A Mime Is a Terrible Thing to Waste

This had to be one of the funniest episodes ever written for Diagnosis Murder. Rachel York as Randy Wolfe brought great comic timing and chemistry to the show. Her quirky but lovable pain in the butt really got under Steve's skin! I understand this was a pilot for a spin-off series. I really wish it had materialized. I could just see her taking on different characters to solve murder cases - like a younger, hipper, sexier Jessica Fletcher. I suspect the plan for the show was to move from city to city, maybe even country to country, so that Randy could have ended up interfering with but ultimately solving murder cases in exotic locales. I'll bet they would have had her clash with handsome detectives in every police department she encountered. I hope someday soon Rachel does land a TV series. She deserves to be the star in her own show.

lc

This is one of the worst episodes of "Diagnosis Murder." It was a pilot that was never turned into a series and with good reason. It was over- acted to the point of insanity. The lead girl has no redeeming qualities. She comes off as mean and ditzy, a weird and hideous combination. I disliked almost all of the pilots they subjected "Diagnosis Murder" viewers to, except the one with Delta Burke. But this one stands out as cringe-worthy. I suppose they were going for campy, but even that has to be done with decent acting and some finesse. This episode had neither.

Rachel York is absolutely hot in this nested pilot episode of Diagnosis Murder. It's a shame the beautiful Rachel did not score her own series. Why oh why? Anyway, sure there are some plotholes in this fifth season episode, but still it's a lot of fun. Interestingly, this episode has probably more reviews that most other Diagnosis Murder ones, which typically have one or two reviews at the best.

Good to see Alex Hyde-White in this. He's the son of British actor Wilfred Hyde-White.

I just saw this episode on TV whilst having lunch at home on a rainy January afternoon in London....

Being a Miami Vice fan, I loved the inclusion of a character called Sonny Burnett (Crockett's undercover name) which - at first - I thought was just an innocuous homage.

It transpires that the episode is shaped around an undercover operation, and they mention Miami Vice twice. For a chronic (some would say obsessed) fan of Michael Mann's seminal show, this was a nice touch!.........

Yeah I know, I should get out more!............

You know what though: DIAGNOSIS MURDER is really good!!!..........you gotta love Van Dyke!.........

Whoever called this a comedy is terribly confused about what comedy is. I have never heard of or seen Rachel York before, but she is a horrible actress. This episode was annoying as soon as she opened her mouth and it went downhill from there. Listening to her gave me a headache. Also at fault were the writers; the dialog was inane and most of what she said did not even make sense. And I hate mimes, so that made it even worse. I finally just shut it off because I could not stand to listen to her for another second. I read in the other reviews that this was a pilot; thank God they never made a show out of it.