This past Friday, May 9th, Angela Lansbury was the commencement speaker for the graduation exercises of the University of Miami's College of Arts and Sciences. As part of the ceremony she was also given the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. You can see her receiving her honorary degree and deliver her commencement address at the University of Miami's commencement website - in the May 2008 Commencement Webcast Archives section click on the fourth one down labled "Friday, May 9th, 5 p.m." You'll need RealPlayer installed on your computer in order for the webcast to load and play. Angela's honorary degree and speech start around minute 34 if you want to skip ahead. Be sure to listen to university President Donna E. Shalala's introduction - aside form it being a well-composed recap of her biography, it has a couple of humorous moments in it as well.

 

[Angela receives her honorary degree from President Donna Shalala]

After listening to Angela's commencement address, which I thought was very well done, I went back and played it a second time so I could type up a written transcript of the speech. So you don't have to do the same, here it is for you to read:

"Good evening to you all! As someone who never complete high school, you can imagine how enormously proud I am to receive this honor. I fear that I was a dreamer, my eyes always on the sky and the world outside the classroom window. My mind was always lost in the world of my imagination, so much more fulfilling and entertaining. Well, here I am today, graduating with all of you, and it feels great!

"You know, I was so honored to receive the invitation from President Shalala to come here, and I did not quite realize what I was getting myself into. When I had the opportunity to think about it, it dawned on me that I was going to have to address you all, and I was quickly humbled as tried to figure out what to say to you, what would mean something and what might be of help to you. In today’s world it is no small challenge to try and think of what to say to young students as they sit here facing life after college. Dear God, what’s next? It might be the equivalent of being pushed out of an airplane at 30,000 feet without a parachute, all the time hoping that you will land alive and well in a dream job and a career of a lifetime. Believe me, I remember the feeling.

"Numerous times I am asked by students how I achieved my success as an actress. Of course, every generation has its own standards of accomplishment, of setting goals, so comparisons are not always the best idea. My young life, after all, was lived during tumultuous world events – the Great Depression of the 1930's, the rise of Hitler, World War II, the Holocaust – so my generation was literally propelled into learning how to survive and succeed at keeping body and soul together during the huge and often devastating events that took place at that time, events which I imagine are very hard for some of you to conceive in today’s world, but unfortunately we have our own set of tumultuous events going on  as we all know. But each person has his unique set of circumstances, and all of us have God-given talents: for you and for me, happily it is in the arts. I was blessed, thank God, with a gift to act from on the onset, and fortunately that talent was coupled with a fact that I simply believed that I could do it, and with my mother’s help I began the process of learning everything I could about the theater arts – voice, dancing, ballet dancing tap dancing, classical theater techniques, singing, voice production, and first in London and then later on in New York, when I was aided by the great American Theater Wing who helped me to get a scholarship at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art. One of the first real thrills for me was the very first moment for dressing up in the costumes, the wigs, the make-up as I got to transform myself into the character that I was going to be playing. To this day when I am cast in a role, you know the first thing I think about it is, what would this woman look like? What kind of clothes would she buy for herself? What could she afford to buy? Because it is vital for an actor to feel comfortable and 'in character' when he or she steps out on to that stage as someone other than themselves. Because we leave ourselves at home – at least I always attempt to do that. It’s a good thing to remember: leave yourself at home when you go on an interview or you’re going to try out for a role, don’t bring your fears with you, leave them at home. I mention this because it is all part of the artistic process, the learning, the knowledge one must have, as it were.  Because we are artists, whether an actor like me, or a writer, a painter, designer, sculptor, poet, musician. No matter which field, it is so important that we learn and keep learning everything possible about what it is that we want to do. Auntie Mame loftily proclaims, 'Knowledge is power.' Well, we talk a lot about keeping an open mind, but an open mind to what? I mean, what is there out there that floats our boat? How can we be certain about anything unless we open our minds to absolutely everything that is out there, not just through the internet but by soaking up books, movies, theater, music, literature, art, other people, simply everything. We never know where our inspiration will come from. Don’t think for a minute that you can sit back and say to yourselves, 'I’m ready.' Your learning process is just beginning in the real world of achievement. Be curious. Ask questions. Don’t settle for the given. Have an opinion, create goals, dream, imagine, visualize, and then prepare to accept, to receive, and to achieve. Be ready.

 

[Angela delivering her commencement address to the Class of '08]

"The great writer and Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said, 'Ask any modern storyteller and they will say that there is always a moment when they are touched with fire and what we like to call inspiration, and this goes back and back to the beginning of our race, fire and ice and the great winds that shape us and our world. The storyteller is deep inside every one of us. The storyteller is always with us. Let us suppose our world is attacked by war, by the horrors that we, all of us, easily imagine. Let us suppose floods wash through our cities – it happens too often, I’m afraid - the seas rise but the story teller will be there, for it is our imaginations which shape us, keep us and create us for good and for ill. It is our stories, the storyteller, that will recreate us when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream maker, the myth maker, that is our feelings, what we are at our best, when we are most creative.' She speaks to the artist that we all are or aspire to be. She is speaking to you and me.

"Well, no one in a commencement speech can even begin to cover all the important things that you will need to know in life, and on this special day even if I told you every single thing that you ever needed to know, which I couldn’t because I’m not smart enough really to be able to do that, or that you might want to know, it would be impossible to absorb them in the excitement of today. However, before I finish there are a couple of things I want to emphasize: be all that you can be. Seek all the knowledge that you can. And do all the things that you can in the best way possible for you and for humanity. So that’s what I want to talk to you about, being more, always more. To be more, to seek out and understand the things that you would love to do more than anything in life, then go for it. Be aware of risk and be prepared for hard work and maintain belief in yourself. There will be times when fear will drive you off course, but it has been said that fear is false evidence appearing real, and the antidote is face everything and recover. In this case “recover” is recovering or discovering - in this case, as I said, the person you were meant to be. It is a life-long journey full of good and bad and everything in between but when it is done it will be the right journey and it will always be full. To be more you need to know more, more about yourself, more about others, more about the world. Be curious, seek knowledge, never stop learning and never stop listening, and have that open mind. Of course the last thing is the doing. Nothing can be accomplished without making the move, taking the action, and always do that so that it honors you, the planet, and everyone else on it.

"So as you stand here on this airplane dreading at the very least about the drop that happens next, have faith, take the leap. You will be surprised at the wings that you will grow and how many nets and outstretched hands will appear to speed you and help you along the way. And if you want to know where to go, just look around: the world is full of incredible opportunities that will enable you to do the good thing and enable you to be more, always more. And you will become more, and you will lift those around you as well. We look around and we see disease and war, poverty, hunger, and be tempted to despair and ask, is there really goodness or a spirit or a higher power in the universe, or whatever you might choose to call it? You may ask how all this can be allowed to happen – what is the purpose, where is the goodness in such things? Well, I will tell you that the purpose and the goodness in these things is what you as an individual do about them. There is the purpose and the goodness. So from the bottom of my heart I want to applaud every single one of you who is graduating today. You are leaving the University of Miami with the reputation as the best and the brightest class to graduate from this institution. Bravo, brava! The memories you’ve created you leave to each other and those who have spent time with you. It is an accomplishment of which you can be very proud and one for which your families and your friends can be proud as well. I salute you all. And remember, the only important expectations are your own. Yes, you will have to face the hopes and expectations of others – your families, your friends – but don’t let others limit your dreams or ambitions, and don’t worry if your dreams are not yet fully formed. I suspect for many of you they haven’t begun to surface and they won’t until you have the opportunity to taste the plethora of possibilities that are out there if you will only open your minds and your hearts to them. Everything is possible – this is just the beginning.

Posted by jesmaine at 2:10 PM EDT

Updated: Monday, 12 May 2008 2:24 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink

***SPOILER WARNING! If you haven't read Murder on Parade by Donald Bain yet, and you don't want to know what happens, then don't read this post until you're finished! Consider yourself warned! ***

In Postcard #5 I addressed the episode early in the last MSW book, Panning for Murder, in which Jessica was held at knifepoint by an obviously deranged person that had absolutely no connection with the main plot of the book. Now Murder on Parade has come out, and once again, relatively early on, there is an episode involving yet another deranged individual (drug-addled, this time, instead of mentally ill) wielding a knife who has absolutely no connection with the main plot of the book. Is it just me, or do I spot a trend?

It's true that unlike the questionable scene in Panning for Murder, the attempted mugging scene does serve some purpose in the larger scheme of the book. It helped define the character of Dr. Boyle (while at the same time reassuring the reader that he is, in fact, a real doctor), and gave Rick Alcott a chance to demonstrate that there's still a lethal G-man behind that unassuming exterior. But was all the bloodletting necessary?

The fact that Seth was seriously injured was, it turned out, irrelevant to the larger question of whether or not he would retire from practicing medicine in Cabot Cove - the theme of the otherwise very effective (and moving) B plot.  It gave Jessica a chance to meet Dr. Boyle up close and personally, but she'd already met him in Chapter 1 and formed an opinion of him long before that. Yes, I supposed we all got the opportunity to see what a jerk Boyle was when he self-promoted himself after helping Seth, but we knew he was a jerk anyway, so I don't know that this was necessary. The mere fact that the attack occured at all underscored the point that Cabot Cove is changing - Seth didn't need to get slashed to prove that point. And as it turned out the punk didn't have any connection to Lennon Diversified or the rest of the A plot in any way, a fact that puts him into the same category as the knife wielding maniac in Panning.

Coincidence? I'm not sure.

Posted by jesmaine at 8:51 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink

It's been a momentous spring, to be sure, what with Murder on Parade, the Complete Eighth Season DVD set, and the UK release of the Complete Seventh Season DVD set all coming out at the same time. And don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled about all of this. But the Complete Eighth Season, the subject of this post, did leave me disappointed in certain respects, and apprehensive over the possibility that after steadily increasing in quality, the DVD sets may have peaked and taken a downward turn.

There are no extras in this DVD set, you see. There were in the last couple of sets - interviews, and retrospectives - but nothing at all in this set. And why are there no extras? A full six months has elapsed since Season Seven was released; could no bonus materials be found in all that time?

The other change - not as disappointing, but not terribly reassuring - is that on the menu pages there are no screen capture images. Pick an episode, and unlike in all the other previously released sets there is no opportunity to jump to a specific chapter within that episode. Overall, there seems to be a general lack of effort shown in the preparation of this DVD set. On the plus side, at least they have not devolved to the point that they have gone back to those awful double-sided DVDs.

I suppose we'll have to see what the Complete Ninth Season brings.

Posted by jesmaine at 8:52 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

If you've been watching The Definitive Guide's homepage, you know that I recently posted "The Final Chapter - Behind the Scenes," a fan fic I co-wrote with Stephanie essentially consisting of outtakes from the original story (see if you can guess who wrote what).  The occasion meant that I had the chance to reread "The Final Chapter" for the first time in a long while. It's the first fan fic I ever wrote, nearly twelve years ago, the summer after MSW ended. As many of you no doubt recall, the series ended quietly with the episode "Death by Demographics," an episode that was not particularly stand-out in any way. As a rational person, I could understand the cast and crew's desire to wrap things up without much fanfare, but as a fan I couldn't help but be disappointed. "The Final Chapter" was the result of disappointment being channeled into creativity.

I've had over a decade to reflect on how MSW ended since then, and I am no longer convinced that a big blow-out series finale episode would have been a good idea. When you think about it, television has a rather dreary track record when it comes to big series finales. Take the final episode of M*A*S*H - a dark, brooding epic long on emotion but short on humor, and thus not much in keeping with the spirit of the series that spawned it. Or the ambiguous final episode of Magnum, PI - is Jonathan Higgins really Robin Masters or isn't he? The ending didn't answer the question either way, and was thus ultimately unsatisfying. And don't get me started on the last moments of The Sopranos.

In fact, if you look at series finales over time, they generally fall into two equally undesirable camps: those that failed to provide adequate closure, and those that wallowed in the maudlin. The sole exception to the rule, in my experience at least, was the last episode of Newhart - that final shot of Bob Newhart waking up in bed next to Suzanne Pleshette (who played his wife on his previous sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show) still ranks as one of the brilliant moments in television history.

Thus, one must conclude that there was probably a certain amount of wisdom and good judgment exhibited by the writers when they decided to end MSW on a business-as-usual note. But that doesn't mean those of us who write fan fiction can't dream a little on our own, out of sight of the critics. That was my thought as I wrote "Final Chapter" (which, I must admit, has elements of both the unsatisfying and maudlin camps in it - sorry about that).

Posted by jesmaine at 8:28 PM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 8:30 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink

Today's postcard comes to you directly from Key West, Florida, one of my absolutely favorite places in the world. My husband and I first came here on our honeymoon after we were married in 2004, and we've made it a point to come back every year since.

Key West is an interesting place, offering an endless variety of places to see and people to meet. This is, in large part, because so much of the population comes from someplace else, and brings a piece of where they came from with them to add to the mix. There are people from all over the country - even all over the world - here. The welcoming atmosphere of the city makes it all fit together somehow, less like a melting pot and more like a giant colorful jigsaw puzzle.

Because everybody here comes from someplace else, it is pretty common to be asked where you're from. My husband thinks it would be funny, the next time we're asked, to say that we're from Cabot Cove, Maine.

"You wouldn't," I say.

"Sure I would! Give them something to think about."

Good point.

Key West is also special to me as the only place that has - so far - inspired me to write an entire novel-length story, something I wasn't sure I was capable of doing. That story, of course, is Come as You Are, and it remains one of the stories of which I am most proud today.

It's interesting, being back in the same stomping grounds as appear in the book. Now when I'm crossing Duval Street I smile at the image of Seth and Tipper doing the "Duval Crawl." I picture Jessica and George swapping personal questions at a nearby table as my husband and I split a carafe of pinot grigio at Mange Mange. I walk past the side gate to the grounds of Ernest Hemingway's house and see the calico cat that beckoned Jessica inside. It's all pretty cool.

At some point I may set another story here - Key West is full to bursting with colorful characters and settings, so there is certainly no lack of material. If I could figure out a way to take, oh, say, four months off from work and come down here to do nothing but write I could probably pull it off, but alas, such a sabbatical from my real life is not in the cards, at least not for a long while yet.

In the meantime I'll be content with our yearly pilgrimmages down to the Conch Republic, and store up as many memories as I can.

Posted by jesmaine at 8:28 PM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 8:29 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink

It would seem that after a long and satisfying run on A&E's sister network, The Biography Channel, Murder, She Wrote has been dropped from the schedule for good. Although this has minimal impact on me personally (like a lot of people, I don't get Bio on my cable system), I nevertheless grieve with the fans that have been affected. True enough, the Hallmark Channel now has MSW, a great boon considering Hallmark is a lot more common among cable subscribers than Biography ever was. But after a rousing start in which they showed MSW literally morning, noon, and night, Hallmark has settled in with showing it only in the late night slots of 11 PM and 12 AM Eastern Time. The Biography Channel, by contrast, showed it at reasonable times - midmorning, and primetime. If you had the option of both channels, and you weren't a habitual night-owl, there was little question as to which channel you'd be getting your MSW fix on.

And now? Now it's late night on Hallmark or nothing, and MSW fans, legion though they are, find themselves once again shunted aside in favor of a reality tv show that follows the goings-on at an airport (insert yawn here).

The Biography Channel may not hear your cries of anguish, loyal fans, but The Definitive Guide does! Here, then, immortalized on this blog, are some of the comments left at Bio.com's MSW message board - perhaps one of the last lively threads that message board will ever see:

"I  do realize that not everyone gets the Bio channel through their cable company, but I really enjoyed watching MSW in the morning. Thank goodness I have my tapes and DVD's!!!" --Elena53

"I am very disappointed they removed it from the schedule. ...When I went to watch it this morning it was gone. Now I see at 11 they are putting that ridiculous Airline show - what a shame they remove quality programs for trash tv." --Yarbo

"I cannot believe that you could remove this show from your lineup - it is one of the greatest series created. It is so much more enjoyable to tune in instead of being subjected to shows that insult your intelligence. " --kathi46

"I, too, was stunned when I went to watch MSW this afternoon. And now that Hallmark has changed its schedule in the afternoon, our options are almost nil. Watching Jessica solve mysteries was a highlight. Too bad. " --Nancy B

"I am terribly dissappointed in the removal of MSW from your lineup. MSW was the reason for requesting the biography channel from my cable provider. I have cancelled my subscription to your channel and I would like to mention I am not the only one I know that is cancelling the biography channel due to the removal of MSW." --Majik

"I too miss Murder She Wrote. As someone else said, cold turkey is going to be rough. Murder She Wrote is a quality show and is being replaced with low grade shows." --Photo Bug

My father, sister and I are Murder She Wrote fans. We plan to drop the Biography channel from our cable subscription because Murder She Wrote is no longer on the t.v. schedule." --Linda Lou

I was shocked to see MSW was gone from the line up. I watched both episodes every day if I could! I am going through withdrawals!...That was pretty much the only thing I ever watched on tv. These reality shows are really taking over. Airline is not at all entertaining to me, and certainly not a good replacement for a classic show like Murder, She Wrote." --cpmorris

"MSW will be missed. there are so few shows of that caliber." --chassim

"I`m very disappointed that MSW has been dropped. First Midsommer Murders now this. I will no longer be watching the Biography Channel. Let me know when you come to your senses and put these shows back on!!!" --ksellenwood

"I live in Alaska and the 12noon to 2pm schedule of MSW is wonderful. This is my break time. The ONLY reason that I have the this channel was for MSW and Sherlock Holmes. Now that you do not have these two shows, I will call my cable provider and unsubscribed to this channel." --arcticwhite2002

"I just set up an account solely to voice my disappointment over Murder She Wrote being removed. I am a 31-year-old consultant who works from home and Angela Lansbury has become my quasi-coworker over the past few years. I am so bummed out that the programming was yanked – in what feels like such a sudden manner. I’ve written a letter to A&E since the Biography.com feedback page returns an error message. It sounds like I will need to check out Hallmark, although MSW doesn’t air until 11pm PST on our cable system. Without the Mystery series, I have absolutely no desire to watch the Biography channel any further." --magpie76

And this, perhaps the most poignant posting of all:

"I agree, I miss watching MSW. I watched it as much as possible. To be honest, when it was on originally I didn't watch much but it was always one of my Mom's favorite shows. My Mom has since passed and it makes me think of her to watch it. I know it sounds kind of silly. I guess I just want as many things to remind me of her as possible." --kelliemarie

I should note that many of the irate posts came from first-time posters, moved to comment by their unhappiness with The Biography Channel's unpopular decision. Sadly, these irate posts are unlikely to change anything, as veteran Bio.com poster JayJay points out:

"Biography has already made it's decision regarding MSW. The courtesy of notifying it's viewers? What would one expect from someplace connected to A&E? Cut from the same cloth. Begging Biography to change it's mind? Remember A&E, anyone? Been there, done that."

And that is likely to be the final word on the subject. See y'all over at the Hallmark Channel's MSW message board.

Posted by jesmaine at 8:10 PM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 7:41 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink

Another release date for the Donald Bain MSW book series is on the horizon, so now seems as good a time as any to ask the question posed by the topic of today's post: which one of his works is your favorite?

Speaking for myself, thus far my vote goes to Dying to Retire. For those of you unfamiliar with this title, it is a story set in Florida featuring Jessica and Seth with the addition of Mort midway through when the action shifts from the southeastern part of the state to Key West.

Ahh, Key West - this was the part of the book that cemented it at the top of my favorites list for me. As anyone who knows me is already well aware, Key West is just about my favorite place on the planet. What other setting could inspire me to write my own novel-length fic? The other strength of this particular story was the cast of characters, a particularly varied, colorful lot.

My second and third picks? Margaritas and Murder, which I thought was particularly well-written and suspenseful, and The Maine Mutiny. I appreciated the fidelity shown the Maine lobster industry, even if the scene marking the drama's climax was riddled with implausibilities - more about those in another post.

Once again, it's your turn, Gentle Readers - what are your favorites from the works of Donald (and Renee) Bain?

Posted by jesmaine at 8:32 PM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 7:41 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink

[The picture from "Sticks and Stones"

in Season 2 - retouched with

Paint Shop Pro XI]

[Angela Lansbury and Peter Shaw's

wedding photo, for comparison]

Stephanie drew my attention to this topic, so the credit for it goes to her. It's about one of the many photographs and pictures that decorate Jessica's house in Cabot Cove (few of which we ever get to see in clear focus). One of the clearer images of it, she found, is in the episode "Sticks and Stones" from Season 2:

"... right around the 16:38 minute mark (I think) you get a glimpse of that photo that I've always wondered about.  It's large, in a gold, oval frame next to the kitchen door.  After Amos enters, you get a brief glimpse of the whole thing in the upper left hand corner of the screen. ... If you ever get a chance to capture it and take a closer look, let me know what you think."

Her question was: could this be a photograph of Jessica and Frank on their wedding day?

Well, I did get a chance to look for the photograph, and I did manage to get a screen capture of it. But the photograph, being in the background of the scene, isn't in focus, and given its height on the wall, it is also very poorly lit. So I snipped it out of my screen capture image and exported it to Paint Shop Pro XI, where I cleaned it up as much as I could - increased the resolution, sharpness, brightness, etc.  The top picture to the right represents the fruit of my labor.

The photograph still isn't much to look at, even after getting the PSP XI treatment, but to my eyes at least it's definitely a wedding photo. The woman has relatively short wavy hair, a white dress, and a white pillbox hat with a veil. The man is wearing a dark suit and I think that's a carnation or boutonnière on the left breast of his jacket. It could be a miliary uniform, but I can't say for sure.

As to who is featured in the photograph, it would certainly make sense that it could be Jessica and Frank, though it's also possible it could be her (or his) mother and father on their wedding day, I suppose.

Given the propensity for pictures from Angela Lansbury's career to show up on Jessica's walls, I then wondered if perhaps this was actually a picture of Angela and Peter Shaw on their wedding day, so I tossed in their wedding photo for comparison (bottom picture). The suit Peter is wearing could definitely be the same on in the oval photograph, and his dark hair matches the man's, so that holds some promise. However, the necktie is much darker in the oval photograph than Peter's, so that may speak against the man actually being Peter. Furthermore, it seems to me that Angela's dress is too different from the one pictured in the oval frame to be the same dress, and Angela's hair is lighter than the woman in the photograph's. So I'm thinking that the woman pictured is not Angela - or at least, not Angela on that particular day.

Have a look at the pictures for yourselves, Gentle Readers - what do you think?

Posted by jesmaine at 10:57 AM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 7:40 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (5) | Permalink

[This is how I imagine

George Sutherland looks like

(it's actor George Lazenby);

every reader will have their

own way of picturing him.]

Greetings from Orlando, Florida, where I finally have a few moments to myself with my laptop in the middle of the North American Veterinary Conference.  Thank goodness for wireless internet access (even if I do have to pay for it). Without it, I would have missed the interesting exchange going on over at Donald Bain's website and discussion page. But thanks to the miracle of wireless technology, I've been able to be a spectator to the current exchange of ideas and opinions even as I have been stuffing my brain full of updated knowledge.

The topic of conversation, as it often is, was George Sutherland. Ever since his introduction in the first MSW novel by Donald Bain (the first edition of Gin and Daggers, to be exact), he has been a touchstone of controversy. Some readers love him, others resent him. Here's a sampling from Mr. Bain's discussion page:

"I love it when Jessica and George Sutherland are together. My only question is, why dosen't he ask her to marry him?" --Mary

"I don't want to see Jessica with anyone. It would slow her down as sleuth and diminish her individuality. ... The world is a better place with Jessica Fletcher as detective--not a lover!" --Sally

That more or less sums up the controversy.

There was never a time when George was not a controversial character. Right from the beginning, from the first moment he and Jessica met face-to-face, he was clearly presented as a potential romantic interest. Ironically, his introduction in Gin and Daggers (first published in 1989) came hard on the heels of the airing of the fifth season finale, "Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall," a pivotal episode that fueled speculation as to whether Seth Hazlitt and Jessica were about to become an item. Many fans were hoping to see the writer and the good doctor pair up by the end of the series (the fanfic term "'shipper" didn't exist back then), and many still favor this potential match. To them, George is a distraction, as Donald Bain himself has acknowledged:

"... there are some readers who resent his role in Jessica's life, especially its romantic aspects. They want Dr. Seth Hazlitt to be the one to whom she gives her heart. I can understand their feelings; Seth is a wildly popular character from the series. "

Based on the comments posted on the discussion page, however, it would seem that George Sutherland's admirers greatly outnumber his detractors. Among his fans there also is an overall frustrationover MCA/Universal's persistent refusal to allow Mr. Bain to advance the relationship in the novels, even a little bit - it would seem that even a real kiss is out-of-bounds.  The reason for this, as described by Mr. Bain, is logical enough:

"While I see them as a wonderful couple, I'm sure Universal would not want to change her status as an independant, self-sufficient woman, and I can see their point. Marriage would change everything about the series and her character, and from the standpoint of most readers, such a dramatic shift would probably be jarring. But you never know."

Renee Bain adds in a later post,

"One reason why may be because there are many new fans of the TV show--which is still in syndication--who are just discovering the books. When they find them, they have lots of expectations, as you did when you first started reading the series. We want our new readers to enjoy the books as much as you do, so we have to be careful about any drastic changes. Granted,they have occurred from time to time, but we try to stay close to the characters and feeling of the show with a few additions."

All of this is cold comfort for the fans who continue to hope that the next MSW book featuring George will carry with it a little extra magic. Fortunately for them, that's what we have fan fiction for. :)

My own opinion of George has varied widely over time; I didn't like him at first, and was dismayed (although touched) when he confessed his love for Jessica in The Highland Fling Murders. However, I have since come to appreciate him as a character and he figures prominently in my own writing.  George provides Jessica with a wonderful opportunity for character development, and since I am not bound by the rules the Bains must abide by, I can envision a deeper relationship for them and what effect it then has on them as individuals.

Here is your chance to sound off, Gentle Readers - do you like George or dislike him? Has your opinion changed over time, as mine did? Send in your comments and let your voice be heard.

Posted by jesmaine at 9:40 PM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 7:40 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (3) | Permalink

As regular visitors to my website are probably aware, The Definitive Guide is home to the largest collection of MSW-themed fan fiction to be found anywhere on the internet. At the time of this writing there are forty-seven full-length fics on the Fan Fiction page and many more on the Writer's Workshop page thanks to entries to the "In Another Voice," "FanFic 100" and "Holiday" story challenges. 

Since I'm always anxious to read new stories, every now and again I go Googling for more, but every time I do I reach the same sad conclusion: there isn't much to be found out there. There are really only three sites that have collections of stories: The Definitive Guide, the Lizz Ladies' Forever Angela fan website, and FanFiction.net, which banks stories related to a mind-boggling array of media.

Once in awhile I wander over to FanFiction.net to see if anything new has been posted under the MSW banner. This past weekend, out of idle curiosity I went back a link from the MSW page to TV shows in general, just to see which other series were represented and how many entries they had relative to MSW's 15 posts (13 in English, 1 in Spanish, 1 in German). The answer to the first question - which other series are represented - was a fairly simple one: apparently, all of them. There are over 600 television series listed, most of which I've never heard of. The answer to the second question was more complicated, but also more disappointing, at least on the surface of it: most of them have more than 15 entries.

It came as no surprise to me that the scifi series had huge numbers. Star Trek: TNG, for instance, has 1501 entries, and that's just only one of the Star Trek incarnations listed. Stargate: SG-1 had an impressive 17,253, and Firefly, despite lasting only one season, had 3433. And crime/drama was well represented: CSI (the original) has 19,129, and it's two spin-offs over 3000 entries each.

Yet MSW has only 15. That's paltry, even when compared to a similar show like Diagnosis Murder (496). Granted, that's better than not having any listings at all: despite the list's immensity, there are shows missing, including MSW's relatively close cousins, Matlock and Columbo. But given how popular the series was, and how long it was on the air, doesn't it seem strange that so few people write in its universe?

Not really. There are several reasons for this, I think, not the least of which is that there is a high degree of difficulty that goes along with writing the kind of mysteries MSW presented week after week for twelve years. Coming up with a decent mystery that doesn't reveal the murderer in the first few pages is tough! There is also the lack of prominent supporting cast, which means not much opportunity for non-mystery B-plots. And MSW fans have never been a particularly extroverted group; whether this has to do with the demographics of its viewers or other reasons I'm not entirely sure.

What I do know is that it would be great to add more stories to my website. So I'll keep surfing, and keep hoping for new authors to step forward, and in the meantime, keep writing MSW fan fiction for myself.

Posted by jesmaine at 10:21 PM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 7:39 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink

I know it isn't particularly helpful to review a computer game that hasn't been in production for several years, but recently the "Murder, She Wrote: Mystery Jigsaw Puzzles" CD-ROM crossed my radar screen again after a long absence, so I thought I'd revisit it.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, this is a computer puzzle game for PCs that provides the gamer with four short MSW-style mysteries to solve, each of which is accompanied by a jigsaw puzzle you put together on-screen with your mouse. Bundled into this are some solitaire games and a program that allows you to create your own jigsaw puzzles from photo images you have on your own computer.

When I first learned of this game, I was suspicious of it on two counts: for one thing, the puzzle titles are the same as the extant quartet of conventional jigsaw puzzles that I already own (and had put together). So it didn't sound like there was any new material here. For another, if this game is so great, why add in solitaire? It made me think that perhaps the creators knew there wasn't much here, and felt they had to add in some bonus stuff to keep people from rioting in the streets.

On Amazon.com, where you can still find the game used, there was only one review of the product, and it was not exactly glowing:

"... it is nothing more than 4 half-hearted quicky murder mysteries, with accompanying jigsaw puzzles of the crime scenes. Jessica Fletcher/Angela Lansbury fans will not be impressed."

Veteran MSW fan and fan fiction author Stephanie was even less impressed. After giving the game a whirl on her computer, she sent me this opinion about it:

"Admittedly, I did read one review of this game prior to buying it on eBay and it was at best “mediocre.”  But that could not have prepared me for how very bad it actually is.  How bad was it?  Glad you asked.  It was so bad that I couldn’t even listen to the entire first story much less all four of them.  I tried.  I really did, but it was just simply too painful. I still cannot believe that Universal gave its permission for this. 

[image from World Village.com]

"First of all, the creators of the game didn't even have Angela Lansbury do Jessica’s dialogue, even though the stories are very short.  Now, I have no experience with narration or voice-overs or whatever they are termed in the video game industry, but she probably could have done the entire game in a day or less.  Secondly, the woman who did do Jessica’s dialogue was horrible.  It sounds like she was reading her lines for the first time.  And she was definitely reading them, not acting them.  And that accent - I have no idea what that was. 

"And who wants to assemble a jigsaw puzzle on the computer?  Not I.  I hate to say it but this was the worst computer game that I've ever seen (not that I've spent much time with computer games but still, I’ve played a few).  I realize that the game was made nearly 12 years ago but even 17 or 18 years ago, there were far better games.  Why didn't they at least set it up like a board game?  Even that would have been far superior to this.  This has to be, by far, the most disappointing Murder, She Wrote product ever created.

"The actual jigsaw puzzles on the other hand were enjoyable, even if they were not too terribly difficult and the mysteries were not incredibly challenging.  At least they were fun. 

"Finally – I cannot resist asking this question – how could Universal have given their stamp of approval on this game (and yet they continue to wield such a heavy hand at certain times and about certain things when it comes to the Murder, She Wrote book series).  I just don’t get it."

[image from World Village.com]

More about MCA/Universal and their stern supervision of the MSW book series in a later post. 

I suppose that if you are a person like me who can't do jigsaw puzzles on account of the large number of pets I share my home with (I gave up on jigsaw puzzles once seven-toed Olorin joined our family), this might offer a useful alternative. However, I think that hearing another actress handle Jessica's speaking lines would be just too jarring to ignore. Although I have managed to collect almost every other bit of MSW-related memorabilia I can find, I will probably give this game a pass.

The Murder, She Wrote puzzle CD-ROM is long since out of print, but you can still find it on sites such as eBay and Amazon.com.

Posted by jesmaine at 7:25 PM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 7:37 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink

My apologies for the long hiatus - I plead the usual hectic schedule of the holiday season, with the need to write Christmas cards instead of Postcards.  But now I have a few days off around the holiday, so I'm using this opportunity to get back on track - and what that means for you, Gentle Readers, is a flurry of postings for your enjoyment, to make up for my absence.

Today I'm straying a little off-topic, but only to mark an important anniversary. Ten years ago the first web log was born - or at least, referred to for the first time as a "web log" (it wouldn't be until two years later that it was contracted into the word "blog" that we all know and love today). We now live in a world infested with blogs of every stripe, so much so that it's difficult to remember what life was like before there were blogs to be found on every street corner - or am I thinking of Starbucks?

Anyway, to celebrate this pivotal point in the history of the Internet, National Public Radio is running a week-long series on the Blogosphere - its history, its inhabitants, and its culture. I found the first report in the series incredibly funny - a "radio blog" about the history of the blog that attempts to render the visual attribiutes of blogs - the scrolling, the links, etc - into an audible form. If the rest of the week's offerings are as good as today's, this is an anniversary I'll be sorry to see pass.

Posted by jesmaine at 7:10 PM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 7:36 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

WARNING! There are multiple plot spoilers in this post. Forewarned is forearmed.

***

The claim has been made, in more than one place, that season nine's episode "A Christmas Secret" is the only episode of MSW that didn't have a murder in it. But is this really true?  There was an interesting thread going on over at the Biography Channel message board awhile ago discussing this very topic.  Here are some snippets from that conversation:

Cabot_Cove posted, "I think I've heard that only one episode did not have a murder, maybe a Christmas episode. However, I think that no murder takes place during the first episode of Season 7 ... Somebody dies during the episode and people think it was a murder, but it turns out not to have been a murder. ... Then again, maybe the claim I heard before was that there is only one episode in which nobody dies. In that case, somebody did die in the first episode of Season 7."

judya responded, "Actually, there are at least 3 episodes with no murders. One is where a man commits suicide, ... one is [a] dream, ... another is an attempted murder but the victim survives ... that is the Christmas episode."

The posters are correct - if you take a strict view of what constitutes an "actual murder" in MSW (one that happens in the "real time" of the series), then there are several episodes in which no actual murder is committed. There are some in which the death was determined to be a suicide - "To the Last Will I Grapple With Thee" in season eight is the prime example. There is season nine's "The Petrified Florist," in which the murder never really happened because the whole plot was confined to Jessica's dreaming. And there is "A Christmas Secret," which was an attempted murder that the victim survived. And there are the various "cold case" episodes in which the murder took place years before the present time, as was the case in "The Days Dwindle Down." Going by this strict interpretation you can add more episodes to the list: "Murder in a Minor Key" and "Good-bye, Charlie" make the cut because the murders take place only in the plots of Jessica's books by the same names. "The Grand Old Lady" qualifies because it is a reminiscence episode from the past. And what are we to do with all those other bookend episodes that happened to other people? Are the murders in those episodes "actual murders" or are they also exceptions to the rule?

The Definitive Guide chose its words carefully when it made the following claim on its Statistics page:

Episode with the lowest body count: “A Christmas Secret,” in which the victim survives.

Body count - that's nice and vague. I avoided using the word "murder" because there are so many exceptions to the "actual murder" rule. I'm going by a much broader definition of "murder" here. By my reckoning, any episode that deals with someone who is dead by unnatural causes counts, regardless of whether that unnatural death was in the past, in a dream, or in a book. By this definition I think that "A Christmas Secret" endures as the only esxception to the rule. That being said, if this is still incorrect, even by the broad definition I've employed, post and let me know about it.

Posted by jesmaine at 7:10 AM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 7:34 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Something has been bothering me since 1991. I know, I know, sixteen and a half years is an awfully long time to be bothered by something, but trust me, I haven't been letting it preoccupy me for most of the time since then, it's just something that resurfaced recently with the release of Season 7 on DVD.

 *** SPOILER WARNING ***

If you haven't seen the seventh season finale, "The Skinny According to Nick Cullhane," and don't want to know the ending until you do, stop reading now, because I'm going to reveal who the murderer is.

Jessica tries to referee Harry and Mort's verbal sparring match.

Okay, I'm going to assume that if you're still reading, you don't mind spoilers.

At the end of this episode, as Floyd is taking murderer Phil Mannox back to his jail cell, Jessica says something very strange. When Mort asks her how she knew Mannox was guilty, she replies, "Whoever was desperate enough to kill Nick, and who tried to kill me, certainly knew exactly what was in that book."

When I saw this episode the first time it aired, I remember thinking, "Huh?" When exactly did Phil Mannox go after her? When did Jessica even meet Phil Mannox? Sure, Gordon Forbes threatened to get rough if she didn't hand over Nick's manuscript, and who knows what he would have done if Harry hadn't showed up when he did to save the day, but Gordon wasn't the killer. When the episode was rebroadcast during the rerun season I watched it again. My response was still the same - "Huh?" And that has been my reaction every time I've seen this episode since, whether it be on syndicated cable or on tape.

When Season 7 came out on DVD I thought that I'd finally have the chance to put this little mystery-within-a-mystery to rest. By now I was thinking that maybe it wasn't me after all. Maybe the episode had been longer once, back when they thought Angela Lansbury was going to quit the series, and when she agreed to come back for Season 8 they cut some scenes to trim it back to the standard one hour length. That thought made me particularly keen to get my hands on the Season 7 DVD set. After all, that's what DVDs are great for - they don't omit anything, and sometimes they toss in extras - like director's cuts, and behind the scenes stuff. Now, admittedly the MSW DVD sets have included very few extras so far, but I figured that if there had been deleted scenes in "The Skinny According to Nick Cullhane," they'd turn up here. And if I really was just a preoccupied and unobservant teenager and had somehow blinked during a key scene way back in '91, well, I'd have plenty of opportunity to review the episode at my leisure on my laptop computer. Please, please, I thought to myself, don't let this just be a case of bad continuity! I HATE bad continuity!

So that's what I did - I popped in the DVD, and I watched the episode (and got some cool screen captures for you to enjoy here). And when it was finished, my reaction was ... "Huh?"

I HATE bad continuity.

Posted by jesmaine at 2:16 PM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 7:34 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink

I had such high hopes when the Hallmark Channel picked up Murder, She Wrote for syndication - it seemed like a good match, the stuff that long term relationships are made of. And early scheduling seemed to bear this out - Hallmark was showing MSW several times a day during the week and airing two episodes back to back on Sunday evenings, including one in the hallowed 8 PM time slot. After the long drought that marked MSW's syndication run on A&E and the Biography Channel, life was good again.

But alas, a peek at Hallmark's upcoming schedule for the rest of November and December reveals that this cable network, like A&E and Bio before it, is not adverse to jerking us around. Having already eliminated the early morning and primetime slots, as of November 26th the late night slots will also disappear, leaving only the noon EST airing during the week. To make matters worse, once December rolls around the Sunday night episodes also disappear, meaning we are left with just the weekday noontime airings - not terribly convenient for those of us who work during the day. The 11 pm and 12 am showings resume the day after Christmas leading me to hope that this is a temporary change made to accomodate some sort of blitz of Hallmark holiday specials, but only time will tell.

I find it very difficult to understand why MSW has such a tough time finding a steady time slot to call home in syndication land. Given the popularity of the show during its initial run on CBS, one would think that cable networks would be falling all over themselves to have it anchor their primetime lineups of syndicated shows. First A&E played around with it, eventually passing it off to its cousin Bio (which few people get unless they have satellites or oodles of extra cable channels), and now this. The only network that treated it with respect was the USA Network, the first cable channel to buy the syndication rights to the series (they also had the vision to produce Monk - coincidence? I think not).

Maybe word hasn't gotten around to the upper echelons of broadcasting that MSW is not just a series for members of the AARP. Maybe they think that families don't mind a steady diet of violence like they get from Walker, Texas Ranger (which replaced MSW in Hallmark's weekday 8 pm time slot about a month or so ago). Maybe the fact that the series is coming out on DVD scares them. Whatever it is, I wish they'd knock it off. Find a good slot for MSW and leave it there, and quit playing games with our loyalties.

Posted by jesmaine at 7:22 AM EST

Updated: Sunday, 16 March 2008 7:33 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink