Lizet's Place

Murder, She Wrote Remake: Angela Lansbury Thinks NBC is Making "a Mistake," Wishes Octavia Spencer Well
by TIERNEY BRICKER Today 8:42 AM PST

More like disapproval she wrote!

NBC recently announced plans to remake Murder, She Wrote, with Octavia Spencer stepping into Jessica Fletcher's murder mystery-solvin' shoes, which were made famous by Angela Lansbury.

Nominated for 10 Golden Globe Awards and 12 Emmys for her role on the hit CBS series, Lansbury is now speaking out against NBC's decision to use the title Murder, She Wrote, which she called "a mistake."
"I think it's a mistake to call it Murder, She Wrote, because Murder, She Wrote will always be about a Cabot Cove and this wonderful little group of people who told those lovely stories and enjoyed a piece of that place, and also enjoyed Jessica Fletcher, who is a rare and very individual kind of person," Lansbury said in an interview with AP. "So I'm sorry that they have to use the title Murder, She Wrote, even though they have access to it and it's their right."

Though Lansbury isn't wild about NBC using the title, she is happy with Spencer's casting, highlighting her Academy Award-winning work in The Help.

"I saw her in The Help and thought she was absolutely wonderful, a lovely actress," she said. "So I wish her well, but I wish it wasn't in Murder, She Wrote."

The show, which has only been ordered to pilot, not series, is being described as "light, contemporary procedural in the vein of Bones or Fargo."

In the remake, Spencer will play "a hospital administrator and amateur sleuth who self-publishes her first mystery novel. Set in a day where sensational headlines inundate the news, this woman's avid fascination with true crime leads her to become an active participant in the investigations." In the original series, which ran from 1984-1996, Lansbury's J.B. was a retired English teacher turned detective, who always outsmarted the investigators on a murder case.

Back in 2011, Lansbury revealed her desire to return to the iconic role in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "Well, I sort of do see it happening when I'm in a dream state," she said. "The people involved—Universal and CBS—they have to get together. They don't realize what an exciting thing it would be if we did that!"

We guess she won't be returning to this version of Cabot Cove!

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

source

I think I like the idea of the remake, but why does the show have to have that name. Also, having it set in a hospital...my first thought was of Diagnosis Murder (starring Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan). If the pilot ever makes it to tv, I might watch it to see what it's really about.

I should be working and concentrating on my Spring Fling fic (I've only gotten 1100 words done in the FIRST PART and it's due towards the end of April)

( fic writing babble )

and all of this leads me to going to bed at a somewhat decent time (before midnight)!

Good night...and have a pleasant tomorrow.

it was requested by [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] (and huntress69 also liked the idea) on hawaiificfinder for a Murder, She Wrote/Hawaii Five-0 crossover.

To my knowledge, there is no such item (sadness), so I threw my hat into the ring and started thinking up how this could happen.

I picture a 13 yr old Steve visiting his Aunt Jess in Cabot Cove, Maine one summer and going fishing with her. Naturally, 11 yr old Mary-Ann probably wouldn't like something like this, but she tags along and goes on bike rides with Aunt Jess. I don't know if, at the time, Frank would be alive or not, though he probably would.

Also, in my fic world, Steve is sent to live with Jessica (and Frank?) in 1992 when Mrs. McGarrett is killed, and while Mary-Ann loves Aunt Jess and Uncle Frank, she doesn't like the small town much (thus she's sent to Los Angeles to live with other family). Plus, for a time, Frank & Jessica raised Grady, so it wouldn't seem too unlikely for Steve to also have been "raised" by them as well.

Also, either Jessica or Frank are blood relatives to Steve's mom (I need to give her a name. I don't like the name Doris that Lenkov mentioned in a tweet). I'm open to suggestions for her name. eta: I've decided that Jessica's brother, Martin MacGill, is Steve's mom's father, making Jessica, Steve's Great-Aunt. Yeah...I think that can work.



also #1, Fuck Yeah, Murder She Wrote on tumblr!
also #2, using this icon because I have yet to make a (young/present day) Steve & Jessica icon