Murder, She Wrote: Complete Series 10/1/13 (1 Viewer)

[jimmyjet]

month club - liked this one quite a bit

anthony zerbe always cracks me up

wasnt he the antagonist for david jannsen in harry o ?

that may be my first memory of him ?

 

[Matt Hough]

It was OK, but as a longtime fan of the show, it really bugs me when continuity isn't respected. Jessica's first book was The Corpse Danced at Midnight but it's called The Corpse Danced Alone here. You'd think they could keep something like that straight since it's THEIR show.

Also, I get SO bored with these guys cheating on their wives with a younger woman they're working with. The show seems to dredge up this scenario for every other episode.

Yes, Anthony Zerbe even won an Emmy Award for his role on Harry O.

 

[jimmyjet]

gosh, i would never have caught that lack of continuity !!

i can see why you might get bored with it, but unfortunately i think it occurs a lot in real life !!

 

[clambake]

Hey Jimmy I was wondering, where are you seeing the episodes, on tv or dvd? I catch the show in the mornings (Hallmark Channel) between $25,000 Pyramid commercials, but the episodes I see are never the ones you guys are discussing!

 

[jimmyjet]

i have the dvds, and am watching chronologically - assuming my set is so.

i have come to realize that some sets are different than others.

 

[jimmyjet]

matt is on top of things, so i think if i report back to him with anything out of order, he would ask me - which he already did once, when i forgot to post about an episode.

 

[Matt Hough]

Hey Jimmy I was wondering, where are you seeing the episodes, on tv or dvd? I catch the show in the mornings (Hallmark Channel) between $25,000 Pyramid commercials, but the episodes I see are never the ones you guys are discussing!

Yes, we are working our way straight through each season. We are now in season 11.

 

[jimmyjet]

egg

good story, good acting

it is a shame that many men lose lots of their hair.

but why in the world do they wear the other half real long ?

it looked ridiculous on the guy in the episode.

it simply accentuates his balding.

 

[Matt Hough]

I loved David Ogden Stiers' Russian accent in this episode, and when he actually spoke Russian, he sounded like a native!

I agree about James Stephens' hair, and it's so baby fine that you can see right through the hair to the scalp anyway. Don't know why he bothered doing that. Just get the same hairpiece that Gregg Henry and Ken Howard wear in all of their appearances if he's that concerned with growing bald.

Here's another episode where a martinet father disapproves of his daughter's choice for a boy friend/husband. She's a GROWN woman! These scenarios where adult children aren't allowed to follow their own paths to happiness by an interfering parent (especially when there is nothing remotely wrong with the person's choice) irk the crap out of me. Another one of the show's constant failings for me in these final seasons is its tendency to fall back on these tried-and-true clichéd character set-ups.

 

[jimmyjet]

i recalled stiers before

i dont think that happens all that much in the common circles

but i dont know when it comes to the real wealthy, like the father was

what would have been more interesting is to at least have known the reason he didnt like him - the boy was trying to get into med school - hardly something to complain about.

he was almost like a model husband - the type that any parent would wish for their daughter.

 

[Matt Hough]

i recalled stiers before

i dont think that happens all that much in the common circles

but i dont know when it comes to the real wealthy, like the father was

what would have been more interesting is to at least have known the reason he didnt like him - the boy was trying to get into med school - hardly something to complain about.

he was almost like a model husband - the type that any parent would wish for their daughter.

Exactly! Hence my distaste for these trumped up situations that just don't ring true.

 

[jimmyjet]

scent - liked it

they tried to make it seem like it was one of the 2 women

usually, it is not who they try

and i was hoping that it would not be

because i do not think that either of them had the type of strength to kill him with a pillow

although i dont know just how they could make it seem okay that the owner broke his contract ??

 

[Matt Hough]

Yes, the entire contract stuff was a bit murky especially since he wasn't doing anything himself to find proof that the contract had been violated. And I didn't understand the desperation to find the tree. They said they had money troubles, but they obviously were going to be solvent enough to manufacture, ship, and advertise the product. They had a contract. The men behind growing that magnolia tree weren't going to lose millions by letting it spoil, so just relax and let them do their work. It seemed much ado about nothing.

The southern accents here were all over the map but not many were typical of low country South Carolina where "Riverton Gardens" supposedly was (I'm from South Carolina myself).

 

[jimmyjet]

denial - enjoyable

i wonder if the word denial in the title had anything to do with it being in egypt

the writers like to pull silly little stunts !!

 

[Matt Hough]

The title of the episode is actually a play on words for the movie Death on the Nile which Angela Lansbury starred in. What's more, the last name of her character in that movie was Otterbourne, close to the name of the museum curator Jessica accompanies to Egypt. These are not coincidences.

From a mystery standpoint, I didn't like it so much. The clues were minor and almost impossible to spot in order to detect the murderer's identity.

 

[jimmyjet]

high c - did not like this one much

hi matt,

as you already know, the mystery itself does not necessarily turn me off

the main thing i disliked is simply the story itself. it did not hold my interest

i did enjoy the interplay between jessica and the police detective

the first time i heard the voice, it sounded almost exactly like the guy that got killed. and i am willing to bet that this is exactly whose voice was actually used.

in any event, it was not disguised very well. i think most anyone would have thought that, including the rest of the characters. and not a one of the characters even said it sounded like the guy.

the hubby actually picks up his own gun that is lying by the dead body. i dont see anyone actually doing that.

 

[clambake]

The episodes on in the morning are slightly behind the episodes you guys are on. Yesterday I saw the one where the book publisher was thrown off the roof after getting those spiked drinks/subliminal tapes.

And the other day, I saw the 'art auction/lottery money' one with Lee Purcell as the maid.

 

[Matt Hough]

The entire murder plot of "Murder in High C" was lifted from the Doris Day movie Midnight Lace complete with the shuddery voice in the fog and then later in a series of tormenting telephone calls. The murderer and his accomplice are also exactly the same characters in the movie and this TV script. Such bold plagiarism is pretty low. I agree with you about the husband touching the gun. Ridiculous unless there was something more to it.

On another note, I smiled at Carol Lawrence playing the older diva jealous of being replaced. That wasn't her voice in the song sequences even though in her youth, Lawrence had a lilting soprano. She was, of course, the original Maria in the Broadway version of West Side Story.

 

[jimmyjet]

never heard of her - but then i know almost zilch about opera.

even with a few "inconsistencies" i would have liked the show if i had liked the story.

but for some reason, there was very little appeal, either because of the story, the characters or the acting ?

 

[Rob_Ray]

never heard of her - but then i know almost zilch about opera.

even with a few "inconsistencies" i would have liked the show if i had liked the story.

but for some reason, there was very little appeal, either because of the story, the characters or the acting ?

Carol Lawrence wasn't an opera star, but a popular Broadway and television personality, most famous as the lead in WEST SIDE STORY. Back before the culture got so fractured by cable and the internet, everyone would have known who she was. She made regular appearances on the various dramatic, variety, talk and game shows of the era. I'm sure she sailed on The Love Boat at some point. She was also famous as Mrs. Robert Goulet back in the day, although they later divorced.

It doesn't happen too often, but I probably would have solved this mystery right away, as MIDNIGHT LACE turned up all the time on TV when I was young.