Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411110029
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
One reason would be its go-down-easy formula. Airing (as if you didn't know) at 8 p.m. Sundays on CBS, it's the perfect elixir to finish off the weekend.
It also has a warm, family reunion flavor thanks to the guest stars who populate each hour - more than 1,300 of them since the show began in 1984.
But maybe the best explanation has to do with the character of Jessica Fletcher, played spot-on by Angela Lansbury week after week. Jessica solves murders, of course (nigh on to 250 by now, with, for the record, only one-fifth of them taking place in ``tranquil'' Cabot Cove).
And she does it while displaying the most infallibly good manners of any character in television.
In an age decried for its rudeness, and on a medium that seems to glorify ill breeding, the ever-refined Jessica Fletcher reigns as the nation's antidote to Roseanne Conner and Al Bundy; a role model for courtesy, come what may.
In this respect, Jessica isn't so different from the actress who plays her.
On a rare day off, Lansbury has invited a reporter to the Bel Air home she shares with her cat Lolly and her husband of 45 years, Peter Shaw, a former MGM production executive who is heavily involved with her series.
She hums cheerily in the kitchen as she prepares tea (her own blend of Lipton's and Typhoo). Then, settling in her airy living room, she turns her attention to the grande dame of TV heroines.
``It doesn't represent in any way a stretch, as we call it, to play Jessica Fletcher,'' concedes Lansbury, exhibiting as she talks Jessica's assertive cock of the head and emphatic bunching of her hands.
Probably not. In some 44 movies, the London-born actress has played a full spectrum of roles, including robust villainnesses, and she is a four-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical star.
``But to play Jessica, a role that has such enormous, universal appeal - that was an accomplishment I never expected in my entire life,'' Lansbury says. ``I thought `Murder, She Wrote' would last maybe a year or two, and that would have been fine. But it seems to have become an institution.''
So what's her theory on the show's staying power?
``It says that problems can be solved, mysteries can be unravelled,'' Lansbury explains. ``That life's anarchy can be straightened out.''
But reaching that state of order isn't as easy as it looks, a fact that Lansbury, being executive producer as well as star of her series, knows all too well.
``To make an episode work, you have to have an interesting yarn,'' she says, ``and present the audience with a set of clues and with suspects, showing how they might or might not be suspicious.''
Meanwhile, you can't let things degenerate into ``Murder, She Rote.''
``I really don't want Jessica just walking through these scripts. I don't want her to be a question-and-answer machine. You have to introduce elements putting her in danger. I want a little challenge for me.''
She means a challenge for both Jessica and Angela. Both are women with plenty of moxie.
And Lansbury says they aren't the only ones.
``I know there are women who are my age, some widows, some who have never married, who relish the fact that I'm there with this character, who really love the fact that Jessica gets out there and messes in with life. I think it's wonderful to be able to represent that, even to the smallest degree, on television.''
But what happens after this season? How many more cases will she feel like tackling?
``I really ... don't ... know,'' Lansbury says, shaking her head. ``And that's the honest truth.
``But I always feel like I'm just beginning, you know. I never feel I'm in the middle of something that's coming to an end.''
Spoken just like Jessica. Graciously.
by CNB