Wildly popular for its entire 12 year run, MURDER, SHE WROTE is one of the most successful mystery shows of all-time. Angela Lansbury stars as Jessica Fletcher, a widowed mystery writer who stumbles across a murder in each episode, and cleverly deduces who the criminal is before anyone else can. Although the show followed a formula, the pleasure came from investigating the crime along with Jessica, and from Lansbury’s charming portrayal of the amateur sleuth; she was nominated for an astonishing 12 Emmys for her role. Aside from the awards, Lansbury’s performance was also groundbreaking, for MURDER, SHE WROTE was one of the very first (and still one of the few) American television programs to feature an older woman in the lead role. THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON contains the pilot movie THE MURDER OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and all 21 episodes from the premier year. It features many guest stars from the classical era of film and television, including Martin Landau, Peter Graves, Jose Ferrer, Milton Berle, and many others.There are two audiences for this DVD compilation of the first season of the enormously popular TV series Murder, She Wrote. The first enjoys the classic pleasures of the pre-forensics “whodunit,” stories in which murder was not so much a crime as a logic puzzle; the joy here lay in how skillfully a writer could misdirect you. Murder, She Wrote–in which mystery writer Jessica Fletcher constantly stumbles across dead bodies in every setting imaginable, from a San Francisco drag show to a football field–doesn’t have the elegance of an Agatha Christie or Rex Stout mystery, but the show was efficient at laying out its clues and cunningly used the audience’s familiarity with television itself (the relative star power of the guests, the need for a dramatic high point before every commercial break, etc.) to mislead and manipulate. And of course Angela Lansbury, as Fletcher, was an ideal television presence: Warm and friendly, but with just a hint of the fierce, steely will she revealed in The Manchurian Candidate. Lansbury drove the show through an impressive twelve seasons (for which she received twelve Emmy nominations), plus multiple TV movies after its cancellation.
The other audience for Murder, She Wrote: The Complete First Season consists of viewers for whom names like Bert Convy, Dack Rambo, and Barbara Babcock send waves of guilty pleasure down their spines. The promotional materials for this boxed set make much ado about brief appearances by stars-to-be like Andy Garcia (who appears briefly as “1st White Tough” in the pilot TV movie) and Joaquin Phoenix (who’s around 10 years old and still going by the name Leaf), but every single episode is a festival of B-, C-, and Z-grade celebrities from the 1970s and ’80s: Claude Akins, Tom Bosley, Jeff Conaway, David Doyle, Samantha Eggar, Lynda Day George, Morgan Brittany, Belinda Montgomery, Gabe Kaplan, and Lyle Waggoner, just to name a handful. Some of these names may be forgotten, but their faces (and scenery-chewing performances) will spark a Proustian rush of television memories. –Bret Fetzer
Buy “Murder, She Wrote – The Complete First Season” For Only $23.71
March 5, 2010
#1
Ever notice, Universal TV to DVD box sets are the highest priced, and are the only ones, who replace the original music, they must be making a lot of money, if you boycott them, they will have no choice, but to kept the original music in, can’t make money, if nobodys buying them, lets hit them where it hurts, the wallet.
March 5, 2010
#2
When you read this review, please keep in mind that this is a review of these DVDs which is only Season 1 of the show.
My daughter and I watch this show at midnight every Saturday night. It is our opportunity to bond as together we make fun of what is one the worst television shows I have ever watched. Yes, I know I am going to be stomped on by the many fans of this horror but I can’t lie. I wasn’t a big television watcher back in the 80′s so if this is an example of great TV from then, I can only assume that TV was awful (or should I say offal).
There are no extras (commentary, specials, etc.) included other than the pilot. How did this show ever get past the pilot? The inane plot, the overacting of Bert Convy and Arthur Hill, the underacting of Brian Keith, the lame attempts at comedy, and the incredibly doltish ending. It also creates a conundrum for the script writers as J.B. Fletcher gets her start when her nephew (who has a recurring role in the series) secretly sends her first manuscript off to the publishers. Future episodes, however, make J.B. out to be a modern day Agatha Christie with a boatload of novels and new ones on the way all the time (although how she finds the time to write a novel with all the murders going on around her is beyond me). And speaking about all the murders, how could one person possibly know so many murder victims? It’s frightening how often murders occur around this woman. If I found out that J.B. Fletcher was visiting my town, I would certainly head off on a vacation immediately!
It’s hard to pick out the worst episode of the actual first season but probably the last one, “Funeral at Fifty-Mile” could qualify although “Murder to a Jazz Beat” could give it a run for its money. As to the least worst, “Death Takes a Curtain Call” with William Conrad playing a major in the Russian army wasn’t bad. And there was actually one good episode in the season. “Footnote to Murder” with Paul Sand was actually quite funny and the mystery itself wasn’t bad. Sand does a great job playing the drunken poet Horace Lynchfield. But these are the exceptions. The typical episode features a confused plot performed by actors who once were famous (Cesar Romero, Jose Ferrer, Herschel Bernardi), who were never famous, or were on the D-List at the time. The best part of the episodes is the opening credits when you can play “try to recognize the name”. The worst part is the usually incredibly stupid joke that is inserted at the end of most episodes. They are generally not funny but more the type of joke that makes you roll your eyes in disbelief.
OK, I am willing to admit that Angela Lansbury is probably the reason that this show was on for so long. She generally plays the character of J.B. Fletcher quite well in spite of the terrible scripts that she must endure. Lansbury is a fine actor and she deserved much better than the words she is forced to regurgitate but she does a good job nonetheless. In fact, Lansbury keeps this from being a one-star rating, as tempted as I am to give it only one star.
Anyway, in spite of all this, I can recommend this show as a guilty pleasure. It is so bad that it is good (well, sometimes).
March 5, 2010
#3
Was easy to do and I received the movies very quickly. Will use service again.
March 5, 2010
#4
I was in my teens when MSW first appeared on television and could not get interested in it even though I’ve always been a fan of shows like Columbo, Remington Steele and Simon and Simon. Maybe I had a problem with there being a murder everywhere Jessica Fletcher went. I remember the title for Mad magazine’s satire at the time was Murder She Hopes.
Anyway, I recently bought season one of the show to see if it would grow on me. After watching the pilot movie and a few of the regular episodes, I found that the Jessica character is still annoying (at least Detective Columbo is sticking his nose into people’s business because he’s doing his job) and that the stories and supporting actors don’t do enough to keep me interested. The Cabot Cove (I’m assuming a ficitious name) location shots are pretty though. This show is probably for fans only.
For Australian fans, take note that the Region 4 release contains episodes that are little more than 46 minutes each. You may prefer purchasing the Region 1 set from Amazon, as I believe the episodes are around 48 minutes each. Beware though, as I have noticed that a few MSW reviewers have had problems with their double-sided Universal discs. Also see my Adam 12 Season One review regarding double-sided discs and edited episodes.
Note added December 2008 – I’ve since found that some region 4 releases are shorter not because they have scenes deleted but because they play at a slightly faster speed (something to do with transfer to PAL format) – although you probably won’t notice it in the voices or actions.
March 5, 2010
#5
Being a big fan of murder mysteries, murder she wrote is naturally no exception. Its not just the amazing 80′s hair do’s, shoulder pads and orange tans that impress me but the fact that Jeesica Fletcher, although just a writer is so much more! She can solve a mystery that not even a New York special decective can and never gets a big head, amazing.
If your not swayed to but this video and become a fellow fan then you don’t know what your missing, i strongly recommend it.
From one sleuth to another, peace out. x