TBD

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, Viktor and Petra return to the world of theatre as Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) has her first stage adaptation of one of her books opening directly on Broadway. Alas, the script is a mess, the actors are terrible, the staging is grade school, and the critics are vicious. Or maybe everything's great? We'll have to check the most recent draft of the reviews.

When harsh theatre critic Danny O'Mara (Josh DiSanti) is found dead, under the gun-holding frame of even harsher theatre critic Elliot Easterbrook (Dean Stockwell), Jessica has to determine who really did it, as the timing just doesn't match up. Her former student, and now alcohol-enthusiast playwright Walter Knapf, is suspect, as the production scrambles to use the headlines to its advantage.

The whodunnit on stage takes a backseat to the who-wouldn't in real life, as Lt. Jarvis (Eugene Roche) and plucky assistant to the dead man (Christopher Norris) help Jessica determine not only the true villain, but how to use a floppy disk!

Carole Cook, Lloyd Belcher, Rich Little, Penny Santon, and Marilyn Hassett (who shines briefly as a witch) round out the cast of drama queens of DEADPAN. We have notes.

Yeehaw, folks! TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, we're heading to the ro-DE-o!

SHOWDOWN IN SASKATCHEWAN has our heroine Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) visiting her miserable niece Jill (Kristy McNichol) in Canada; Jill is struggling with her hot but noncommittal horse-rider boyfriend (Patrick Houser) in this unconventional workplace drama. Indeed, everyone is having issues; the boss (Joe Dorsey) is a skeeve, his mistreated wife (Rosanna DeSot) keeps a stiff upper lip and shawl ready at all times, one rider (Larry Wilcox) is getting aged out of play, and something's awfully curious about that broken-legged manager (Paul Le Mat). The only one who seems at all happy is the rodeo clown (Terry Kiser), but does greasepaint cover the tears?

When a trailer fire takes someone out, Jessica is nearby to suss out who had the most to gain, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Roger McCabe (Lance LeGault) gives her a chance to solve the mystery alongside him. Those Canadians are never giving up the gracious allegations. We learn the dysfunction runs deep in the rodeo company, with emerging evidence of assumed identities, mismanaged medical records, and secret wives and children — all set to the memorable score of 90s meat propaganda. Viktor and Petra are here to keep things straight in this topsy-turvy episode that makes us all a bit hungry.