TV SERIES · 1984– · USA
Murder, She Wrote
57 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (57)
- #001
The harbor of Jessica's hometown, Cabot Cove, is actually the Jaws (1975) lagoon on the Universal Studios tram tour.
- #002
Angela Lansbury was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in each of the show's twelve seasons, but never won.
- #003
Jessica's middle name is Beatrice, a tribute to Angela Lansbury's closest friend, the actress and singer Bea Arthur.
- #004
After Angela Lansbury's death, the series became the most-watched show of 2022.
- #005
One of Jessica's distinctive traits was that she could not drive (unlike Angela Lansbury, who did), leaving her dependent on the bicycles and taxis or cars and other transport of the vast circle of friends, relatives, acquaintances, police officers and law enforcement officials, and occasional suspects around her.
- #006
The series title is a reference to Murder She Said (1961), the Miss Marple mystery adapted from an Agatha Christie novel. The producers were said to have actually been inspired by the final TV film of Christie's A Caribbean Mystery (1983) and to have considered using the detective from that story as a potential lead; however, the Christie estate did not want to license a network to create original stories using her character.
- #007
Although the fictional Cabot Cove is set in Maine, the series was shot on the West Coast, in Mendocino, California, and on the Universal Studios backlot in Los Angeles. For the Mendocino shoots, the Blair House Inn Bed and Breakfast was used as the exterior of Jessica Fletcher's house. It was built in 1888 for Elisha Blair and his family by a local builder, Oliver Johnson. Because of the intensity of the location shoots, one V.I.P. room was renamed Angela's Suite, and a replica of Jessica's bicycle sits in the garden. Many other locations claimed to be in New England were actually shot in Oregon and Northern California.
- #008
When Tom Bosley left the series, his absence was explained by Sheriff Tupper retiring from his post and moving to Kentucky to live with his family.
- #009
Before being offered the role of Jessica, Lansbury was offered the chance to appear in a sitcom. Her agent, however, advised her not to take that role and to do a series instead. A year after MSW premiered on CBS, the comedy series Lansbury had been offered aired on NBC. That show was the highly successful The Golden Girls (1985). Interestingly, it starred her closest friend, Bea Arthur, as Dorothy. Arthur never appeared on MSW, and Lansbury never appeared on The Golden Girls (1985), likely because the shows were on different networks at a time of intense competition.
- #010
Angela Lansbury accepted the role after other actresses, among them Jean Stapleton and Doris Day, turned it down.
- #011
Jessica's maiden name was MacGill, based on Lansbury's mother, who took the acting name Moyna MacGill (born Charlotte Lilian McIldowie).
- #012
Another recurring character was the secret agent Michael Hagarty, who met Jessica in many different places around the world. Len Cariou also appeared alongside Lansbury on Broadway as part of the original cast of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
- #013
Jessica Fletcher had four brothers and sisters. The only one seen on screen, however, was Dr. Marshall MacGill (Jason Evers). Another brother, Martin, was mentioned but never seen. Some of her nieces and nephews took part in her investigations and adventures.
- #014
The series shared a universe with Magnum, P.I. (1980). In two crossover episodes, Jessica (Lansbury) travels to Hawaii and becomes involved in a case in Roman Connection (1986) and Magnum on Ice (1986) in which Magnum (Tom Selleck) is accused and Higgins (John Hillerman) asks Jessica for help.
- #015
Before creating this series, the producers Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link had produced Ellery Queen (1975), which used almost the same format: a baffling murder solved by a mystery writer, with a mix of former stars, veteran character actors and young newcomers playing the suspects.
- #016
Before marrying Frank Fletcher, Jessica MacGill was working to become a journalist. She later became a teacher in Cabot Cove, Maine, where the couple lived until Frank's death.
- #017
The framed color photograph of Jessica and Frank actually belongs to Angela and her husband Peter Shaw.
- #018
Although Lansbury and Bea Arthur were never able to guest-star on each other's shows, Rue McClanahan (who played Blanche on The Golden Girls) appeared in an episode the same year The Golden Girls premiered. There are several more guest stars who played recurring supporting characters and one-off love interests.
- #019
Lansbury was already familiar with the murder mystery genre, having appeared in two film adaptations of Agatha Christie novels, Death on the Nile (1978) and The Mirror Crack'd (1980); in the latter she played the famous detective Miss Jane Marple. Audiences were therefore more than willing to accept her as Jessica Fletcher.
- #020
Many of the series' guest stars were former colleagues of Angela Lansbury, having appeared with her during Hollywood's Golden Age or on Broadway. Lansbury reportedly made a practice of hiring aging older actors because it allowed them to earn the union points they needed for insurance and pension.
- #021
Many people, Angela Lansbury included, felt or believed that the reason behind moving the series from Sunday to Thursday for its twelfth season was a deliberate plan by CBS programming chief Leslie Moonves to kill it. After all, it was competing with the ratings giant Friends (1994), which was on the verge of reaching super-show status. Yet everything Moonves tried on Sunday failed so badly that in the last few weeks of the regular season he ran the series twice, on Thursdays and Sundays, and then aired repeats for a summer. To get a good audience the following fall, he had to place Touched by an Angel (1994) in the time slot. The final season references this with the episodes Murder Among Friends (1996) (featuring the cast of the fictional hit series "Buds") and Death by Demographics (1996), the last regular installment before the series moved to television films.
- #022
Jessica's middle name, Beatrice, was a tribute to Ms. Lansbury's close friend Bea Arthur. Jessica's husband Frank's name was also a small nod to Arthur, whose real surname was Frankel.
- #023
In many cases an overworked Lansbury would take a break and appear only briefly to introduce that week's episode — these episodes always featured Keith Michell as Dennis Stanton, Jessica's friend, a sweet, knowledgeable retired former jewel thief who worked at an insurance company in San Francisco, which, needless to say, provided many opportunities for solving crimes.
- #024
One of producer Peter S. Fischer's favorite film stars was Doris Day, who was offered the role of Jessica Fletcher but turned it down before Lansbury was cast. The series' staff often brought Fischer and his producer friend Bob O'Neill their "wish list" of who they could cast in prominent guest roles. In the 1991-92 season, Day was offered a guest role. Day, who appeared interested, responded that she could set aside two weeks for filming. Then came Day's contract terms, which included her son Terry Melcher receiving a "producer credit with pay" for the guest shoot. Universal-MCA, CBS and the producers had agreed on her filming fee, but they refused to accept Melcher's demand that he receive a producer credit and be paid for his involvement in the shoot.
- #025
The population of Cabot Cove, Maine, was 3,650.
- #026
Grady Fletcher (Michael Horton) moved in with Jessica and her husband Frank after Grady's parents — Frank's brother and his wife — died in a car accident.
- #027
A young Joaquin Phoenix, then billed as Leaf Phoenix, appears in the ninth episode of the first season, We're Off to Kill the Wizard (1984). (His first name at birth was in fact Leaf.) His sister Summer Phoenix also appeared in the episode — both play Jessica's great-nephew and niece.
- #028
Jessica Fletcher lived at 698 Candelwood, Cabot Cove, Maine.
- #029
Jessica's late husband, Frank, was a bomber pilot in the Korean War.
- #030
Besides Dennis Stanton (Keith Michell), the other characters who helped Jessica (Lansbury) solve the various murders she encountered included the private detectives Harry McGraw (Jerry Orbach) and Charlie Garrett (Wayne Rogers), the British intelligence agent Michael Hagarty (Len Cariou) and N.Y.P.D. Detective Lieutenant Artie Gelber (Herb Edelman). However, the only one of these characters to be spun off into his own series was Harry McGraw, in the short-lived The Law and Harry McGraw (1987).
- #031
The series' fictional "Cabot Cove," Maine setting is a real harbor inlet in the town of Kennebunkport, Maine. "Cabot Cove" sits on the main road out of the county, with a bridge over the small inlet. Local motels and lobster/crab shack restaurants are near the cove, a short walk from the main village. The pilot episode's town exteriors were shot in Mendocino, California; afterward, each season was shot with a two-hour show (sometimes split into two parts for broadcast). The main (in-town) Victorian mansion stood in for Jessica's house. The exterior Sheriff's Station was the local Rangers Station. In 1992 this exterior was replaced using the coastal clapboard building on the main front street. Several small business storefronts were shot for the exteriors of the "Hill House Hotel" — using the exterior, grounds, parking lot, interior lobby and check-in desk of Mendocino's largest hotel — as well as a beauty salon, a newspaper office and so on. The beach and bluff area were mainly shot for specific episodes. Fort Bragg Harbor was used for the dock, the exterior pub and the pier buildings dressed as a bar. The interior restaurants above the harbor were also filmed as "Cabot Cove" views. On the "Universal Studios" backlot, the Jaws Lake attraction was filmed as the exterior village. The series kept the studio attraction's exterior buildings until it was cancelled in 1996, after which they fell into disrepair. The exterior Victorian "Best Little Whorehouse" set, moved from Stage 12 to a hillside area on the backlot, doubled for the Mendocino Victorian Jessica's house. The interiors of this house were filmed, redesigned, repainted and redecorated in many episodes with other storylines.
- #032
Angela Lansbury died in 2022, as did some of the series' guest stars and recurring guest stars: Ron Masak, David Warner, Liz Sheridan, Paul Sorvino, Tony Dow, Mitchell Ryan, Bo Hopkins, Clu Gulager, Andrew Prine, Robert Morse, Roger E. Mosley, Lance Kerwin, Philip Baker Hall and Conrad Janis.
- #033
Bea Arthur and Lansbury both became major television stars after appearing together in "Mame" on Broadway. Arthur went on to Maude (1972) and The Golden Girls (1985), and Lansbury to Murder, She Wrote.
- #034
Lansbury (Jessica Fletcher) and Tom Bosley (Sheriff Amos Tupper) appeared as husband and wife in The World of Henry Orient (1964).
- #035
Lansbury appeared with Hurd Hatfield in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). He guest-starred in three episodes of MSW.
- #036
After Cheers (1982) ended on May 20, 1993, the series became the longest-running American prime-time scripted series then on the air, and it held that status until its final episode on May 19, 1996. It was succeeded by Married… with Children (1987). Because Married… with Children (1987), Murphy Brown (1988), Family Matters (1989) and The Simpsons (1989) are sitcoms, it remains the last drama series to hold that distinction.
- #037
As part of producing the series, Peter S. Fischer developed characters and scripts for another weekly network series under the 'Murder, She Wrote' format, built around specific "characters." In 1989, two shows, The Grand Old Lady (1989) (aired October 8, 1989) and Jack and Bill (1989) (aired October 29, 1989), were potential film-series pilots, with Lansbury introducing each of the series' narrations. The two pilots were shot at the end of the fifth season, in June 1989, after Angela and her husband Peter Shaw had set off on their summer vacation. The filming of each new show's introduction and closing-line summary was done at the start of the new 1989-90 season, with the introductions shot in September 1989. "Grand Old Lady" was shot aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, with a 1947-period murder mystery script. The lead investigator and his assistant aimed to establish a 1947-50 period setting as the basis for another mystery show spin-off. The contemporary "Jack and Bill" pilot involved two detectives with a standard bright pink poodle that helped catch criminals. Neither pilot was accepted by CBS, but both programs were independently offered to ABC and, after CBS's "no, thank you" response, to NBC. In an unusual arrangement in Lansbury's contract with CBS, Angela's "Corymore Productions" company had an option for a "movie of the week" that could be shot during her annual summer vacation. She could choose her own property, assemble the project's cast and crew, and produce the movie of the week each year the series was under contract. Angela and Peter Shaw's "Corymore Productions" never exercised the movie-of-the-week option. When CBS and Les Moonves cancelled the Universal-MCA MSW series, four Murder, She Wrote movies of the week were offered as a contractual arrangement in 1996, along with the Jerry Herman musical "Mrs. Santa Claus" (a Christmas Special Movie of the Week). Fischer left Murder, She Wrote in 1992.
- #038
Interestingly, Angela Lansbury and Ron Masak died in October 2022 only 9 days apart; Lansbury on the 11th and Masak on the 20th.
- #039
Among the guest stars on Murder, She Wrote were three main actors from Star Trek: Voyager (1995): Kate Mulgrew (3 episodes), Robert Beltran (2 episodes) and Jeri Ryan (1 episode).
- #040
Several of the best actors from Airplane! appeared on the series as guest stars: Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves, Chad Everett, Robert Stack, John Vernon, Kent McCord and Chuck Connors.
- #041
The series featured guest roles by several stars who later became famous: George Clooney, Joaquin Phoenix, Cynthia Nixon, Courtney Cox, Bryan Cranston, Linda Hamilton, Jeffrey Tambor, Jane Leeves, Neil Patrick Harris, Kathryn Morris and Marcia Cross.
- #042
Exterior scenes, including the exterior of Jessica Fletcher's house, were filmed in Mendocino, California, for nine episodes and numerous other episodes.
- #043
Jessica's Manhattan telephone number was 212-191-1498.
- #044
The series' French title is "Arabesque." It is unclear why Jessica Fletcher is never seen striking an arabesque pose, since she never wears a tutu and never dances ballet. This is probably related to the opening music being an "arabesque," but it remains unclear why they named the series after its instrumental theme song, which has nothing to do with the series being a murder mystery.
- #045
Gene Francis played Jessica's niece Victoria in three episodes. The first was Birds of a Feather (1984) (season 1), in which her fiancé was Howard Griffin, played by Jeff Conaway. In Corned Beef and Carnage (1986) (season 3) they are married. Howard Griffin is still married to Victoria in the sixth season, but the role of Howard was recast.
- #046
In the middle of the opening sequence used during the first three seasons, Jessica Fletcher can be seen waving to a 15-metre fishing trawler with smoke rising nearby. The boat in question was built in 1971 by Makela Brothers Boat Works in Fort Bragg, California, and its new owner, Charlie White, named it Gayle after his wife. Gayle was sold in 1986 to White's son Mitch, and then in 1997 to the Bettencourt family. In 2009 Gayle was given a one-and-a-half-metre extension by the son of the original builders, and in 2017 it was sold once again. It now sails as Moriah Lee out of Half Moon Bay, California, for fisherman Kyle Pemberton.
- #047
George Clooney played a character named "Kip Howard" in "No Laughing Murder," season 3, episode 18.
- #048
Jeff Conaway appeared as Howard Griffin in two episodes.
- #049
Bryan Cranston appears in one episode alongside Linda Hamilton. Cranston's character is killed in a car bombing.
- #050
Several episodes brought together multiple stars from other TV shows at the same time.
- #051
Guest stars included past Oscar winners Jose Ferrer, Patricia Neal, Martin Balsam, Kim Hunter and Shirley Jones, as well as future Oscar winners Martin Landau, George Clooney and Joaquin Phoenix.
- #052
Angela Lansbury had a small role in 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' (1965) [an ambitious biblical epic about Jesus Christ]. Many of the leads of that film appeared as guest stars on this series: Jose Ferrer, Martin Landau, Roddy McDowall, Michael Anderson Jr., Ina Balin, Nehemiah Persoff, Carroll Baker, David McCallum, Janet Margolin, Michael Ansara, John Considine, David Hedison, Tom Reese, Jamie Farr, Robert Loggia, David Sheiner, Michael Tolan and Marian Seldes.
- #053
Many alumni of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films appeared as guest stars on the series: John Saxon, Fran Bennett, Nick Corri, Tracy Middendorf, Hope Lange, Clu Gulager, Robert Rusler, Lisa Wilcox, Danny Hassel and Amanda Wyss.
- #054
Jessica is never seen attending the funeral of a murder victim.
- #055
As of the time of writing (16.08.2025), a remake of Murder, She Wrote is in development with Jamie Lee Curtis in the role of Jessica Fletcher. It is unclear whether the remake will be released in cinemas, online, or both, and it has not yet been announced who besides Curtis will appear in the film or whether the same characters from the series will appear.
- #056
In 2022, Jamie Burton of Newsweek wrote an article concluding that it was unverified whether Angela Lansbury had been hired to preserve health benefits for actors of the golden age.
- #057
Several of Sara Eyestone's paintings appear throughout the series.
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