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Do you remember this series!? What catches your spying-eye radar!?

“Murder, She Wrote” originally aired on CBS for 12 seasons, 09/30/1984 – 05/16/1996, followed by 4 made-for-TV movies (1997-2003). 1 of CBS’ longest-running & most-successful TV shows may not have come to fruition if the series “Ellery Queen” had succeeded. Instead, Richard Levinson & William Link re-thought that series, switching the protagonist from a good-looking absent-minded male to a middle-aged, down-to-earth widow. While Angela Lansbury is synonymous with “Jessica Fletcher” & vice versa, she wasn’t the actress who was 1st offered the part. That honor went to Jean Stapleton, who turned it down because she didn’t want to be tied down to another series after her long run as “Edith Bunker” on “All In The Family” & “Archie Bunker’s Place”. Doris Day was also offered the role, but said no. Lansbury was then offered the role, & as they say, the rest is history. While Cabot Cove ME is the fictional coastal home town of the show, exterior shots were filmed on the other coast in Mendocino CA. After being a staple of Sunday nights for some 11 seasons, CBS made Lansbury’s decision for her when they moved the show to Thursday nights, where it floundered & lost viewers to other established Thursday night shows. Viewers were dismayed to know the show would end in 1996; to soften the blow, CBS agreed to moving the show back to its regular Sunday night timeslot & producing TV movies in later years. Along with Lansbury, the regular cast included William Windom, Tom Bosley, Ron Masak, Louis Herthum. Recurring cast members were Michael Horton, Jerry Orbach, Len Cariou, Richard Paul, Julie Adams, Ruth Roman, Keith Mitchell, Wayne Rogers & Claude Akins.