Murder, She Wrote
A Very Good Year For Murder
TV Flash files “A Very Good Year For Murder” as hour 83 of 264 in the TV Flash guide — Murder, She Wrote (1984–1996) on CBS, season 4, episode 17, aired 1988-02-28, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E17: listed hour 83 of 264 in the Murder, She Wrote guide, hour 17 of 22 in season 4. It aired 1988-02-28 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Murder Through The Looking Glass” (S04E16). Next is “Benedict Arnold Slipped Here” (S04E18).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Jessica heads to wine-growing country to help wealthy vintner Salvatori Gambini celebrate his 75th birthday. Unfortunately, Gambini's fractious family isn't in a celebratory mood, and the festivities come to a grim climax when a corpse is found in the wine cellar. In her efforts to solve the mystery, Jessica is heartbroken over the likelihood that she might have to turn an old and cherished friend over to the authorities.
Viewer FAQ
Where does A Very Good Year For Murder sit in the Murder, She Wrote guide?
S04E17 is listed hour 83 of 264 — hour 17 of 22 in season 4, season 4 episode 17.
When did Murder, She Wrote S04E17 air?
A Very Good Year For Murder aired 1988-02-28 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…