Hooray for Homicide

Jessica is outraged to learn that her first novel 'The Corpse danced at Midnight is to be made into a cheap slasher movie. She sets off for Hollywood to confront director Jerry Lydecker, but after spending a little disgruntled time on the set, she discovers a body.

This is a pretty good episode, one that builds on the wonderfully named book, The Corpse danced at midnight, such a catchy title. It's believable that Jessica would want to intercede in the production of that film, very much in keeping with her character.

Particularly nice production values, the sets look great. Well acted as always, John Saxon does a particularly good job making Jerry such a dislikeable character. John Astin feels a little underused, appearing as Ross, it wouldn't be long before he'd return as regular Harry.

I would like to take issue with the words of Jessica Fletcher, not putting whisky with Diet Coke, I beg to differ :-)

A good episode with a few nice twists. 7/10

This is a great episode with a great cast, and worth watching for Virginia Mayo alone. One scene and she is wonderful. But be warned, I bought the set twice to find that this one episode freezes and lock up your player. No way to get over it except to pull the plug from your player and try again. Then use fast forward search to skip through the dance sequence and for some reason it will play through the scene that locks up. This problem is also documented on the Nixpix blog. It apparently occurs on all DVD releases. Clearly no one was doing quality control at Universal and that is a great pity. The moral? If your disc freezes, don't call out a technician and waste even more money!!!!

Have always been quite fond of 'Murder She Wrote'. It is a fun and relaxing watch that makes you think as you try to unwind in the evening. If one wants more complex, twisty mysteries with lots of tension and suspense 'Murder She Wrote' may not be for you, but if you want something light-hearted and entertaining but still provide good mysteries 'Murder She Wrote' fits the bill just fine.

After a great pilot episode in "The Murder of Sherlock Holmes", an interesting, decent if slightly bland "Deadly Lady" and the better if with more room to grow still "Birds of a Feather", "Hooray for Homicide" doesn't yet see 'Murder She Wrote' hit its peak while showing no signs of the first season declining. Again, "Hooray for Homicide" is likable, light-hearted fun with a mystery good enough to keep one engrossed.

Not amazing by all means. The very final scene is once again eye-rollingly cheesy, something that was a tendency for 'Murder She Wrote', and again like "Birds of a Feather" it has its predictable elements.

Once the body was discovered it was clear who the accused was going to be and even more so it is obvious from the moment they're introduced who the victim (a suitably loathsome one but also one one doesn't really get to know properly).

However, these things weren't quite enough to mar my overall enjoyment of "Hooray for Homicide". Again, it is a good-looking episode. Very nicely shot with attractive locations and fashions and a fun and atmospheric film world setting. music has presence but also not making the mistake of over-scoring, while it is hard to forget or resist the theme tune.

The writing is charmingly light-hearted, gently amiable and down to earth but provokes thought too. The mystery is straightforward and compelling with a clever and not too obvious or confusing final solution and a genuinely suspenseful build up to the discovery of the body (even though one does get a feeling that would be what would happen).

"Hooray for Homicide" does a great job showing (even though it's hardly new territory) that what looks like a glamorous, fun profession is not what it seems behind the scenes. The conflicts were nicely done. There is a real cosy, amiable charm and everything is neatly tied up, and one still admires that Jessica is more than your standard female detective.

Angela Lansbury is terrific in one of her best remembered roles (one of the roles that is most closely associated with me at any rate), and the supporting cast support her competently.

In summary, another good episode. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A b-director hated by most of the film crew is killed and Jessica stumbles on his body in the graveyard set. A highly enjoyable MSW episode in which Jessica is a number one suspect in killing the director mainly because he was adapting her bestseller into a trashy film, and she wasn't happy with it. It's a solid mystery with a good set of suspects, but it's also a good insight on b-film sets and it's actors. John Saxon and Virginia Mayo appear.

This is another great outing for season one, with a huge number of great guest stars and is an overall fun romp (as far as murders go). There are so many recognizable stars here (at least, for the 80s): The lovely Melissa Sue Anderson, the great character actor John Astin (who will go on to play a different, recurring role later in the series), Samantha Eggar, Ron Palillo (the second actor in as many episodes to appear from "Welcome Back, Kotter"), John Saxon, Morgan Stevens, and (last, but not least) Lyle Waggoner, who plays a very smooth-talking Hollywood agent, and who's primary contribution to the episode is his super soothing voice (I may be biased from having grown up watching "The Carol Burnett Show" and "Wonder Woman").

The story is fairly convoluted and highlights the ridiculousness of Hollywood (presumably on purpose - the episode works as a kind of send-up of the film industry), but it all works out and J. B. comes through in the end.