Month: June 2019

EP2854: Let George Do It: Snookums

George agrees to watch a dog for $200 plus expenses but finds he’s gotten more than he bargained for when he finds out the dog is a voracious Great Dane that’s been reported stolen.

Original Air Date: November 15, 1946

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EP2853: Pat Novak for Hire: Father Leahy (Listener’s Choice Standard Division #13)

A priest asks Pat to intersect an escapee from prison and bring him to the priest.

Original Air Date: April 2, 1949

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Video Theater 158: Sherlock Holmes: The Cunningham Heritage

Holmes and Watson meet and then Holmes has to solve the death of a wealthy man where the evidence points to the man’s ex-convict fiancée.

Season 1, Episode 1

Original Air Date: October 18, 1954

EP2852s: Twelve Players: The Lady and the Letters

Jack Moyles

A private eye is hired by the wife of a racketeer to recover some letter she’s being blackmailed with.

Original Air Date: August 18, 1945

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Telefilm Review: Murder She Wrote: The Deadly Lady

In “The Deadly Lady,” some time has passed since The Murder of Sherlock Holmes as the episode shows Jessica has a proof copy of a new book and is working on yet another. Wealthy financier Stephen Earl is apparently killed in a storm on a boat with his daughters, who will each receive $25 million at his death. Sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley) suspects foul play and calls Jessica Fletcher in for her advice and he meets the man’s daughters, most of whom seem to have little love lost for him. At the same time, a drifter named Ralph (Howard Duff) comes to Jessica’s house seeking work and she gives him some work and befriends him.

Thanks to a local newspaperman, she sees a picture of the financier and realizes it’s the drifter, which means he didn’t die in the storm,  clearing one of his daughters who confessed to the “murder.” However when his body washes up on the beach, Jessica has to find out who killed him and why.

What Works:

The scenes between Howard Duff and Angela Lansbury were just superb.  Stephen Earl/Ralph is trying to sell Jessica a false story, several in fact, so that he can stay on the down low in Cabot Cove, though Jessica uses her deductive skills to see through most all of them. She’s still very kind and empathetic towards him and genuinely likes him, which gives her some added to motivation to solve his eventual murder.

We meet our first two Cabot Cove recurring characters. Tom Bosley (Happy Days, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home) would play Sheriff Tupper for the first four seasons on Murder She Wrote before leaving the role to become the lead in The Father Dowling Mysteries. In this episode, Tupper is a solid small-town lawman who does what needs to be done and refuses to alter his ways for high-powered, wealthy out-of-towners who descend on the town in the wake of news of Earl’s death. 

This episode features Claude Akins’ first episode as fishing boat Captain Ethan Clagg, an irascible character who enjoys taking good-natured shots at his friends in Cabot Cove. Akins makes the character work which is a challenge because that type of character can easily become annoying.

Dack Rambo does a nice-turn as the sleazy, money-grubbing husband of one of the daughters. He’s one of those characters you love to hate and Rambo’s quite good at making the character come to life.

What You Just Have to Accept:

Cabot Cove is supposed to be a small town in Maine, but this introductory episode is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of feeling like it’s set there.  The actors attempt New England rural accents with varying degrees of success, and some exteriors shots look passable, although the eagle eye will notice several dead giveaways that this was shot in Mendocino, California. 

It’s the type of production issue that’s fair to acknowledge, but not fair to hold against the show. It was good enough for its time. I just needed to bring my own imagination and suspension of disbelief to buy this location as being in Maine.

What Doesn’t Work:

Sherriff Tupper calls Jessica in when he thinks there might be a murder, but then when he finds an important crime scene, the story implies he told a deputy to not tell her where he was. The deputy then takes a phone call right in front of Jessica,  revealing the location and Jessica goes out there, with Sheriff Tupper none to happy to see her.

The whole sequence is a bit of pointless padding that goes against Tupper’s character as we’d seen it in the episode.

While Murder She Wrote is sometimes criticized for having plots resolved with Jessica finding the solution but the audience isn’t let on until she gives the solution to others, this particular episode has the opposite problem. The clues and overall solution are too simple and easy.  Though that may not be  the worst thing for the first hour-long episode.

Overall Thoughts:

A murderer who crosses Jessica Fletcher’s path is in serious trouble, but it’s pretty much hopeless for the murderer who decides that Cabot Cover is a good place to commit a killing.  The murderer caught in this episode won’t be the last one to try that fool’s errand and suffer the consequences.

While the mystery is a simple affair, Angela Lansbury carries it often with style, helped by a great guest performance by Howard Duff. This story gets the regular run of hour-long Murder She Wrote episodes off to a fine start.

Rating:4.0 out of 5.0

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EP2852: Dragnet: The Big Missus

Jack Webb

The wife of a escaped parolee from Michigan comes to Friday and Smith to bring her husband in for his own good.

Original Air Date: August 9, 1955

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EP2851: Dragnet: The Big Rod

Jack Webb

Friday and Smith search for the driver of a souped up car who hit a woman and left her for dead.

Original Air Date: March 16, 1954

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EP2850: Dragnet: The Big Impossible

Jack Webb

Friday and Smith have a positive ID for a suspect who committed several robberies. The only problem? He was in a sanitarium at time of the robberies.

Original Air Date: March 15, 1953

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Dragnet 70th Anniversary Specials

In honor of Dragnet’s 70th Anniversary, we’re offering the Joe Friday Never Said: Just the Facts, Ma’am” T-shirt.

This week you can get my book All I Needed to Know I Learned from Dragnet (Kindle/Affiliate) or if you have another e-reader, go here and use coupon code WD58U at checkout to get it for 99 cents.

AWR0073: NBC University Theater: Pride and Prejudice (Summer of Angela Lansbury)

Amazing World of Radio

Angela Lansbury stars as Elizabeth Bennet in this adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic first novel, Pride and Prejudice.

Original Air Date: February 20, 1949
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EP2849: Dragnet: The Big Casing

Jack Webb

A woman is found dead of a gunshot wound, the husband claims it was suicide but the evidence seems to point towards murder.

Original Air Date: May 3, 1951

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EP2848: Dragnet: The Big Betty

Jack Webb

Joe Friday and Ben Romero go after a gang of conmen who are victimizing the families of recently deceased people.

Original Air Date: November 23, 1950

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EP2847: Dragnet: Production 6 (a.k.a Red Light Bandit)

Jack Webb

Friday and Romero hunt for a brutal bandit who robs and beats people while impersonating a police officer.

Original Air Date: July 14, 1949

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EP2846s: Dragnet: The Big Red Parts One and Two

Jack Webb

Following a tip from an informant, Friday goes undercover to bust up a new narcotics ring.

Original Air Dates: January 3 and 10, 1952

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EP2846: Dragnet: The Big Wish

Jack Webb
A boy comes into Juvenile division asking for help to break an addiction.

Original Air Date: August 10, 1954

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