I Just Watched...

[txfilmfan]

I think that the unfortunate string of JESSICALESS EPISODES that start in SEASON THREE and get out of hand in SEASON 6 before thankfully STOPPING ALTOGETHER were an extremely halfassed attempt at morphing the series into a similar kind of "umbrella" sort of deal where the sleuths rotated

If the episodes had been cast with less loathesome people (BARRY NEWMAN and THAT IRISH INSPECTOR GUY not included) and if they hadn't be written by a monkey chained to a typewriter they MIGHT have made it work.

They did that because Lansbury had indicated she might retire, as she grew to dislike the pace of filming a US TV series. The show nearly ended after the fifth season. I guess she got her second wind later on (she also became Executive Producer)

Towards the end of the series it became a guessing game every spring if Angela would sign on for another year. That penultimate season actually filmed 2 endings on the last episode as she hadn't made up her mind yet. She decided to return. Then they repaid her by moving the show to Thursday nights and killing the show.. I'm sure she came to regret that decision.

CBS as much as admitted that mistake, when they put it back on Sundays later, but the damage was done. They took their only scripted Top 10 series (60 Minutes being their only other Top 10) and killed it by moving it up against NBC's long-running "Must See TV" lineup, which had dominated Thursdays since 1984 or so. The big network affiliate realignment that year didn't help either (when Fox bought the rights to the NFL, which CBS had lost, and resulted in the biggest shakeup in network affiliation ever as Fox scrambled to get stronger local affiliates)

[Hibi]

They did that because Lansbury had indicated she might retire, as she grew to dislike the pace of filming a US TV series. The show nearly ended after the fifth season. I guess she got her second wind later on (she also became Executive Producer)

Towards the end of the series it became a guessing game every spring if Angela would sign on for another year. That penultimate season actually filmed 2 endings on the last episode as she hadn't made up her mind yet. She decided to return. Then they repaid her by moving the show to Thursday nights and killing the show.. I'm sure she came to regret that decision.

CBS as much as admitted that mistake, when they put it back on Sundays later, but the damage was done. They took their only scripted Top 10 series (60 Minutes being their only other Top 10) and killed it by moving it up against NBC's long-running "Must See TV" lineup, which had dominated Thursdays since 1984 or so. The big network affiliate realignment that year didn't help either (when Fox bought the rights to the NFL, which CBS had lost, and resulted in the biggest shakeup in network affiliation ever as Fox scrambled to get stronger local affiliates)

Yes, after Angela quit, ending the show, they moved it back to its old Sunday slot for the last 4 episodes. When they moved it to Thurs nights I started missing episodes as I'd forget it was on or was busy doing something else. It was a perfect Sunday night show. I'd watch 60 Mins; then Murder and often the CBS Sun. movie.

[Hibi]

Kate Mulgrew was married to some Dem. Ohio politician ( I forget who or if they are still married). He ran for governor some years back, but he lost. Kate could've been Ohio's first lady!

[HoldenIsHere]

Speaking of Kate Mulgrew, when I first saw her on Ryan's Hope I was sure she was going to be a big star. She left the show when her contract was up and went in search of other things. Many years passed before she got the lead in Star Trek: Voyager.

Replacing Kate Mulgrew in what was effectively the leading role was a huge problem for Ryan's Hope. Just when the first replacement, Mary Carney, was catching on, ABC fired her, and the subsequent recasts were so dire that the show killed off the character.

I enjoyed watching RYAN'S HOPE when SoapNet aired the reruns in the 2000s.
The acting and writing in the first few years were fantastic.
I especially loved the scenes with Kate Mulgrew (Mary Ryan) and Delia Reid (Ilene Kristen). I think Delia married and divorced both of Mary's brothers.

Didn't Kate Mulgrew come back when Mary was brought back as a ghost?

[Masha]

I apologize for the interruption and I admit that this is tangential only to thread topic but I wish it on the record and to alert others who may watch similar programs:

I have been watching many different game shows in recent months and tracked a recurring situation.

The score is now: 8-to-0!

The number of contestants who did describe themselves as actors/actresses waiting for their first big break is: Eight.
The number of them whose names can now be found on: IMDb.com is: Zero.

I realize that some may have chose to work only in theatre and some may have changed their name when they began to work.
I doubt those account for all of them.

It simply seems an interesting oddity to me that presenting well on television did not lead to being offered a role of any kind in either movies or television.

[Andree]

A couple of the cable channels have been showing Columbo reruns, both the original NBC series and the
later ABC one. I've now seen all of the episodes at least two times, so I'm all caught up. The only nit I have
pick was Columbo catching the Irish poet who was also a member of an IRA-like group. Leave him alone, he's
got work to do. I believe it was the final episode of the NBC series.

[jimimac71]

A couple of the cable channels have been showing Columbo reruns, both the original NBC series and the
later ABC one. I've now seen all of the episodes at least two times, so I'm all caught up. The only nit I have
pick was Columbo catching the Irish poet who was also a member of an IRA-like group. Leave him alone, he's
got work to do. I believe it was the final episode of the NBC series.

I watch Columbo on the Sunday marathon on Great American Family. They show some of the same episodes over and over.
Yeah, I love Johnny Cash but the episode goes over and over.
My favorite over used episode is the one with William Shatner.
Back in the old days, I loved Murder, She Wrote on USA.
Someone died at about 18 past the hour.
I'm still a big fan of the old Matlock.
Keep hoping for the new Matlock to follow 60 Minutes someday.

[Swithin]

The Boer War: 1899-1902 (1992)

I just watched this moderately interesting documentary about the Boer War. Some good animation of photographs, some very old footage, and a rather cursory history, but a good introduction to the causes, the battles, and the personages, both Anglo and Boer. A Zulu gets an occasional mention. Churchill is mentioned as well, briefly. His fascinating exploits in the Boer War are documented in his biography.



I was hoping that they would incorporate that famous Boer War song, "Goodbye Dolly Grey," but they didn't. So here it is.

[Allhallowsday]

Maybe the best episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents starring CLAUDE RAINS ...The Death of Riabouchinska

It's on TONIGHT 1:30 am EST!!!

[Andree]

I watch Columbo on the Sunday marathon on Great American Family. They show some of the same episodes over and over.
Yeah, I love Johnny Cash but the episode goes over and over.
My favorite over used episode is the one with William Shatner.
Back in the old days, I loved Murder, She Wrote on USA.
Someone died at about 18 past the hour.
I'm still a big fan of the old Matlock.
Keep hoping for the new Matlock to follow 60 Minutes someday.

I used to watch the Sunday marathons on GAF, but then I'd seen them all more than once,
so it was time to give it a rest. Sundance shows two episodes in the early a.m. on Monday
and Tuesday. In general I prefer the NBC episodes to the ABC ones, though they're all
worthwhile. Two of my favorites were the one with Richard Basehart and Honor Blackman
set in England and the one with Ruth Gordon as a mystery writer. I've seen most of MSW
and Matlock, though not recently. Monk will be on IFC in a few minutes.

[CinemaInternational]

Ok, I know I have been offline for a few days (for a good reason, I've been helping to take care of my ailing father, who is very fragile right now. I'm quite scared because he seems to be deteriorating rapidly healthwise. It's particularly bad because he's only 61. I am hoping to get home internet soon so I could possibly converse while he's taking a nap), but I'd like to respond to the flurry of Murder, She Wrote/television posts. (And perhaps I am due for a rewatch of Pollock, given kingrat's impassioned rave of Marcia Gay Harden's performance...strange how there have been 10 2000 or later films on TCM since January, even though I loved Gosford Park)

David Hemmings might not have been invited back to do more episodes simply because Universal Television was a very strict, rigid place that didn't really like extra expense or experimentation (the most loosely jointed series they ever did was Northern Exposure). Crossed Up is a strong, intense episode though, so I wish he had been able to do more.

Jessica Fletcher was written as a widow, and Angela Lansbury didn't want the character to be in any romances because she wanted to provide an example of an independent single woman of a certain age. That said, she always did have great chemistry with William Windom, so I kind of wish they had said the characters were dating. As for the season 7 replacement, I don't know the actor's name, but the character name was Ben Devlin. He had earlier played a victim in "Showdown in Saskatchewan" , but as the Cabot Cove character, he only appeared in "Deadly Misunderstanding" and " A Body to Die For", both very good Cabot Cove episodes, and at the start of one of the Dennis Stanton episodes. I never knew of the bad blood offscreen, but if he insisted on a romance angle, that's enough reason why Angela wanted him gone.

William Windom did indeed leave to do the short-lived series Parenthood in 1990, which lasted only three months in late 1990 (which means it had about as long a run as Cop Rock, which lousy dancing and some maladroit lyrics aside was far from the monstrous catastrophe that is said to be). That NBC show was extremely critically acclaimed in its day, but the IMDb rating is quite low. It also featured Ed Begley Jr., David Arquette, Leonardo DiCaprio, and one of the Baldwin sisters from The Waltons. It ran on Saturdays. He appeared in only one MSW episode that season, "Family Doctor" , set in Boston. In one of the Devlin episodes, Jessica gets off the phone allegedly wish Seth, and Devlin says something about "the joys of parenthood". Heh. Not very subtle.

Windom's absence in season 3's "Obituary for a Dead Anchor" was due to his being in Chicago filming a small role in the lukewarm John Hughes film She's Having a Baby, which was filmed in 1986, but was not released until February 1988 (reportedly because Hughes was taking a long time in the editing dock and was also waiting on Kate Bush to finish writing her original song for the film's anxious montage over Elizabeth McGovern's rough labor sequence. Ironically, the resultant song "This Woman's Work" was an emotional knockout that nothing else in the film lived up to. The film might not have moved mountains, but the lack of an Oscar nomination for that song is shameful.). Windom played McGovern's father in that film.

Part of Angela Lansbury's reluctance to keep going with Murder, She Wrote might have been due not only due to the workload but (in the bookend episode years) also due to her not getting along with Peter S. Fischer, the show's co-creator/executive producer for the first seven seasons. There was one bookend episode in season 3, but there were quite a lot in seasons 6 and 7 (1989-1990 & 1990-1991), which happened to be Fischer's last two seasons with the show. It might have been a little easier on viewers if these episodes hadn't been so lumped close together. Five or the last six episodes of the 1989-1990 season were bookends! I kind of like one or two or them, but that's about it. Mostly, they are a waste of time. Fischer left at the end of season 7, which aside from four or five episodes was a pretty sleepy season. The show definitely did get a big surge or energy after he left with a lively season 8. And the bookends stopped after he left.

Kate Mulgrew likely left Ryan's Hope because of what she was forced to keep secret during her time on the show: in real-life, she had gotten pregnant out of wedlock and the showrunners demanded she either get an abortion and give the child up for adoption or they would fire her. She did the latter, and it took her decades to find the child again. To add insult to injury, her character on the show was made pregnant at the same time, and they forced her to play scenes interacting with the baby on the show while she was still worrying as to what happened to her real-life child. (this makes her the real-life equivalent of Celeste Talbert, Sally Field's character in 1991's Soapdish) I recall seeing one of the Mrs. Columbo episodes as a "Special Feature" on one of the boxed sets of Columbo. It was very forgettable ; Lorna would say it was far from a special feature. Yes, she played two guilty parties on Murder, She Wrote, "The Corpse Flew First Class" and "Ever After". The latter episode was on Hallmark at midnight today. I get a bit of a kick out of it. Mulgrew is playing an untalented daytime soap star who is playing the role of a hysteric mourning widow in real-life even though she designed the plot in the first place. Her deliberate overacting in the role is rather fun, and there is a fascinating dichotomy in that she was a former soap star, and that the actress playing her surly grown stepdaughter in the episode, Marcia Cross would become a primetime soap star in Melrose Place and Desperate Housewives shortly thereafter (Cross had just had a short stint on the dud season of Knots Landing at the time of this MSW episode. I absolutely love Knots Landing, but the first eight episodes of the 1991-1992 season are appallingly bad, due to new writers that were quickly fired. They managed to both nearly every veteran character during their brief time there, and their new characters, including Cross, Bruce Greenwood, and Halle Berry were paper-thin, unlike the usually well-rounded character work that made the rest of the show such a joy to behold). The episode also features a great line when Jessica goes to interrogate an older casting agent (played by character actress Eda Reiss Merin, who voiced a witch in Disney's The Black Cauldron) and the agent mistakenly thinks that Jess is there to audition for the role of a prostitute: "Ya here for the hooker?!?" ....

Now, for some talk of networks in trouble.

NBC (almost eternally the least interesting of the big three networks, outside of a brief interesting spell in the 80s and very early 90s) was in miserable shape in the period between 1975 and 1984. Sure, they did launch SNL in 1975, and some shows they began to miniscule audiences in the late 70s/early 80s would later pay dividends: The Facts of Life, Hill Street Blues, Cheers, St. Elsewhere, Family Ties, and Remington Steele. But the usual order of the day was short-lived shows. It wasn't until 1984 and Night Court, The (now- nearly-unmentionable) Cosby Show, and Miami Vice that they got back on track. It is true that in 1978, 1979, and 1980 that they would put just about anything on the air in desperation and that led to some of the biggest catastrophes in network history: Supertrain, Pink Lady, and Hello Larry, just to name a few. So Mrs. Columbo did have company..... And yes, there was a short-lived other mystery movie block in the 70s. One of its elements, The Snoop Sisters with Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick deserved more than five episodes, and I wish it had joined Columbo and company on Sundays.

Now, as for CBS...I'm sure that for a long time they would have bent over backwards to accommodate Angela Lansbury, since the the late 80s (1987 onward) was a very bad period for the network overall, and the 90s wouldn't prove to be much of an improvement. MSW was one of their few hits of this period , so they would have wanted to keep it. But by the mid 90s, the networks all started their disasterous bear hug with chasing after the under-30 age demographics, and CBS was extremely anxious to revamp their image since by this time they were getting the oldest audience of the four networks. So they hired the now-disgraced Les Moonves, formerly of Lorimar/WB television around 1994 or 1995. He had been the one behind giving NBC both Friends (unpopular opinion, but I HATED just about everything about that obnoxious, vapid, and nauseating show except for Lisa Kudrow, and I feel that its success led to the complete destruction of network TV due to their deliberate pandering toward youth) and ER, so he was considered hot at the time. (He got the axe shortly after the Weinstein scandal in 2017. I 'll be charitable and leave it at that )

His fall 1995 slate proved to be disastrous.... Murder She Wrote was moved to the Thursday death slot to kill it off in order to get younger demographics (ironically the show that did fill its old slot for several years, Touched by an Angel drew largely an older and/or family audience)..his would be youth oriented centerpiece Central Park West (a Melrose Place clone) placed BELOW 100 in the year-end Nielsen ratings, the Friends clone Can't Hurry Love and rom-com If Not for You were short-lived and killed momentum in their usually strong Monday lineup, an attempt to make a series of John Grisham's The Client was DOA, and two of his other new shows, Courthouse and New York News were so bad that their leading ladies (Patricia Wettig and Mary Tyler Moore respectively) were begging to be written out of them before the ratings axe accomplished the task of liberating them from the shows. And yet, CBS ended up keeping the man for 20 years until the scandals hit. During that time, he turned an interesting, vital network into a place with one cookie-cutter crime show and sitcom after another. They had the ratings again, but the quality was gone. CBS has only had twelve shows that won a top Emmy since he got there. Their last two winners for series of the year were Everybody Loves Raymond and Picket Fences.

Angela Lansbury didn't go quietly though. She took her displeasure over her treatment to the press, where the general public was behind her 100%. For the breach of contract, she settled by agreeing to do 7 TV episodes for the network: four MSW, and three of her choice. She also saw to it that the last episode's name, "Death by Demographics" was a shove back at Moonves and the writers did a very exact skewering of the insufferable Friends (which it was playing opposite on Thursdays) by having Jessica investigate the death of a much-hated writer of a show called Buds concerning six twentysomething slackers talking about sex in a cafe with the decor of a loony bin for clowns. The episode was named "Murder Among Friends". If the show had stayed on Sundays, I think Lansbury might have relented and kept with it for another year or two. Probably two since CBS has had at least three series that stopped with a 14th season.

After all this, I'm still in the TV mood, so I'll share my 52 favorite series list. As you can see, I didn't really buy into the internet's insistence that post-2000 shows are the best. Only 5 of these shows started after January 1, 2000....

1 China Beach
2 Knots Landing
3 Murder She Wrote
4 Peyton Place
5 St. Elsewhere
6 Remington Steele
7 Moonlighting
8 The Golden Girls
9 thirtysomething
10 The Mary Tyler Moore Show
11 Pushing Daisies
12 Poirot
13 The Carol Burnett Show
14 The Waltons
15 Cagney and Lacey
16 Brooklyn Bridge
17 The Muppet Show
18 Northern Exposure
19 Homefront
20 Gilmore Girls
21 LA Law
22 I Love Lucy
23 Newhart
24 Taxi
25 The Dick Van Dyke Show
26 The Gilded Age
27 NYPD Blue
28 Desperate Housewives
29 Family
30 ER
31 Road to Avonlea
32 Falcon Crest (minus that sadistic final season)
33 Scarecrow and Mrs. King
34 Dynasty
35 Lou Grant
36 That Girl
37 The Nanny
38 Boston Legal
39 Ellery Queen Mysteries
40 The Practice
41 The Bob Newhart Show
42 Designing Women
43 Soap
44 Murphy Brown
45 Ally McBeal
46 Frasier
47 Bewitched
48 Cheers
49 The Donna Reed Show
50 Twin Peaks
51. Columbo
52 Providence

[Hibi]

A couple of the cable channels have been showing Columbo reruns, both the original NBC series and the
later ABC one. I've now seen all of the episodes at least two times, so I'm all caught up. The only nit I have
pick was Columbo catching the Irish poet who was also a member of an IRA-like group. Leave him alone, he's
got work to do. I believe it was the final episode of the NBC series.

I watch Columbo on the Sunday marathon on Great American Family. They show some of the same episodes over and over.
Yeah, I love Johnny Cash but the episode goes over and over.
My favorite over used episode is the one with William Shatner.
Back in the old days, I loved Murder, She Wrote on USA.
Someone died at about 18 past the hour.
I'm still a big fan of the old Matlock.
Keep hoping for the new Matlock to follow 60 Minutes someday.

BREAKING NEWS!! PAULA is back! Ad nauseum promos this week trumpeting her return on the Dateline ID channel! Starting in March. Was hoping we'd seen the last of her.

[Hibi]

Wow, CI, thanks for all that info! You're like a walking encyclopedia of show biz!!! I had not known that Angela and Fischer didn't get along. I figured there must've been some behind the scenes bad blood with him leaving midrun. Another team (Forget who) of people already there took his place for a few years, then Lansbury herself took over exec producer duties till the end of the run. The show became a family affair with her stepson involved and her son, too, directing episodes. It's too bad Angela couldn't end the series on her own terms. The series just ended. I would've liked a final Cabot Cove episode wrap up big finale send off, but it was not to be. Yes, the irony of Death By Demographics was not lost on me at the time when I was watching it. The Buds episode was a fun an obvious send up of Friends (I never liked it, either, and couldn't understand what all the hoopla was about).

That is shocking info about Kate Mulgrew. Boggles the mind!

I'm sorry to hear the terrible news about your father. Do you have any siblings nearby that can pitch in? A very sad situation. Hope things are looking up for you soon whatever happens.

[Hibi]

Maybe the best episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents starring CLAUDE RAINS ...The Death of Riabouchinska

It's on TONIGHT 1:30 am EST!!!

I missed it this go-round. Rains starred in some great AH episodes during the run. He must've been in 3 or 4. I miss anthology shows.