Murder -- According to Maggie

This episode has always been one of my favorite non Cabot Cove outings, along with the Ireland episodes, which were also great. The mood of this episode is so light hearted but engaging. Diana Canova did a great job in her role, creating a very likable character. The scenes with her boyfriend to be and the inspiration for beat copy, Denis Arndt as Lt. Vincent Palermo, were great. Ann Morgan Guilbert also stands out in her brief appearances, perfectly capturing a smart, powerful woman who knows how to handle snot nosed puppy dogs like Keith Carmody, played very well by Gary Sandy, not to mention Dwayne Hickman as the likable studio head and Maggie's agent, whose actions are not always in Maggie's best interest. And Tim Thomerson was just perfect as egotistical Hollywood type who looses it when he becomes a suspect, only to revert back to his old ways, having learned nothing in the process. In the end, I felt a little sorry for Bruce Kirby's character.

The only true weak point is the continuity error with the pencil and the writers treated us the audience as idiots, having to repeatedly show us the "here it is, but gone here" bit.

Still one of the best MSW shows set out of Cabot Cove.

Angela Lansbury provides introduction to this episode where she describes the success of former pupil Diane Canova who has taken up writing but she writes for television.

Her successful cop show is about to be cancelled and before that happens a network vice president.is gunned down. Canova proves to be as resourceful as JB Fletcher in solving real crimes.

Acting honors go to Dwayne Hickman as a sneaky TV executive and Tim Thomerson as an outrageous overacting star of Canova's show who is the one first suspected.

One of Jessica's former pupils Maggie gets caught up in a murder at the studio she works at.

I can see this has been generally well received by other reviewers, for me however, it was a fairly average episode.

When I watch an episode, and see Jessica holding an empty cup and saucer, and address the camera, I know it spells trouble, and her absence. This could have been any show, it sadly doesn't have the Murder she wrote DNA running through it.

A clunky, if watchable mystery, one where the victim was glaringly obvious, and the killer's identity didn't come as much of a surprise. I wasn't crazy about the character of Maggie.

Dwayne Hickman was the standout for me as Brian, a typical early nineties yuppy, with braces and patterned shirt, one imagined a red Porsche 911 in the car park.

I have preferred most of the other non Jessica mysteries.

A show cancellation coincides with a network executive's murder, and in order to save her cop show Beat Cop she has to find the murderer. This is an entertaining non-Jessica episode because of humour and an interesting look at TV shows, network politics and diva-type actors. The mystery comes in a bit late and it's just adequate but it's the aforementioned elements that make this episode good.

During the run of "Murder, She Wrote", there were quite a few episodes which did not feature Jessica Fletcher in the lead. Instead, the character introduces the episode but otherwise isn't present in the show. Why? Well, I read that Angela Lansbury needed a break from the rigors of a weekly show....but I also suspect they were trying to create spinoff shows. But, in the end, these shows never resulted in a series.

In "Murder--According to Maggie", Jessica tells the audience that the show is about one of her old talented students who is now a writer for television....and the show follows Maggie (Diana Canova) through the ups and downs (and murders) of working on TV. In this case, she acts like an amateur sleuth simply to prevent her show from being canceled!

The episode was decent...not great but also enjoyable. What I couldn't get past was the feeling that the show was meant as a commentary about the business....sort of like the writer airing their complaints about sleazy and two-faced network execs, actors and agents. This does make for an interesting story! Worth seeing.