Murder, She Wrote
Jessica Behind Bars
TV Flash files “Jessica Behind Bars” as a desk essential hour — Murder, She Wrote (1984–1996) on CBS, season 2, episode 9, aired 1985-12-01, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E09: listed hour 31 of 264 in the Murder, She Wrote guide, hour 9 of 22 in season 2. It aired 1985-12-01 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Dead Heat” (S02E08). Next is “Sticks And Stones” (S02E10).
Essential hour: “Jessica Behind Bars”. The form in a locked box. Jessica without the village postcard.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
On the night Jessica fills in as a night school teacher in a women's prison, she is forced to investigate what lead to a prisoner uprising following the death of the prison doctor. As her investigation progresses, she soon discovers the politics behind the everyday running of a prison can be deadly – especially after another prison employees is found dead.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Jessica Behind Bars sit in the Murder, She Wrote guide?
S02E09 is listed hour 31 of 264 — hour 9 of 22 in season 2, season 2 episode 9.
When did Murder, She Wrote S02E09 air?
Jessica Behind Bars aired 1985-12-01 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…
Filed against
- Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher
Angela Lansbury made Jessica Fletcher America’s most polite murder magnet on Murder, She Wrote — a cozy empire built on an older woman who never missed a clue. Stage legend and Hollywood survivor, she turned Cabot Cove into weekly…
- William Windom as Dr. Seth Hazlitt
William Windom’s Dr. Seth Hazlitt is Murder, She Wrote’s Cabot Cove as a house call — Sunday-night civic ritual, Angela Lansbury’s manners as steel, guest-star mythology, a cozy-mystery empire CBS later tried to age off the schedule. On…
- Ron Masak as Sheriff Mort Metzger
Ron Masak’s Sheriff Mort Metzger kept Murder, She Wrote’s Cabot Cove on a municipal clock — Angela Lansbury’s manners as method, a lawman who had to share the town with America’s most polite murder magnet. Sunday night used to mean…
- Tom Bosley as Sheriff Amos Tupper
Tom Bosley’s Howard Cunningham was Happy Days’ “Mr. C” — cardigan warmth and dad authority under Fonzie fever, malt-shop lighting, a leather jacket the country merchandised into a god. Murder, She Wrote later made him cozy-mystery company…