For fun I decided I am going to watch Angela Lansbury movies this summer.
This is the list I’ve come up with. It’s subject to change, of course.
You can join along and watch the movies or just read the blog posts about them. I won’t be offering spoilers for the movies. The dates are the dates I will be writing about the movie.
June 13th – Manchurian Candidate
June 20 – National Velvet
June 27 – Bedknobs & Broomsticks
July 4 – Gaslight
July 11 – The Shell Seekers
July 18 – Murder She Wrote: The Celtic Riddle
July 25 – The Mirror Cracked
August 1 – The Court Jester
To kick off my Summer of Angela, here is a link to my impressions of Blue Hawaii, which she played Elvis’s mother in. I’ve updated it a bit with a little more information about Angela’s role in the film and what she thought of Elvis.
Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.
You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog, and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
Little Miss and I had a very busy week with attending a Vacation Bible School 20 minutes away each night except Wednesday. Okay, so it wasn’t that busy but it felt busy with all the driving we did on windy, twisty roads. Little Miss had a lot of fun though and there are going to be many more VBS, 4-H, and library events this summer for us to look forward to.
Now, let’s introduce our hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50. She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
A little about Our Grands Blog: Welcome to Our Grand Lives! We are two women from the midwest who love our lives… we love the changing seasons, we love our family and friends, we love our God, we’ve always loved teaching little ones and, more than just about anything, we now love being grands!
We are Laurie and Laura, two retired kindergarten teachers whose lives often crisscrossed over the years as we raised our families. Now that life is moving at a slower pace, we’ve been able to reconnect and celebrate our new found freedoms and our new titles of “Grammy” and “Gramma.”
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
Here I am with another recap of an episode from The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries show from 1977.
As I’ve mentioned before, in the first season of this series the episodes switched back and forth from Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew episodes and in the next season they started to join together. Eventually they began to phase out the Nancy episodes and focus more on The Hardy Boys. A new actress also started as Nancy when Pamela Sue Martin became disenchanted with the parts that were being written for her character.
This time around I am writing about a Nancy Drew centered episode called A Haunting We Will Go.
As far as episodes go, this one wasn’t the worst. It had a lot of humor mixed in and kept the mystery going for quite a long time. It also had some absolutely ridiculous elements, but that’s totally okay. That’s what makes these episodes fun.
Nancy, George, and Ned are producing a play to raise money to demolish the old town theater so they can build a children’s home. What exactly is the children’s house? I have no idea, but it is supposed to be a good cause, from what I can tell.
They’ve already recruited a former well-known local actress to perform in the play. Then Ned starts receiving notifications from other people who used to act in the community theater and are now famous.
They want to come and help out too.
The young people are confused, but excited for them all to come, even though a prop chandelier fell and almost killed Nancy the scene before.
Here are our characters who used to be actors at the theater: Alex Richmond, Seth Taylor, Danny Day, Thelma March, and Janet Musant.
Janet remained living in the town but everyone else moved away. Janet isn’t too happy about having been left behind and everyone returning either. She’s pretty unpleasant all around but she seems to have reason to be. Life hasn’t been easy to her. Her hotel, located across the street from the theater, is old and run down and she uses a cane. We aren’t sure why she has the cane and limp but it’s clear some kind of illness or injury has befallen her.
Janet.
Nancy is trying to figure out what happened with the light fixture that almost fell on her when the other people start to arrive.
We feel the tension among the group fairly fast, especially between the others and Thelma, who is now a movie actress and is very condescending to everyone. She tells the one man she wonders how he is able to spend all his time sharing bad news as a newscaster and then says, “Oh well, I always turn way from you to channel 3. It’s a much better quality of news.”
This is how things will go for a good portion of the first half of the show — the actors shooting verbal barbs at each other.
The actors all claim they came back to the theater to act on the stage one more time before the theater is destroyed, but Nancy recognizes right away there isn’t a ton of truth in these statements.
Something else is definitely up.
Arguments are breaking out, snide remarks are being made, and when Nancy suggests they came for a reason other than raising money for the children’s house, they all get funny looks on their faces.
Nancy was only referring to the fact they were all in the same play together years ago, but they certainly looked panicked. Nancy doesn’t miss these expressions either.
Later that night, after an argument between Seth and Thelma that is witnessed by Nancy and George, the five actors begin searching the theater.
We aren’t sure what they are searching for, but it seems like some kind of treasure from the comments they are making. “It should be back here!” “This is where we put up the wall!”
During the search they insult and accuse each other of vague offenses, keeping us from knowing what is really going on.
At one point Seth and Janet end up in an argument at the top of the stairs in the theater. The actors have been put up at Janet’s hotel. Janet snottily asks Seth if he is happy with his room.
He sneers back that he expected it to be lined with mink.
“Someone has been making a very good living out of this nightmare,” he snaps.
Janet is incredulous. “You think it’s me? Would I stay on in this town, in this run down mausoleum?”
“Where else would you fit in so well?” Seth asks.
Ouch.
Seth snaps out some more accusing remarks and Janet swings at him with her cane. He grabs her at the moment Nancy shows up at the bottom of the stairs and it looks like Seth is about to throw the woman down the stairs. Yikes. He clearly has anger issues, if not homicidal tendencies
The pair of actors claim they were simply practicing a scene to attempt to cover up their fight, but Nancy’s way too smart for that. She knows something is going on.
She tells Ned something is going on and Ned sort of groans and says, “Why are you always playing detective when there’s no crime?”
Burn.
Nancy isn’t letting Ned deter her though. She knows these people are hiding things and she’s going to find out what they are.
I have to say that Nancy is really, really rude to Ned in this episode. She mocks him incessantly because he is proud of bringing all the actors in and organizing the play. Nancy is often very mean to him, and I don’t know why he keeps pursuing her.
Look! She’s even giving him the “duh, Ned!” expression!
I’m sure the writers were trying to add humor, but it’s not funny when Nancy compliments him only to bait and switch and tell him he needs to see a psychiatrist because he worked so hard on a project that she talked him into working on.
*pulling out soapbox*
I think he’s a pretty weak man for putting up with her belittling him all the time, but I think that’s what 70s shows were like at times. They were trying to give women independence and much like today there is an attitude that to make women appear stronger they have to tear men down. I don’t like that idea or to see it pushed here.
*putting soapbox away*
Anyhow, Ned does start to wonder if Nancy is right about something weird going on when he stops by the theater at night to check the props and lights again and finds Thelma and Alex carrying bricks out the back door of the theater.
See, right before Ned shows up, the viewer is shown that all four of the actors are digging with pickaxes into a wall in the basement of the theater. They’re saying something about them not remembering it being so thick and they thought it was more hollow.
When Ned catches them, they toss out a lame excuse that Alex has a bad back and needs to sleep on the bricks to help his back. I think that was a thing people did back in the day but ouch!
They talk Ned into leaving to get some rest by suggesting he’s offended Thelma by calling her old, so they can go back to digging.
In the morning, Ned and Nancy find the actors all asleep in the dressing room and they claim they were running their lines.
Nancy again knows they are lying, and Ned admits he saw them sneaking bricks out of the theater the night before.
“I knew it!” Nancy declares.
When Ned and Nancy leave, the actors start talking about how they’ve been bled dry financially by someone in the room and that someone has their money and they’re going to find out who. All four (Janet isn’t there) deny being the blackmailer.
The actors agree to stumble out onto the stage for a rehearsal but after a few runs they are ready to go back to their rooms and crash. Nancy argues that they need to stay to help her learn her part (which seems to consist entirely of her carrying drinks out to the stage and asking if they want one … so not too challenging to me.)
While arguing about going or staying, an entire light fixture falls and would have killed Alex if Nancy hadn’t pushed him out of the way.
Nancy is certain it was done on purpose, but, as usual, her father (Carson Drew) and Ned disagree and offer up excuses like: “The theater is old. Maybe we shouldn’t even have people there for a play,” and “These are fine, upstanding members of society. Why would they have anything to do with people almost getting killed in the theater, Nancy? It’s preposterous!” (Not actual dialogue but imagine all that said in a very posh British accent. I did and it made me giggle.)
Nancy pushes out her lower lip and stomps her foot and says, “Well, I am going to find out what is going on! I am! I am!”
She doesn’t actually say this but it’s very close.
She stomps out the door like a toddler after that. Very mature for an “18-year-old” sleuth.
Things get worse after she leaves when her dad’s sexism rears it’s ugly head when he suggests she’s just being emotional because she’s working with so many stars. The he leans back with his pipe and grins.
Ick. The way Carson Drew is portrayed in this show is so icky to me. In the books he was fairly clueless — letting Nancy run all over the place without really checking on her, but in the show he’s downright dismissive of her and practically calls her an emotional woman on her period. He is a lot more misogynistic in the show in other words.
Nancy decides she’s going to put some ultra-violet paint on things around the studio, like the door, to see if any of the actors are the person who has been sneaking around and sabotaging things in the theater.
During the episode we have little snippets of someone walking around spying on Nancy and George or some of the actors. It’s always just someone in black boots and pants so we are never sure if it is one of the actors or who.
The next day during rehearsals, Nancy shuts off the lights and shines ultra-violet light onto the stage to see who is guilty and discovers that all of the actors have the paint on their hands. We won’t get into how she found an ultra-violet light that big to shine on them because I have no idea.
This leads the actors to discuss in private how Nancy knows too much and that “we know what we have to do.”
“No, oh no,” says Seth. “I can’t do that again.”
“You can’t do what again?” asks Thelma (who has a fake theater voice…it’s weird).
“I can’t do away with that sweet, innocent girl.”
Thelma says she didn’t want to do away with her anyhow.
“She’s talking about him,” Danny says. “We’ve got to get rid of him.”
“In the cellar,” Alex says. “Before he does away with us.”
I’m sorry? Blink. Blink.
Before who does away with you?
Oh my!
So, next, Nancy and George go to the library to find newspapers that will tell them what happened when the first play was held some 20 plus years ago. They find out that the original play was promoted by a producer named Jason Hall. Hall took in several donations from the community businesses to promote the play and promised that New York critics would come in to see it. The play flopped , no critics came, and Jason Hall disappeared the first night of the performance with all the money.
A humorous moment comes in the next scene comes when the actors pull a sarcophagus out of the basement of the theater. The entire time they are saying things like, “Jason has gotten heavier,” or “Good grief, where did you think Jason was going to go after all these years.”
Yikes. So, we have already figured out what happened to Jason.
Ned stumbles onto them while coming back to check something at the theater and Seth, while holding one end of the sarcophagus says, “Oh..” nervous laugh. “Beautiful night, isn’t it?”
“That looks like a sarcophagus,” Ned says.
Seth, barely able to hold on to his end of the thing says breathlessly, “Well, yes, it is a sarcophagus.”
Like this is something that happens every day. Two grown men carrying a sarcophagus.
Seth says that the item was a souvenir he wanted to keep and that he collects them
“I have nine of them. I have just the spot for this one in my Hollywood apartment.”
“Do you think he’s suspicious of anything?” Alex asks when Ned leaves.
“What’s suspicious about two men carrying a sarcophagus down a dark alleyway at midnight?” Seth asks while rolling his eyes.
Har. Har. Cue the cymbal tap.
Nancy hears about the sarcophagus and tells her dad that she just knows that Jason Hall’s body is in the sarcophagus.
Carson isn’t very sure about this, because, you know, it would be a travesty for him to believe his daughter, but he calls the police anyhow.
Before the police get there, the actors talk about how they can’t believe Jason is still in there. Janet says how she’s the one who has had to live across the street from where his body has been buried while they all went to live their lives somewhere else.
When the police get there, bursting through the doors, they make the actors open the sarcophagus and — Oh. It doesn’t have a body inside. Instead, it is full of bricks.
Even the actors are shocked but try to play it off.
“Of course there isn’t a body in there!” they declare. “We knew there wouldn’t be!”
But they all look a bit panicked and when everyone else leaves, Danny says that the body was removed by the blackmailer who has been demanding money from them to keep the secret a secret.
The show must go on and the next night they are all on the stage, while the local TV station broadcasts it live.
Nancy, though, standing in the wings, knows what really has happened.
Jason Hall never died. He’s been alive this whole time and he’s the one who has been blackmailing all the actors and creating all the havoc at the theater. When George asks why, Nancy says it is because he’s been trying to end the performance. Once the theater was torn down and the sarcophagus uncovered, it would be clear he wasn’t really dead and had been blackmailing them all along.
When it is Nancy’s time to go out and they are all supposed to take a drink of champagne, Nancy smells something odd in the bottle and yells for them all not to drink it. She then demands Ned shut off all the lights and use the ultra-violet light on the audience. They see a man with glowing hands in the front row. He takes off up onto the stage and runs across it, but the actors and the police (where did they even come from?) catch the man. He is revealed to be none other than Jason Hall! Alive and well! Gasp!
Later the actors all share what really happened with Nancy, Carson, Ned and George. They say Jason tricked them all those years ago and took all the money from the investors for the play and the ticket sales. They found out before he could leave town. A violent argument ensued and Jason fell and hit his head, they say. They all thought they had killed him, but instead of calling the police (hello!!) they tossed him in the sarcophagus to pretend it never happened.
“At sometime, he must have recovered consciousness and gotten out of the sarcophagus, weighted it down with bricks, and then not realizing it we all came back to the theater after the performance and bricked it up,” Alex theorizes.
Everyone agrees that must have been what happened but no one expresses guilt at having shoved Jason’s body in the sarcophagus in the same place. Seth does express guilt at how they have all acted and how they went all cray cray about finding the body before anyone else.
The actors agree they will do the performance again, with no pretenses this time, and raise the money to have the theater torn down so the children’s house can be built.
By the way, when Jason was caught, the dude didn’t even get a line. Not one line. He just scowled at Nancy. I guess that was one way to cut down on how much he had to be paid. Another cost saving measure in this episode is how much was shot with a dark background since they were on a theater stage for much of it. Less lighting expense I suppose.
Everyone agrees at the end that Nancy is an amazing sleuth. She, however, is not an amazing actress, Thelma tells her.
The episode ends with everyone laughing at Nancy, which I thought was a bit called for since she’d been so mean to Ned the entire episode.
If you want to read some of the other episodes I’ve written about, there is a search bar to the right and you can just type in Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew.
Up next will be The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Flying Courier!
Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.
You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Our cat Scout was missing yesterday so I was not in a very perky the entire day.
We hadn’t seen her since Friday morning. We do let our cats outside but they usually come back several times throughout the day, and in the case of our oldest cat at least, don’t go very far.
I hadn’t been able to mentally function much since Friday night when it was pouring rain and she still hadn’t come back. I was sure she’d been hit or kidnapped. She could have been locked in one of the neighbor’s sheds too. They were all mowing their lawns before the rain came. I held out hope that she’d be home Saturday morning when one of them opened a shed or barn door.
Saturday morning came and still no sign of her.
I spent all day Saturday crying, but I knew it wasn’t just over the cat – it was over all the stuff that’s been going on with my parents and my health all combined. It was mainly the cat because I pictured her dead over the banks, I suppose, but the built-up tension from trying to figure out some weird symptoms I’ve been having and the challenge to get into a doctor and the challenge to fake it to everyone around me has been overwhelming me lately.
I just kept shoving it all inside and trying to pretend everything was fine and it just came to a head yesterday because I thought the cat was dead.
Saturday night I headed to bed around 11:30, resolved to the fact our cat — the biggest pain in the butt cat I’ve ever had in my life — was gone. I don’t know why I even did it, but I walked to our blanket closet in the hallway, as if giving it one last look, even though I was sure my husband and son had already thought to do so over the last couple of days, and I opened it.
There was a soft trill, and then a cat jumped out at me.
I was in total shock. I just started yelling, “Oh my gosh! She’s alive!”
The kids came running while the cat, probably startled as much as I was, took off for the food downstairs.
During the day I had been thinking about how much I would miss her. I would miss her touching her nose to mine when she came into my room at 5 or 6 a.m. for cuddles (I don’t actually enjoy being woke up that early, but I would now miss it, I had decided). I would miss her touching her nose to mine when she jumped up on the counter and waited for me to give her a snack of turkey deli meat when she came in from exploring outside at the end of the day.
Touching her nose to mine is something Scout has done since she was a tiny kitten, and she’d sleep on my chest.
After she grabbed some food and water, she ran back up the stairs, overwhelmed by everyone screaming over her and the dog excitedly sniffing and chasing her (I’m sure our older cat Pixel was simply glaring at her as she’d probably hoped she’d died somewhere so she could have all the attention again). I went up to finish getting ready for bed and she was standing on the window sill at the top of the stairs. She trilled at me and then she stretched her neck out toward me. When we were face-to-face she touched her nose to mine and I cried again and did something I almost never do to a cat — I kissed her forehead.
Then I wiped the fur away. Yuck. That’s why I don’t do that.
This cat definitely has nine lives. She’s the same cat that climbed and then fell out of a tree when we first got her. She lay on her side at the bottom of the tree panting and we thought she’d broken her spine and was dying. Thirty-seconds later she jumped up and took off running..
A few months later she climbed a larger tree in front of our house and was trapped there a day and a night and finally the town’s lovely fire department came and rescued her in dramatic fashion with their ladder truck. Just like in the movies.
In addition to having nine lives, the cat is also notorious for embarrassing me. That time it was the fire company rescuing her and yesterday our son went up and down the street asking all the neighbors to watch for her. Now we have to tell all of them she was in our linen closet the entire time and that we are sort of morons for not checking it and she’s sort of a moron for going into in the first place.
Last night I finished The Wishing Well by Mildred Wirt. It is a Penny Parker Mystery. I actually enjoyed it more than some of the Nancy Drew Mysteries because Mildred’s wit and humor comes through so clearly and Harriet Adams took a lot of that out when she wrote the Nancy Drew books that Mildred had written.
I might have to agree with Mildren when she once said that Penny was more Nancy Drew than Nancy was.
She is a lot more mouthy and pushy, but in a well-meaning way, than Nancy was even.
I am still reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, one chapter a day, but I didn’t read it much this week because I lost my paperback of it and then found it late last night. I did download an ebook copy to my Kindle too in case this happens again (which it will. I’m always laying my books down somewhere and losing them).
I am also continuing All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriott and will most likely finish that this week.
I plan to start The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Woodhouse this week and soon I will start Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh (a fun summer romance) and ‘Tis Herself by Maureen O’Hara.
This week I watched a couple of older movies with two of the original Dames.
I watched The Assassination Bureau with a young Diana Riggs. That was — um, interesting. Quite goofy with a lot of sexual tension between her and Oliver Reed.
Then I watched The Honey Pot with a young Maggie Smith and Rex Harrison. This was another interesting one with an odd plot. A rich man pretends to be dying and invites his three former mistresses to his home to see which one of them is worthy of his inheritance.
Maggie portrays a nurse of one of the mistresses.
Rex is in his usual, witty form in this one.
I wasn’t sure what to expect of the film when I started it and when it got serious, Maggie really stepped up her acting game. That was enjoyable.
I also watched Ludwig, a mystery with David Mitchell, on Britbox. I really enjoyed the first episode.
Of course, I watched Just A Few Acres Farm on YouTube and will watch it again because I was interrupted during it. He was restoring a Farmall tractor. Who knew one day I’d be fascinated with watching a man restore an old farm tractor…
I’ve decided that I am going to have a Summer of Angela and watch Angela Lansbury movies. I’m going to sort of do it on my own but if anyone wants to join me, they/you are welcome.
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Saturday Afternoon Chat is what it sounds like — a post to chat about what’s been going on or, well, anything I and you want to chat about. You can also feel free to leave links to similar posts or to a post you want to get some extra eyes on at the bottom of this post.
Welcome to our Saturday Afternoon Chat. So glad you are here to chat with me because during the week I mostly chat to my pets and my 10-year-old daughter and sometimes neither of them respond to me. Huh.
Well, anyhow, it’s nice to have some adults to chat with.
Last Sunday The Husband, Little Miss, and I traveled to a small tourist town year us after we found out there was a small, used bookstore there.
The store ended up being bigger than I thought and it was extremely cozy and inviting.
I can’t believe we have lived here for five years and I had no idea the store was there!
The town it is located in starts to get active in the spring and summer because most of the residents have summer homes there along the lake.
Our county is made up mainly of state game land that is full of cabins and hiking trails. This town was built probably 100 years ago as a getaway for residents of the city. Yes, many of those residents are fairly wealthy, so there is definitely a different feel to this town than others in our county.
There is a beach along the lake in the town, but it is only accessible to members or those who stay at the local inns in town, so, yes, it is an exclusive beach.
The bookstore was not exclusive to members, though, so we were free to visit it, look through the books, and even buy some.
What drew us to the store this past weekend was the beginning of summer sale where the owner places select books out front and in a room in the back and marks them at either $1.50 or $3.
There were plenty of books to choose from in those sections but there were also very many reasonably priced books throughout the three rooms of the store.
Of course, the section that most excited me was the children’s section because this is where she had a nice, small selection of Nancy Drew books. I only owned one or two of them and wanted all 17 of them, but we (okay The Husband) had established a budget for all of our purchases so I ended up only grabbing one. The newer editions, and even some of the older ones, were about $5 each, with the larger reprints of the original text priced at $8.50.
Little Miss chose the one I purchased, The Clue of the Velvet Mask.
It looks like the blob is coming up behind Nancy.
I really hope to be able to head back there soon and snatch up a few more.
She also had some vintage books, lovely collector’s editions, new books, history books, art books, mysteries, and so much more.
I could have spent the entire afternoon in there simply exploring.
After we left the bookstore, The Husband and Little Miss grabbed an ice cream cone at the Sweet Shop, a small restaurant and ice cream stand in town. From there we headed to the boat launch of the lake and took a few photos.
We drove by the beach area of the lake, but, again, since we were not members, we were not allowed to visit it.
On the way out of town, we stopped at the reserve, which features a walking trail and a 18th-century log cabin. During other times, the cabin is open and features a mini-museum and local historical information.
The rest of last weekend was spent with family, including a friend of The Boy’s, to celebrate The Boy graduating from technical school.
On Monday, we spent the day at my parents, reading books on their porch/deck, eating chicken spiedies, and the kids took a golf cart ride over the hill with my dad.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful and not worth writing about. Yesterday we drove to pick up groceries. Ooh…so very exciting. Ha!
Tomorrow Little Miss will start attending a VBS about 20 minutes from our house. It’s going to be going on each evening for five nights.
How was your week last week? Do anything exciting? Go anywhere fun? Let me know in the comments.
Come back tomorrow for Sunday Bookends, where I chat about what I’ve been reading, watching, listening to, doing and share some favorite photos and links from around the blog community.
I am absolutely floored that this school year is over and I know I say that every year but this year really did fly by.
As I always do at the end of a school year, I sit here feeling as if I didn’t do enough, teach enough, or find enough educational opportunities. Looking back through photographs and the paperwork I’ve gathered together for our end-of-the-year portfolio, though, we did a lot more than I realized.
This was The Boy’s final year of school and he did a lot less for me than I wanted to but he was also enrolled in a building and construction class at the local technical school and gained way more experience and education there than I could have offered him.
We did work on some English reading, including Sherlock Holmes and Beowulf, but he also read or listened to several books independently throughout the year. He also researched quite a bit of history on the Byzantine empire on his own and then learned about how to paint Warhammer models.
Many afternoons were also spent helping his grandfather with various home DIY projects and property upkeep and he helped the local cemetery association clean up the cemetery, including the gravestones
While he isn’t yet sure how he wants to use the education he received there, he will always have that knowledge in his future, whether it is for an occupation or in his everyday life.
He’s taking some time off and easing into his next step, something his dad and I support.
He still has a couple of things to write up for me and then his portfolio, which I will present to our state-certified evaluator next week, will be done.
Little Miss and I had a lot more variety in our education this year with not all of it focused on worksheets or physical curriculum. We studied subjects in a more relaxed way, spending more time on subjects that interested us instead of feeling like we had to quickly move ahead.
We did use some curriculum, such as BJU for English and The Good and The Beautiful for science. We also accessed an online curriculum called CTC Math for our math course, and combined that with The Good and the Beautiful, Math with Confidence, and worksheets.
For history and literature, we read historical fiction, including The Sign of the Beaver, Johnny Tremain, The Littlest Voyageur, and Caddie Woodlawn, while watching or reading supplemental material for the subjects each of those books dealt with.
We mixed lessons about Pennsylvania history in with our regular history. We are required to teach history about our state at some point during our children’s elementary school years, but I focus on Pennsylvania and local history at some point in the year, every year.
This year we had the added information about our family fighting in the Civil War, which I researched more of as I wrote a couple of blog posts about that subject.
In the beginning of the year, we attended a two-month art class sponsored by the local library and led by a local artist. He honestly did not teach much at all (and I probably would not attend a class with him again), but having the chance to interact with other children was the main benefit of that experience.
We also attended a couple of field trips with the local homeschool group. That group only met once a month, though, so the opportunity for socializing was not as strong as I had hoped.
Next school year we hope to join a local co-op for some more hands-on learning and interaction with other homeschool students.
There was a time of adjustment for Little Miss that is continuing because one of her homeschool friends was sent to public school this year. That left her without friends to interact with, which is one reason we have signed her up for VBS events, 4-H clubs, and library events this summer.
She participated in a 4-H cooking class in the spring, which she thoroughly enjoyed.
We read books either together or separately throughout the year. Little Miss read two and a half Harry Potter books this past school year. She’s almost done with the third.
Together we listened to Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink and The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis. Out loud to her, I read The Saturdays and The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright and Miracle on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson, as well as Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (later learned this is usually read by eighth graders), The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, and The Littlest Voyageur by Margi Preus. We also listened to part of Miracle on Maple Hill on Audible.
In the 2025-2026 school year we plan to use some curriculum but also leave ourselves open for more exploration and relaxed education. This doesn’t mean Little Miss will be left to do whatever she wants, when she wants, but she will have more of a say in what she learns and how.
She will be in fifth grade, and I want her to have a more relaxed educational experience that will let her feel less like education is a chore and instead make it feel like it is something fun and exciting to do.
I’m researching curriculum now and have already been given some great ideas in groups and by Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, who homeschools her son Wyatt.
We are also starting homeschooling activities in July this year, instead of August. In Pennsylvania you can count any activities held after July 1 toward the next year’s hours/days so if we participate in anything remotely educational this summer, I will be counting that toward our final hours. This will allow Little Miss and I to take breaks throughout the school year at any time we need to, without losing educational time.
Honestly, every day offers some sort of education, but I am not the kind of parent who can do something very minor and count that toward school. I know some parents would count a walk down the street as PE and call it a day, but I feel there needs to be active learning of some kind going on for it to count as a full day of school.
What is nice about homeschooling is that there is no real wrong way to do it (unless you sit your kid in front of a gaming device all day, every day, and teach them nothing). There are a variety of avenues to reach the ultimate goal of homeschooling, which is to provide a child with a well-rounded and complex educational experience that goes beyond the four walls of a classroom.
I am excited to see what the 2025-2026 school year will bring us and I’ll try to keep my blog readers updated on it better than I did this school yar.
Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.
You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog, and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
Thank you for stopping by this week! We are still waiting for the weather to warm up in Pennsylvania but I am trying to enjoy the cooler weather a little longer by bundling up under a blanket. I wouldn’t mind some temps in the 70s but looks like we are going from the mid-50s to high 70s by next week.
I hope you are all having a great week and have a great weekend!
Now, let’s introduce our hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Sue from Women Living Well After 50 started blogging in 2015 and writes about living an active and healthy lifestyle, fashion, book reviews and her podcast and enjoying life as a woman over 50. She invites you to join her living life in full bloom.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
A little about Pam and her blog:From my earliest memories, words and how they can create meanings, emotions, ideas, and illuminate stories, have filled my head. The opportunity to explore and try those out came when I worked as a “stringer” for a local newspaper where I earned a few cents per column inch and a dollar for any accompanying photo. Writing was a joy and learning to take photos with the Polaroid camera piqued my interest in photography and how it could add to a story or help me discover a new story.
I earned little, but I enjoyed every moment. Then life took me in different directions as a wife raising my two children and ultimately becoming a grandmother of six amazing individuals.
During that journey, I spent time leading women’s ministries, teaching elementary and junior high special education students, teaming with my husband doing weekends for National Marriage Encounter, and going to graduate school. That graduate school education moved me into another season on the journey as I became a Licensed Professional Supervising Clinical Counselor and Independent Marriage and Family Therapist working first in a private practice for eight years and then on the staff of my church for an additional thirteen years.
In June 2014, I retired from all the jobs that had filled my days and once again the stirring inside to return to writing grew louder. Now I have the time to begin writing again and expand my love of photography.
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
I am joining this week’s Hodge Podge with From This Side of the Pond.
Here are the questions we were asked to answer this week:
What’s your favorite room in your house and why?
I guess I would say the living room is my favorite room in the house. It had tons of windows and well-lit and it’s where everyone in the family hangs out together. It has easy access to the kitchen and the bathroom, the TV, and the front and back porches. The woodwork and the well painted white ceiling also add to the atmosphere of the room. If only I was a better housekeeper and kept it cleaner. Ha. That’s something I definitely want to work on.
What’s something that will instantly annoy you?
How much time do you have? Kidding. One thing that will instantly annoy me is when I sit down, ready to read or write a blog post, after being in the kitchen washing dishes and cooking for two hours and my daughter will ask me if I can cut her up an apple.
I’m so glad to have her and I’m even glad to be available to wait on her but sometimes she gets wrapped up in what she’s doing and doesn’t recognize that any time in those two hours I was already up on my feet doing things is when she could have asked for the snack she wanted.
She’s also 10 now and can start getting these snacks on her own. I like to cut the apple up for her because I don’t want her to accidentally cut herself.
May 28th is National Hamburger Day…will you celebrate? How do you like yours? If you’re not cooking at home is there a favorite place you like to go for a burger? Did you ever work in a fast food restaurant?
That’s a lot of questions! I didn’t know it was National Hamburger Day, and I wish I had because I used the hamburger we had to make meatballs yesterday.
I am a huge hamburger fan, as long as it is made well. I don’t like any pink in mine, but I also don’t want it burned.
There is a restaurant near me that makes the best hamburgers but we don’t go there often. There was another restaurant near us that used to make amazing burgers but that changed in recent years so I haven’t tried again.
I have never worked at a fast food restaurant or any restaurant.
What are three scents you like?
Three scents I like are chocolate chip cookies while they are baking, a citrus essential oil I have, and coffee brewing (but I don’t actually drink it).
What do you miss most about being a kid?
So much. Most of all I miss that someone else was in charge and was protecting me. Now I am in charge and have to protect myself and my children. It honestly stresses me out.
I miss how carefree childhood was too. Riding scooters down the streets of the little town my friends lived in, exploring the creek, swinging on swings until we almost threw up and not caring that we almost threw up.
Having friends is something else I miss about childhood. I don’t have friends now and I did then. They were best friends too. We did a ton together and had sleepovers. Those same friends no longer speak to me. I guess life got too busy and I got too much to deal with because of my chronic illness stuff and anxiety and who knows what else. I tried to keep in contact with them but after awhile it became disappointing to be the only one trying.
Insert your own random thought here.
I just wrote a blog post about Murder She Wrote, and I spent several days researching it. Just for my blog where I only get about 100 views a day. I’m starting to wonder about my sanity. I’m sure there are better things I could do with my time but I keep doing things that help me avoid focusing on all the stressful things in my life. I suppose it is a little normal but also . . . I think I might have issues.
How would you answer any of these questions?
Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.
You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
“Well, if I was going to write about you, you’d have to tell me. I’d have to know where you live, whether you’re married or not, what you have for breakfast, what you do on your day off. That’s why people read murder stories.”
“Is that what you think?”
“Yes!”
He shook his head. “I don’t agree. The word is murder. That’s what matters.”
~ The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
Angela Lansbury was almost 60 years old when she decided she wanted to do something other than theater and movies, which had comprised the entirety of her acting career up to that point.
She told her agent she wanted to get involved in television and he began to put feelers out for television shows that might work for her.
What came back from producers was very disappointing for Angela. Scripts submitted suggested she play the maid or housekeeper in an ensemble piece.
“When I got them, I was really pissed off,” Angela said in an interview with the Archive of American Television. “Well, jiminy, I’ve been working all these years in theater and movies and I don’t have a q-rating but I certainly have a little bit of a reputation for someone who knows how to do what I do, which is act. And I sent them back and I said, ‘do you mean to tell me that I’ve been working in the theater, getting ten percent of the gross and keeping the curtains up, for 15 years in New York and you’re going to offer — is that what you call a television opportunity for me at my age?”
Only a week later she received two scripts. One was for a comedy, that turned out not to be her cup of tea, so to speak. The other was for Murder, She Wrote.
When Angela read about Jessica Fletcher, she felt Jessica’s role was something she could connect with and contribute to.
Angela portrayed Jessica for 12 years starting in 1984 and during those years she once said that her show helped keep CBS afloat during some very lean years, especially in the 1980s and early 1990s when the network’s only other “big show” was 60 Minutes.
Murder, She Wrote topped the ratings week after week, year after year. In fact, it was the top-rated drama series for nine consecutive seasons.
Today the show is streaming on various services. It can be found in reruns on regular TV/cable and there are, of course, DVD collections. Fans of the show haven’t waned but merely grown up or are newly discovering it.
But what made a show about a middle-aged mystery writer turned amateur sleuth successful for so long?
Was it the quirky reoccurring characters, the simple and fairly clean mysteries, the fact it offered middle-America a much-needed escape from the trials of life, or Angela’s portrayal of Jessica?
The answer is simple.
It was all of these things. With Angela’s portrayal leading the way.
Murder, She Wrote was (or shall we say still is) the epitome of a cozy mystery show.
Sure, there was murder, but the show still managed to keep the crime and investigation fairly light. There was no-graphic violence, little to no obscenities and no on-screen sex. That isn’t to say that the topics presented or discussed weren’t a bit dark or uncomfortable, but writers and producers approached them in a way that was digestible to audiences of all backgrounds and most ages.
Viewers could tune in each week and watch Jessica solve a crime all while interacting in a caring, yet firm, way with her neighbors, family members (how many nieces and nephews can woman have?!), and strangers. For the first few years of the show episodes happened in the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine.
That’s right. Cabot Cove was not a real town. I hope I didn’t ruin that for anyone, but, yes, the exterior scenes for Cabot Cove were actually filmed in Mendocino, California.
Before Murder, She Wrote, Angela, born Angela Brigid Lansbury, acted on stage and in the theater. She began her acting career after her family moved to New York from London in 1940 to escape The Blitz during World War II. Angela was 15 at the time, and by 16, she was looking for acting jobs. Her mother was British actress Moyna MacGill so she knew a little bit about acting.
“Moyna found work on Broadway, and Angela studied drama until, after two years, they decamped to Los Angeles,” states an article by Holly Brubach in The Gentlewoman Magazine. “Moyna was on tour at the time, so it was left to Angela to organise the move – packing and closing the apartment, making travel arrangements for herself and her brothers. She was 16, pretending to be 19.”
Angela, known by her family as Brigid, started acting out scenes shortly after the age of 9 after her father died from stomach cancer. She needed a way to cope from the shock of his loss. Her mother later remarried and it was with her stepfather and mother and twin brothers that she moved to New York.
In 1942, at the age of 18, she signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and in the next 20 years she was nominated for three Academy Awards — Gaslight (1944 and the her first movie!), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), and The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
Then, when others didn’t see her as a leading lady, it was on to Broadway where she started collecting Tony Awards including, four for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1975), and Sweeney Todd (1979), followed by a win for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Blithe Spirit (2009). She was Tony-nominated for her roles in Deuce (2007) and A Little Night Music (2010). She won the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2022.
Other films she acted in (or voice acted in) included Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), Death on the Nile (1978), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Anastasia (1997), Nanny McPhee (2005) and Mary Poppins Returns (2018).
With all that success on stage and in movies, some in the industry might have considered Angela’s desire to have a role on television a step down. She, however, didn’t. Television was something new for her. She’d done everything else already.
She wasn’t sure what to expect from television, and she liked that. In the end, it was an amazing move for her career. Her portrayal of Jessica was what would shoot her to global fame.
Angela once described Jessica Fletcher as “the American Miss Marple”, which is fitting since it was an Agatha Christie movie that gave CBS executives the idea for Murder, She Wrote.
“CBS was getting beaten badly on Sunday nights,” Robert F. O’Neill, supervising producer, said on a special about Murder, She Wrote that ran after the show ended. “And in desperation, they ran an Agatha Christie movie, and I think it was Murder on the Orient Express, I’m not sure. And lo and behold it beat NBC and ABC. So they initially thought it might have been a fluke. A few weeks later, they purchased another Agatha Christie-type movie, and the same thing happened.”
Executives then began to wonder how a similar-style mystery show might do in that time slot. Harvey Shepard, the senior vice president of programming at CBS, floated the idea of the mystery show featuring a woman as the lead, which was unusual, according to show co-creator William Link, who spoke on the same special as O’Neill.
“Dick Levinson (other co-creator) and I were surprised because usually there hadn’t been any big hits with a woman protagonist carrying the series,” Link said. “Usually, the woman was bailed out by all the male associates she had. We figured if we are going to do a mystery show with a woman, it isn’t going to be like that.”
Once the script was written for the first show, creators had to find an actress that CBS would accept as Jessica Fletcher. When Jessica’s name came to them, Link and Levinson, self-described “theater nuts” were thrilled, but figured CBS executives might never have heard of her, which meant they might reject her.
Luckily, the executives loved Angela because from the start, she made it known how she thought Jessica should be portrayed — from what she wore to how she spoke to how she lived her life.
Angela protected Jessica fiercely over the next 12 years, striving to keep her as a strong, independent woman, rejecting a suggestion she get into a relationship and get married during the show’s run. Jessica was a widow from the start of the show. She was faithful to her husband Frank even after his death, always rejecting any men’s advances gently, but firmly. She wore a locket around her neck in Frank’s memory and often spoke of him.
If writers wrote something Angela knew Jessica wouldn’t say, she went to them and insisted they change that part of the dialogue.
“How much of Jessica Fletcher is Angela Lansbury?” asked one show writer Tom Sawyer (real name!) in an interview. “I would say cumulatively, a lot. Whether or not you start out writing the character to be like the actor, they tend to meld. When you start to get to know that person you tend to write to their strengths, to who they are.”
Many of those involved with the show agreed with Sawyer that much of who Jessica Fletcher became was shaped by who Angela was.
“I hope I share a lot of her traits,” Angela said in the same interview as Sawyer. “I certainly was brought up to conduct myself a certain way, so I suppose I bring that to her.”
Where is the real Cabot Cove?
Getting back to that little town Jessica lived in. Rumors have abounded for years about which Maine towns the fictional town was based on. Writer Laurie Bain Wilson believes Kennebunkport, Maine is what Cabot Cove is based on. Wilson’s father, Donald Bain, wrote 46 Murder, She Wrote novels under the name Jessica Fletcher, with his name underneath.
“Kennebunkport, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Boston, is one of the most favored coastal towns (for being Cabot Cove), and why not?” she wrote in a 2023 article on nextavenue.org. “It has all the feels of Cabot Cove. Kennebunkport’s year-round population is small, about 3,500, much like Cabot Cove’s 3,560; in the summer the number grows considerably thanks to the tourists.”
Cabot Cove isn’t simply a town, says Wilson.
“Ask any Murder, She Wrote fan — of the TV show or books — they’ll tell you that Cabot Cove is more than a location, it’s practically a character in itself,” she wrote.
But Cabot Cove was contrived, even if it felt real, with only nine episodes actually being filmed in Mendocino and interior scenes being shot on a soundstage. There were other locations filmed in the tiny town and used as stock footage throughout the series.
The outside of Jessica Fletcher’s house shown in episodes is actually The Blair House Inn in Mendocino.
According to the Blair House Inn website, residents looked forward to the filming schedule each spring. It was normal to see residents mingling with the cast and crew and filming the show there was a definite boon to the economy.
“It is estimated the series brought in over two million dollars for the local economy, and generous donations were also made to various local service groups and organizations,” the Blair House Inn site states.
It was stated by Lansbury and others that filming in Maine was too expensive, which is why actual filming was done in California. It does make me wonder, though, why the writers chose the state of Maine as Jessica’s home. I couldn’t find a definitive answer online, but I will keep searching.
I found it ironic that the man who had the Blair House built, Elish Blair, arrived in Mendocino from Maine in 1857. Interesting connection, huh?
Fans of Murder, She Wrote, still visit Mendocino to soak up the feeling of Cabot Cove, especially the inn.
“The iconic house that was Jessica’s home has an idyllic location overlooking the Pacific Ocean,” boasts the inn’s site. “It features classic Victorian details such as ornate woodwork. The house has become a popular tourist attraction over the years, and it’s easy to see why. The house is a beautiful reminder of the past, and it’s also the perfect setting for a good mystery.”
A phenomenon
Murder, She Wrote wasn’t just a show — it was a cultural phenomenon that led to books, merchandise, tourism, television movies, and much more.
To this day the topic of Murder, She Wrote still pops up on various social media accounts or — ahem — blogs.
Vanity Fair wrote an article in 2016 about an Instagram account featuring Jessica as a “style icon.” The account featured images or videos of Jessica’s various outfits, which back in the day probably influenced quite a few trends.
The account is now defunct, but at the time it was run by a Cici Harrison, who wasn’t a fan of Murder, She Wrote when her mom and sister were in the 1980s. In her 30s she began to appreciate it more and started the account to focus on Jessica’s fashion.
That fashion was something Angela herself had a lot of input on.
Jennifer Frazee was a freelance assistant wardrobe stylist on the show and told Vanity Fair she remembered Lansbury always being there when the wardrobe department planned Jessica’s outfits for the episodes.
“If you really want to think about it, she was very sophisticated in what she wore in the show,” she said. “And that also has to do with the actress; they expected to see her, even when she was Jessica Fletcher, they also saw Angela Lansbury,” she said. “She’s royalty; she’s Hollywood royalty. It was well blended.”
Fans still talk about Jessica’s fashion on places like Reddit.
Angela didn’t just have input on Jessica’s fashion, style, and personality. In the early 1990s when the show’s ratings started to slip some, Angela took over as an executive producer, moved Jessica to New York City, and helped breathe life back into the show again. The woman was a quadruple threat. She could act in movies, television, on Broadway, and produce television.
Acting and producing wasn’t all Angela did while on the show either, if some rumors are true. Even before she passed away, a rumor started that she offered guest star appearances to actors who hadn’t worked in years, making sure they wouldn’t lose either their insurance or pension payments from the actors’ guild.
An article on Newsweek states that this story was never proven, but admitted there were many out-of-work actors who were given guest spots on the shows over the years. At least one actress said Angela had writers create a role for her so she wouldn’t lose her actor’s guild insurance.
“A 2003 Los Angeles Times obituary for actress Madlyn Rhue revealed how Lansbury had helped her during an illness,” states the Newsweek article. “The article states that Lansbury reportedly had heard that Rhue was in danger of losing her Screen Actors Guild medical coverage because she was short of meeting the annual earnings requirement.
“So she created this character for her and brought her in every three or four episodes. People who had worked with Madlyn and loved her kept giving her the opportunity to work.”
The site Gold Derby also mentions Angela doing this for actors and says a former head of publicity at Universal Television said the rumors were true.
“I can confirm this happened on numerous, if not dozens, of occasions,” the person, who preferred to remain anonymous, said. “This was a genuine priority for her, to help her fellow union members either remain members in good standing or restore their membership. That’s just the way she was. It was extremely important to her.”
There were some weird things about the show…
Over the years, viewers haven’t been afraid to admit there were/are faults in the show. One “fault” (if you want to call it that) was that someone died every week as soon as Jessica stepped through the door. My husband, who watched the show as a teen, calls her The Harbinger of Death and there is even an episode with that title (Season 4, Episode 13). Of course, how could you have a show called Murder, She Wrote if you didn’t have murders? It was an occupational hazard for Jessica’s character. My husband and I often joke that maybe Jessica killed people so she’d have more material for her books.
Another odd thing about the show was how many of the deaths happened in the little town of Cabot Cove. Estimates online that I found were that 60 out of the little town’s 3,500 residents died in those 12 years. I know I certainly would have reconsidered any visits to that town if I had heard that.
Other “faults” included continuity issues, some bad episodes (like what show doesn’t have those?), some odd plotlines (like the woman who was a bigamist but begged Jessica at the end of the show not to tell her second husband), and maybe a bit too much “cheese.”
Liberty Hardy wrote on the site novelsuspects.com that the show could be “silly” at times.
“(One) delightfully silly aspect is that not only were there murders everywhere Jessica Fletcher went, but they almost always involved her family and friends. By the beginning of season four, Jessica had three nieces and a nephew-in-law accused of murder, and a nephew who was a top suspect in killings not once, but twice! (The show never took itself too seriously, though: The episode “Witness for the Defense” even poked fun of her seemingly homicidal family.)”
Most fans would agree that all of those so-called faults are all part of the charm of Murder, She Wrote.
The end of an era
The charm of the show didn’t stop CBS from canceling it in 1996, though, and that is something which truly bothered Angela, even years later.
In 1996, CBS thought they needed to make a change to the night when Murder, She Wrote aired and moved it from Sunday to Thursday, opposite NBC’s powerhouse sitcom, Friends. They realized their mistake fast and tried to move it again, but the initial move was the beginning of the end.
Makers of the show hoped that the loyal viewers would follow and for a while, they did, but then there were more moves and no one knew when to watch it. By then, as my husband said, “the product had been spoiled.”
Not only had the shine gone off the show as it plummeted in the ratings due to fan being unable to find it, but CBS was also looking for shows that would cater to younger audiences.
Finally CBS pulled the plug and it was a move that crushed the cast and fans.
Angela wasn’t ready for the end, she said in an interview with The Television Academy. She would have gracefully bowed out, rather than have been kicked out, she snapped in the interview, still clearly annoyed many years later.
“It surprised us. It shocked us,” Angela told 60 Minutes in a November 1996 feature piece. “We could have told them that it couldn’t be any other night than Sunday night because that was family night.”
The show was canceled in May and in November, during the 60 Minutes interview, Angela still couldn’t talk about it without choking up. She needed to take a sip of tea, in true British fashion, to keep the tears at bay and even then they glistened in the corners of her eyes.
The outcry to the cancellation was so intense that Angela had a letter published in TheNew York Post to thank fans and try to soothe them.
“Dear Friends,
Let me just say that I am simply overwhelmed by the warmth and sincerity of your wonderful messages and I feel tremendously comforted by your support. I think you know I have always held you, our audience, in the highest regard, and believe me, I shared your disappointment in the way things turned out.
But now I’m looking forward to new beginnings, and, down the line, Murder, She Wrote movies of the week. My love and gratitude to you all for letting me know how much you’ve enjoyed Murder, She Wrote over the past twelve years.
Angela.”
Eventually, Angela forgave CBS, or at least somewhat, and agreed to make a few TV Murder, She Wrote movies.
Personal thoughts:
As for me, I didn’t actually watch Murder, She Wrote when I was younger, except for a couple of times with my grandmother. Grandma didn’t have much choice but to watch Murder, She Wrote. For years the only channel she could get on her TV was a CBS affiliate. I think, however, she actually liked the show and would have watched it even if she’d had had more channels.
It was my husband who actually got me interested in the show and it was with him I watched my first full episode. In the last year or so I have begun to binge watch the show with our 10-year-old daughter. One afternoon my family came home from something or other, I can’t remember what, and I was tired, but I clapped my hands in excitement and said, “Oh! I am so excited! I have a Murder, She Wrote episode to finish.” My daughter was excited too and when that one was finished, she declared, “Another one!”
Anytime we’ve had a rough day she now suggests Murder, She Wrote to helps us both unwind. I won’t lie that sometimes we poke a bit of fun at the sillier moments of the show, but affectionately so
TV was a big escape for my husband when he was growing up. He came from an abusive home. For him watching shows like The Rockford Files, Columbo, Taxi, Magnum P.I., and Murder, She Wrote is nostalgic because it reminds him of some of the few good times he had in his childhood. Those shows were a chance for him to forget about the mental abuse he suffered day in and day out. They were also shows he watched with his grandparents, who provided him a type of emotional shelter from what he was experiencing at home. .
For me, watching Murder, She Wrote gives me time to focus on something other than the difficulties in life — parents growing older, children growing so fast my head is spinning, personal health issues, world events, etc. etc. I have found that the show has offered me an escape as well.
I enjoyed a particular section in the article in The Gentlewoman Magazine about Angela where she talked about how she unwound.
“. . . she needs to do things with her hands, she says – cooking, if she’s at home, or knitting, in her dressing room. “I find that very calming,” she explains. “Which might give you the idea that I’m a nervous person, which I’m not. But sometimes one’s mind goes too fast, and by doing something with my hands, I slow myself down.”
I also like to find things to do with my hands to help slow my thoughts down.
Why fans loved the show – in their own words
When Angela Lansbury passed away in 2022 at the age of 96, fans placed wreaths at the Blair House Inn.
A year later the Kelley House Museum, in the same town, offered a reception inside the inn in tribute of Angela, according to a post on their site, and asked fans why they loved Murder, She Wrote.
Here are some of the answers:
“I watched as a young girl, often as my mom did house cleaning. As an adult, after I married and began trying to start a family, I was met with some unexpected obstacles. After several years of unsuccessful IVF treatments, I began to try to make peace with a childless future. I made a list of strong women I admired who happened to not have children. Jessica Fletcher was at the top of my list. I rewatched every episode at that time. Then, a year later, I rewatched every episode again, during my pregnancy. I became pregnant thanks to another ‘childless’ woman I admired–my sister–who became my savior egg donor. XO Malory Marlatte Voith.”
“I began watching the show my senior year of high school (1985 graduate) and continued to watch through college. I loved seeing a female who was so much smarter than the men around her yet wasn’t cocky. I did a career in federal law enforcement with the US Marshals Service. Channeling my inner ‘Jessica’ helped through tough situations over the years.”
“My Nana passed away when I was 7. But before that, she and I would watch Murder, She Wrote as our before-bed show. When she passed, it was my happy show to watch and remember my Nana.”
“Five generations now have watched this wonderful show. From Grandma to my granddaughter who is 3. We love this show! Fav episode— ‘If it’s Thursday, It Must Be Beverly.’ – Debbie, Alejandoro, & Athena (3)”
When looking for posts about why fans love the show, I found an entire Subreddit just about Murder, She Wrote. On one post, fans shared why they loved the show.
“I can’t seem to articulate it really, it just is (comforting),” one poster wrote. “Perhaps because Angela Lansbury reminds me so much of my late grandmother? Or that every episode, even though there is always a murder, tends to end happily? The general 80s-90s nostalgia?”
“As others have said, the gentle tone, and Angela is just such a treat to watch,” another comment reads. “The character of Jessica herself is comforting, wise, kind, practical and reliable.”
Echoing Angela’s comments over the years that the show was one that families watched together, commenters online often mention they have memories of watching it with family.
“This brings me comfort because I grew up watching it with my parents and brother,” one person wrote on Reddit.
Closing Thoughts
I have a long way to go before I have watched all of the Murder, She Wrote episodes and that makes me happy. I look forward to many more nights of watching and getting caught up in the storyline and maybe poking a bit of fun at some of the silly or unbelievable elements.
I look forward to watching Jessica be cool under pressure. I look forward to watching her be bold (and maybe a bit stupid) when she corners the killer and solves the case.
I also look forward to my daughter seeing through Jessica Fletcher that a woman can be independent, determined, and strong but also kind, caring, and compassionate.
