Glynis: A Movies about Writing

I wrote this blog back in July of 2022, hoping someone could find this an episode of this show for me to watch.

I just found out that there was a Murder, She Wrote BEFORE Murder, She Wrote. In the 1960s Glynis Johns (you know, the mom from Mary Poppins) starred in a sitcom about a mystery writer married to a defense attorney and they solved crimes together! But all I can find of this show is a thirty second clip! Does anyone know if anything else of it exists? Is there any place to watch a full episode? If you do know, please leave comment below. Thanks for fueling my obsession.

Despite looking on my own, all I’ve still ever found besides the thirty second clip is a newspaper article reviewing the show from back in the day and this review from IMDB.com from someone with the handle rudy-30:

The worst case of laugh track abuse ever!

9 April 2008

Warning: Spoilers

Jess Oppenheimer must have been an optimist. His most successful production, "I Love Lucy", centered around a female wanting to make it big in her husband's career. Unfortunately, lightning doesn't always strike twice. Glynis Johns plays Glynis, a novice mystery writer married to a criminal defense attorney. Glynis finds herself involved in murders by accident, and of course, comes out in the end a winner. Her husband (a bland Keith Andes) is usually clueless, and instead of a female friend for Glynis, which would be too much of an obvious rip-off of "I Love Lucy"s premise, she has a retired policeman friend to rely on. The trouble with this show is the laugh track. Murder can be funny, when it's played straight, but the actors on the show seem confused; they don't know when to play for laughs or dramatic effect. So, you have a mish-mosh of comedy and drama, and that annoying laugh track doesn't help one bit. What is so funny about a schizophrenic murderess? Did anyone really laugh at Anthony Perkins in "Psycho"? I notice that Oppenheimer later got the mixture right when producing "Get Smart". It's a shame he didn't have the creative forces with him during "Glynis". The cast gave it their best efforts, though.

Event though nothing I have found makes it sound like I would actually enjoy this show, now that Glynis Johns (a favorite actress of mine from not only Mary Poppins, but The Court Jester with Danny Kaye) has passed away at the fantastic age of 100, I’m still curious. So again, if anyone knows where episodes are available to watch. let me know. Thanks.

Murder She Wrote (A Christmas Secret)

This return to Cabot Cove does not see the usual cavalcade of classic TV and movie actors, but . . . Holy crap! Amy Brenneman! Where’s she been lately? And the step-dad from the Princess Diaries movies? Apparently, this episode is more of a “I know I know that guy from something” episode.

Jessica Fletcher’s beloved Maine town is too close to the ocean to for snow at Christmas apparently, but Christmas is shown through depressing conversations like “this year, with the world in the shape it’s in, Christmas is a hollow promise.” Dude, it’s 1992. You have no idea how out of shape the modern world can be!

Even the murder in this is not even a murder - it’s attempted murder. And it was against Veronica Mars’s mom so stop complaining, fictional characters. The entire mystery is a little convoluted and I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of this later season episode. So let’s talk about the writing part.

In truth, this is episode does not show off much of the mystery writing, but Jessica Fletcher’s wide vocabulary and random knowledge do make her a good detective. Is that enough of an explanation? Because honestly, I thought there would be more writing in this. Oh well.

Glynis: A Movies about Writing Request

I just found out that there was a Murder, She Wrote BEFORE Murder, She Wrote. In the 1960s Glynis Johns (you know, the mom from Mary Poppins) starred in a sitcom about a mystery writer married to a defense attorney and they solved crimes together! But all I can find of this show is a thirty second clip! Does anyone know if anything else of it exists? Is there any place to watch a full episode? If you do know, please leave comment below. Thanks for fueling my obsession.

Murder, She Wrote (The Murder of Sherlock Holmes): Movies about Writing

Oh, come on! You knew this one was coming eventually. This is the premiere 2 part episode of "Murder, She Wrote” from 1984. You know this show. You know you know it. Even if you’ve never seen it, you know it’s out there, especially if you were a child of the 80s or 90s. The star, Angela Lansbury, was so ingrained into our culture that you were aware of this show probably at birth.

Fine. Just in case you don’t know, the premise of “Murder, She Wrote” is literally that. Jessica Fletcher is a popular murder mystery writer who lives in the small town of Cabot Cove where’s she an active member of the community. So active, that she ends up regularly helping the sheriff solve real murders. In fact, everywhere she goes she’s asked to assist in a murder investigation by somebody. No one seemed to question (that I can recall) why murder followed Angela Lansbury’s character everywhere she went, but you know - it was the 80s. All that cocaine was clouding people’s judgement.

The Murder of Sherlock Holmes starts with substitute teacher Jessica as a part of a local refreshments team viewing the dress rehearsal for a murder-mystery play. By just watching the first act, she reveals to the the director that she knows who the killer is and how. Of course, she’s right because she knows story structure! I love this opening scene! Especially, since the director was writing her off as silly middle-aged woman and thinks that his play isn’t well written and that’s why she figured it out. Many writers of fiction understand cause and effect. We ruin a lot of movies for ourselves, but it can’t be helped.

But at this point in the series, she isn’t published. Her nephew Grady (a re-occurring character that runs to his Aunt Jessica every time he screws up his life . . . which happens a lot in the show) calls to reveal that he gave her first manuscript to a publisher. Within weeks, this recent widow is number 2 on the bestseller list and completely overblown by her own picture in bookshop windows. She’s sent to New York for a series of personal appearances, most of which make her realize that the entire media business is full of phonies, fake academics, fortune hunters, and hosts who give away the ending on television (rude!). Then, she’s accused of stealing the idea from a crazy woman and that’s the end of it for her. She’s ready to leave when Mr. Giles, her publisher, insists on bringing her to a party at his country house to meet friendly book lovers where she won’t be “patronized” or “brow-beaten”.

Jessica is thrust into a rich people costume party where everyone comes as their favorite fictional character (although one man is dressed as Henry VIII so these aren’t intelligent rich people). She dresses as Cinderella’s fairy godmother, but I always thought she looked more like Glinda the Good Witch. Here is where we meet the Sherlock Holmes in question, a lecherous captain played by Brian Kieth, who is found in the pool with a face-full of buckshot. Or at least, that’s what everyone is led to believe at first. This isn’t really important, but Anne Francis played his glamorous, yet suffering wife (she starred in Forbidden Planet - as the song goes).

Enter Ned Beatty as a police chief. Despite him stating that he read Jessica’s book, “not that he liked it”, the chief asks for her insight as a people watcher. Smart man. Ask the woman that’s going to be looking for her next character. Despite his reliance on her theories, Jessica doesn’t want to get involved until her nephew Grady is named as a suspect. If you know this show, you know that Grady is not smart enough or ballsy enough to pull off murder, but he tends to end up in bad situations all of the time.

I’m not going to give away the killer or motive, but I’ll tell some more about the mystery and her writer’s mind. First, a quick complaint. There’s a part when Jessica is trying to tail a suspect and is nearly assaulted by Andy Garcia. First of all, the stand-ins for the fight scene are just bad. But also, she wanders into this bad neighborhood without even thinking about it like she’s some naive small town hick. I wish they’d given her a little more common sense there. Luckily, a young man, (listed int he credits as “Black Youth” - insert grunt noise here) who recognized her from her book cover, follows and saves her from evil Andy Garcia. Still, it’s kind of a sweet scene which shows her that even if the elite of the book world don’t appreciate her, the fans do. But more importantly, there is the moment when Grady promises her she’ll write more books, even when she declares that she’s giving it up. The entire show is called “Murder, She' Wrote” so clearly she keeps writing. Still, even when writers aren’t writing things down, their brain is constantly in a state of authorship.

If you enjoy Murder, She Wrote, you should watch PushingUpRoses on Youtube. She’s an artist who recaps the zaniest episodes of this show with fantastic humor and delightful insight. Also check out her videos on computer games from the 90s and episodes of spooky kids shows and bad movies - you know, what! It’s all great! Just go watch her channel.