Editing Murder, She Wrote (section)

==History==
===Origin===
{{more citations needed section|date=November 2016}}
Series producers [[Peter S. Fischer]], [[Richard Levinson]] and [[William Link]] developed the lead role for actress [[Jean Stapleton]], who was initially somewhat interested but eventually turned it down, threatening the project.<ref>{{cite news|last= Fisher|first= Peter|date= April 19, 1988|title= The selling of Murder She Wrote|url= https://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0419/umurd-f.html#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16517857299075&csi=1&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.csmonitor.com%2F1988%2F0419%2Fumurd-f.html|work= The Christian Science Monitor|location= USA|access-date= May 6, 2022|archive-date= May 8, 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220508092654/https://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0419/umurd-f.html#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16517857299075&csi=1&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.csmonitor.com%2F1988%2F0419%2Fumurd-f.html|url-status= live}}</ref>

Scrambling to find another major star, the producers thought [[Angela Lansbury]] would be perfect for the part of Jessica Fletcher but did not think that she would be interested in a television series. Earlier, she had acted in two film adaptations of [[Agatha Christie]]'s mystery novels: as Salome Otterbourne in ''[[Death on the Nile (1978 film)|Death on the Nile]]'' (1978) and as [[Miss Marple]] in ''[[The Mirror Crack'd]]'' (1980). When the latter film did poorly—despite an all-star cast including [[Rock Hudson]], [[Elizabeth Taylor]], [[Kim Novak]], and [[Tony Curtis]]—the offer for Lansbury to reprise Miss Marple in three more films never materialized.<ref>Brunsdale, Mitzi M., ''Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection: From Sleuths to Superheroes''. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC (2010), p. 307<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

When she made it known she would be available if the right project came along, the three creators sent her the script and almost immediately, Lansbury felt she could do something with the role of Jessica Fletcher. With ''Murder, She Wrote'' debuting on Sunday, September 30, 1984, the producers were able to parlay their "mystery writer/amateur detective" premise into a 12-year hit for [[CBS]]. It also made Lansbury, known previously for her motion picture and Broadway stage work, a household name for millions of television viewers. The title comes from ''[[Murder, She Said]]'', which was the title of a 1961 film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel ''[[4.50 from Paddington]]''.

=== Premise ===
The show revolves around the day-to-day life of Jessica Fletcher (née MacGill, which was Lansbury's mother's maiden name), a widowed and retired English teacher, who becomes a successful mystery writer. Despite fame and fortune, Jessica remains a resident of Cabot Cove, a small coastal community in [[Maine]] (the first season episode "Murder Takes the Bus" establishes that Cabot Cove is just north of [[Newcastle, Maine|the town of Newcastle]]), and maintains her links with all of her old friends, never letting her success go to her head.

The show usually starts with a preview of the episode's events, with Jessica stating: "Tonight on ''Murder, She Wrote''..." Jessica invariably proves more perceptive than the official investigators of a case, who are almost always willing to arrest the most likely suspect. By carefully piecing the clues together and asking astute questions, she leads the authorities to arrest the real murderer. Murder occurred with such regularity in her vicinity that the term "Cabot Cove syndrome" was coined to describe the constant appearance of dead bodies in remote locations. Indeed, if Cabot Cove existed in real life, it would top the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s national crime statistics in numerous categories, with some analysis suggesting that the homicide rate in Cabot Cove exceeds even that of the real-life [[List of cities by homicide rate|murder capital of the world]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9490511/Murder-She-Wrote-location-named-as-murder-capital-of-world.html |title="Murder She Wrote" location named as Murder Capital of World |access-date=April 4, 2018 |archive-date=February 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180207011356/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9490511/Murder-She-Wrote-location-named-as-murder-capital-of-world.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Jessica's relationship with law enforcement officials varies from place to place. Both sheriffs of Cabot Cove resign themselves to having her meddle in their cases. However, most detectives and police officers do not want her anywhere near their crime scenes, until her accurate deductions convince them to listen to her. Some are happy to have her assistance from the start, often because they are fans of her books. With time, she makes friends in many police departments across the [[United States|U.S.]], as well as with a British police officer attached to [[Scotland Yard]]. At the start of season eight, more of the stories were set in [[New York City]] with Jessica moving into an apartment there part-time in order to teach criminology at the city university.