Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 23, 1995 TAG: 9509260017
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
``It's a terribly disappointing ending to what has been an extraordinary success,'' says Lansbury, who expects this year to be the mystery series' last. It airs at 8 p.m. Thursday (on WDBJ-Channel 7).
``I'm so very sorry that CBS had to make this decision,'' she says. ``I think it was a rotten thing for a show that was so popular and did so much for CBS in its lean years. It's a sad way to discard it.''
The drama has maintained Top 10 ratings and garnered 11 Emmy nominations (never a win) for Lansbury. But advertisers have a growing disdain for programs favored by older audiences, and CBS found ad rates for the hour were flagging badly.
The ad rates for ``Murder, She Wrote'' were about a third less than those of its Sunday competitor ``Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,'' an ABC series favored by younger viewers.
The move to Thursday pits ``Murder'' against NBC's ``Friends,'' just the kind of fresh-faced show which advertisers flock to and which proved a smash hit last season.
The prospect is daunting, even to the energetic Lansbury, 69, who is executive producer as well as star of ``Murder, She Wrote.'' But she is finding solace in her fans.
``As I've moved around town, and gotten and opened my mail, I'm amazed at the number of people who've said, `Don't worry, we're going to go where you go' ... So I have to hope we will make a respectable showing.''
A respectable showing, and more, is what the British-born Lansbury has made from the start of her career.
Her film debut, 1944's ``Gaslight'' with Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten, brought Lansbury a supporting actress Oscar nomination. She received two more nominations in her 44-movie career, for ``The Picture of Dorian Gray'' (1945) and ``The Manchurian Candidate'' (1963).
When she turned her attention to Broadway in the 1960s, it too succumbed: She won a Tony Award as best actress in a musical for ``Mame'' and followed that with three more of the stage awards: for ``Dear World'' (1968), ``Gypsy'' (1974) and ``Sweeney Todd'' (1979).
She has compiled wonderfully pithy descriptions of her films, including the lesser ones.
Of ``The Blue Danube'' (1949), Lansbury offers: ``I was a woman soldier. I made some real stinkers.'' ``The Private Affairs of Bel Ami'' (1947) was ``a highly literate film, which probably doomed it at the box office.''
And of ``A Breath of Scandal'' (1960): ``Michael Curtiz was a very good director, but he spoke with a thick Hungarian accent. I don't think Sophia Loren understood a single word he said on the set. Oh, well, it was nice to film in Vienna.''
Younger filmgoers may know her best by voice alone, as the endearing Mrs. Potts in Disney's animated ``Beauty and the Beast'' - a far cry from her chilling Mrs. Iselin, ``The Manchurian Candidate's'' evil conspirator.
``That's acting, as they say,'' Lansbury says in explanation of her versatility.
Veering into series TV was, initially, a decision of the bottom line, not the heart.
``I made up my mind when I was about 58 that I better think seriously about getting into television. This was going to be my annuity,'' Lansbury says.
Playing the crime-solving mystery writer Jessica Fletcher in ``Murder, She Wrote'' turned out to be satisfying beyond expectation.
``People my age and older,'' Lansbury says, ``say thank you for depicting a woman of our generation in a way that is up, that is forward-looking, that is not age-conscious, but simply has her take her place in life with all of the sense of responsibility and fun and energy that she can muster.''
Her show's ``trashing'' by advertisers who sneer at older viewers and their spending power is especially painful, she says, because of what her character has come to represent.
Lansbury says she had decided before CBS moved the series that this would be its last season, although there may be an occasional ``Murder'' TV movie. Other TV projects are planned through her Corymore Productions, which includes sons Anthony and David and brother Bruce.
A memoir seems a natural to claim Lansbury's time. She admits to toying with the idea, although career memorabilia and letters were destroyed in a 1970 fire at her and husband Peter Shaw's Malibu home.
``I'm always threatening to,'' she says. ``But I would like to write the memoir myself, in my own words. It takes time to do that. I'd have to sit down with a bunch of yellow pads and pens. ''
by CNB