Murder, She Wrote
Murder, Plain and Simple
TV Flash files “Murder, Plain and Simple” as hour 152 of 264 in the TV Flash guide — Murder, She Wrote (1984–1996) on CBS, season 7, episode 20, aired 1991-04-28, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S07E20: listed hour 152 of 264 in the Murder, She Wrote guide, hour 20 of 22 in season 7. It aired 1991-04-28 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Thursday's Child” (S07E19). Next is “Tainted Lady” (S07E21).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Jessica is passing through Pennsylvania to promote her newest book. However, when her publisher's liaison's car breaks down on the outskirts of the Amish area, she learns that he comes from the area and is "shunned" from the local Amish community. When one of the church leaders is discovered murdered in his barn, Reuben is the prime suspect when it comes out that he and the victim had a volatile past. To prove that he is innocent, Jessica has her work cut out to prove someone from the normally non-violent Amish community may have wanted the overly-strict man out of their lives permanently.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Murder, Plain and Simple sit in the Murder, She Wrote guide?
S07E20 is listed hour 152 of 264 — hour 20 of 22 in season 7, season 7 episode 20.
When did Murder, She Wrote S07E20 air?
Murder, Plain and Simple aired 1991-04-28 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
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- Ron Masak as Sheriff Mort Metzger
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