Murder, She Wrote
The Perfect Foil
TV Flash files “The Perfect Foil” as hour 43 of 264 in the TV Flash guide — Murder, She Wrote (1984–1996) on CBS, season 2, episode 21, aired 1986-04-13, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E21: listed hour 43 of 264 in the Murder, She Wrote guide, hour 21 of 22 in season 2. It aired 1986-04-13 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Menace, Anyone?” (S02E20). Next is “If The Frame Fits” (S02E22).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Jessica goes to New Orleans to check on a distant cousin during Mardi Gras. Upon arriving at Cal's rooming house to fulfil the aunt's request, she finds a party in full swing, a party-goer murdered, and Cal being the prime suspect. Despite not knowing her distant cousin that well, Jessica sets out to prove the man's innocence and find the real killer.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Perfect Foil sit in the Murder, She Wrote guide?
S02E21 is listed hour 43 of 264 — hour 21 of 22 in season 2, season 2 episode 21.
When did Murder, She Wrote S02E21 air?
The Perfect Foil aired 1986-04-13 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…