Murder, She Wrote
Murder To A Jazz Beat
TV Flash files “Murder To A Jazz Beat” as hour 13 of 264 in the TV Flash guide — Murder, She Wrote (1984–1996) on CBS, season 1, episode 13, aired 1985-02-03, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E13: listed hour 13 of 264 in the Murder, She Wrote guide, hour 13 of 22 in season 1. It aired 1985-02-03 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Broadway Malady” (S01E12). Next is “My Johnny Lies Over The Ocean” (S01E14).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Jessica arrives early in New Orleans on a book tour and spends some time as a tourist in the French Corner. On the night her host takes her out to a night club for the final performance of a popular Jazz band before relocating out of state, the leader drops dead, apparently from a heart attack. However, at Jessica's prodding, the police discover he was actually poisoned and there were several people, including several bandmates, who wanted the man dead.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Murder To A Jazz Beat sit in the Murder, She Wrote guide?
S01E13 is listed hour 13 of 264 — hour 13 of 22 in season 1, season 1 episode 13.
When did Murder, She Wrote S01E13 air?
Murder To A Jazz Beat aired 1985-02-03 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
The 1984 premiere, then a Hollywood hour and a locked-box hour so you see Jessica outside the village. After that, dip by guest star or by mood. The form is weekly on purpose.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it as Sunday-night civic ritual: Angela Lansbury’s manners as method, guest-star mythology, and a cozy mystery empire CBS later tried to age off the schedule. The last title card is the memo. The twelve seasons before it are the cathedral.
Sunday night used to mean something. CBS, 1984, a typewriter, a bicycle, a woman of a certain age who kept finding bodies the way other people find parking. Murder, She Wrote did not arrive as a prestige dare. It arrived as a network night: family in the living room, affiliate promo, a mystery that resolved before bedtime. Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson, and William Link knew the form from Columbo country. What they built with Angela Lansbury was friendlier and, in its way, more radical. An older woman as the…
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