that way, and even more so, so maybe this was one of the touches from Levinson and Link.

 

[inflatabledalek]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

As with most obvious jokes people make about any long running series the "Isn't it a bit suspicious how everywhere she goes people die?" thing was lampshaded in the show itself at least once- In the episode with Patrick McGoohan as a prosecutor he puts her on the stand and starts asking her about the very odd life she leads with "Isn't it odd how your nephews are always being accused of murder?" style questions.

 

[Christopher]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

I'm not making a blanket characterization... I'm only reporting what I saw and why I wasn't particularly compelled to continue watching. It could be that I was unlucky enough to catch the worst of the episodes.

Well, it was a very long-running show. Did you watch at the beginning, or come in later? I found the later seasons less engaging than the early ones, although the one J. Michael Straczynski produced was pretty good.

 

[Vendikarr]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

NBC failed on Ironside from the beginning by not casting Michael Ironside as Ironside. I'm afraid they're going to go too edgy with Murder, She Wrote by making her a lesbian pop singer or something who writes books and solves crimes.

I know.. make Jessica Fletcher a writer of modern fantasy novels, with vampires, werewolves, etc. and have her come across those creatures every week. Make it a blend of Murder She Wrote and Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

"I'll be damned, they do sparkle."

 

[Christopher]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

^So not J.B. Fletcher, but J.K. Fletcher?

 

[Silvercrest]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

I'm not making a blanket characterization... I'm only reporting what I saw and why I wasn't particularly compelled to continue watching. It could be that I was unlucky enough to catch the worst of the episodes.

Well, it was a very long-running show. Did you watch at the beginning, or come in later? I found the later seasons less engaging than the early ones, although the one J. Michael Straczynski produced was pretty good.

I couldn't even tell you now. Most likely whatever I've seen was not first-run.

^So not J.B. Fletcher, but J.K. Fletcher?

NOOOOOO!!!!!

 

[Vendikarr]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

^So not J.B. Fletcher, but J.K. Fletcher?

haha, it writes itself.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Re: NBC rebooting Murder, She Wrote...'cause Ironside worked so well..

NBC’s ‘Murder She Wrote’ Reboot Not Going Forward, Could Be Revisited In The Future