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    Angela Lansbury 1925-2022

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    29 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:

    I just started Murder She Wrote tonight! I picked up my complete season 1 from the library.  I remember watching this show when it was new towards the end of the run.  It started the year I was born, so 3-month old me was definitely not consciously watching Murder She Wrote.  But I have memories of watching this show.  It aired on Sunday nights right after 60 Minutes. Even as a 9-year old, I loved hearing Andy Rooney's rants about whatever was bothering him that week.  Then he'd be done with his rant and boom! There's Jessica Fletcher with her typewriter., or by 1993-1994 she might have been using a computer. 

    The first five or six years (basically all the episodes that include Tom Bosley) have the biggest guest stars and the plots are still fairly original. But after that, it gradually starts to go downhill. They were giving Lansbury more money to stay with the show (plus a producing credit) so this cut into the budget substantially.

    By the time you get to the last few seasons, their idea of a guest star is someone who recently left a soap opera and is trying to get established in primetime. So it all starts to seem very cheap and substandard...even more formulaic and predictable by the end. It's definitely a show that ran too long, but fans couldn't get enough.

    There were four TV movies produced after the regular series concluded, and those were made between 1997 and 2003. They were meant to fill a two hour time slot (100 minutes without commercials) and they had increased budgets with better guest stars joining her again.

    Screen shot 2015-03-16 at 10.52.13 AM

    Angela Lansbury 1925-2022

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    13 hours ago, Hellzapoppin said:

    Interesting take.  I'd say it was less about conservative vs liberal but more it just wasn't the kind of show that earned awards.  It was a popular, reliable formulaic show along the lines of  Matlock or Diagnosis Murder.  It was a  comfort food kind of show, not the kind of show to tackle topical issues ( "on a very special episode of Murder She Wrote Jessica becomes addicted to uppers." ).  

    images7

    Her many nominations are proof that her peers did recognize her strong skills as an actress. She wasn't the problem, the show was the problem. Its priorities were not in line with the priorities of voters. Murder She Wrote did not adhere to any sort of agenda where the goal was educating viewers about important social issues or promoting specific social causes.

    I think your comment above about Jessica Fletcher having a temporary addiction, even if said in jest, is actually spot-on. Similarly the writers could have made Jessica the victim of sexual harassment or if she had undergone a mastectomy, that is what would have earned an Emmy. But Murder She Wrote stuck to a very specific, non-challenging formula, and there was only so much Lansbury could do with that kind of material.

    Like I said, she stood a better chance of earning an Emmy with a TV-movie where she could stretch herself more dramatically.

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    Angela Lansbury 1925-2022

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    imgres

    Regarding the Emmy 'controversy' and why she did not receive an Emmy for her work on Murder She Wrote...I think the main problem is that the show was too conservative and appealed to conservative viewers, not to liberal voters within the TV industry. Shows like Cagney & Lacey, Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere and Picket Fences were always going to be Emmy darlings not Murder She Wrote.

    We should point out that Cagney & Lacey ended in 1988, at the conclusion of Murder She Wrote's fourth season, and Lansbury still had eight more chances to nab the award since her series ran for 12 years. But Kathy Baker from Picket Fences won three times, and her show was only on for four years!

    The producers and writers of Murder She Wrote tried to help Lansbury earn the Emmy by creating the Emma MacGill character, and she was nominated for her work in episodes where she appeared as Jessica and Emma...but again, this show was not a liberal think-piece and it did not find favor with academy voters. 

    I think Lansbury probably stood a better chance winning an Emmy with her occasional TV-movie work. She's very good in THE SHELL SEEKERS (1989), based on Rosamunde Pilcher's bestselling novel.

    • Like 1
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