Let's kick it off with the book that re-ignited my love of Murder, She Wrote and led to the creation of this blog: Me and Murder, She Wrote: My Adventures in Television with Angela Lansbury, Peter Falk and Jerry Orbach...among others, An Unauthorized Autobiography by Peter S. Fischer. I cannot stress enough how much this book made me want to go out and re-watch every single episode of Murder, She Wrote...which is exactly what I did.
Me and Murder, She Wrote:
My Adventures in Television with Angela Lansbury, Peter Falk and Jerry Orbach...among others
An Unauthorized Autobiography by Peter S. Fischer
Author: Peter S. Fischer
Publisher: Grove Point Press
Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Members' Titles
Publication Date: September 15, 2013
View on Amazon
Source: NetGalley
Review first appeared on Cozy Little Book Journal, October 3, 2013
Ooh this book made me want to watch a marathon of Murder, She Wrote! Why don't I have this series on DVD? I'm going to have to look into that.
It was a fun book to read. Peter Fischer gives a behind the scenes look at some of the coziest crime dramas of the '70's and '80's--Kojak, Columbo, and of course Murder, She Wrote--as well as some lesser known shows like Mrs. Columbo, Blacke's Magic, The Law and Harry McGraw. He tells the tales and names the names, including who was a joy to work with (Angela Landsbury, Jerry Orbach), who wasn't (Peter Falk) and who was a total nightmare (Hal Linden). It's deeply satisfying gossip, even if I didn't entirely remember all the people he was gossiping about.
The one thing that did make it a bit hard to follow was the fact that he switched tenses all over the place, often in the same paragraph. He goes from "I was" to "I am" to "I have" with seemingly no discernible rhyme or pattern. It was hard to tell when he was talking about the distant past and when he was talking about the present. Plus the book isn't exactly chronologically told and he almost never referenced years when he was introducing an anecdote. He did, however, frequently mention the month the story took place, which was confusing. "It was March and I had been writing..." "It was December and I have a meeting with..." You would think that meant all those stories took place in the same year that was previously mentioned, but usually that was not the case. I was struggling to figure out what year it could have been that had Columbo, Murder, She Wrote, Law and Order and The Father Dowling Mysteries all airing at the same time before I finally gave up and decided to just enjoy the stories. And I did enjoy them!
UPDATE: Guess who just tracked down the entire series on DVD? YAY!!! I'll see you in a couple of months.
You May Also Like:
Murder, She Wrote: The Complete Series
After reading Peter S. Fischer's book, this was my very next stop. I've already started re-watching the show and I can't believe how much I love it. Even more than I remember!
Peter S. Fischer did not write the Murder, She Wrote spin-off movies, nor did he mention them much in the book. (Hardly an endorsement, eh?) I've also never seen them so I can't say if they're any good or not.
Murder, She Wrote: A Little Yuletide Murder, by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain
There's a whole series of these cozy mysteries "written by Jessica Fletcher" (but really Donald Bain). They're actually pretty good (much better than I thought they'd be) and are pretty fun reads for fans of cozy mysteries and of the TV series. I've previously reviewed this title my blog.
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