The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

The Edgars Television Awards… Just How Old Do You Feel!?!?

I posted the Edgar Awards’ Best Episode for a Television Series winners and nominees a few days ago, and  BOY, do I feel old!

The following lists of television shows were amongst the winners and nominees. (I know that there were many other shows, but for the purposes of this blog, I only used some of the Edgar winning and nominated shows.)  

Some of these shows actually bring a smile to my face… I haven’t thought of them in so many years, and they invoke great memories of playing outside, choosing a favorite character to be for that particular, care-free, imaginative play time… Back when it was safe enough to go outside to run around and play all day, with a mere "See you later, Mom." and the "Be back for dinner." response. (I mean, didn’t everybody "dibs" being Honey West?!?!)

Let’s see how far back you go!  On your mark… Get set… Enjoy your own favorite memories…

The 1990s brought us such mystery shows as: 
     Prime Suspect
     Inspector Morse
     Silent Witness
     Rumpole
     Sherlock Holmes
     Hercule Poirot
     Quantum Leap
     Law and Order
     The Practice
     The X-Files
     The Commish
     Picket Fences
     Murder, She Wrote
     L. A. Law
     Simon and Simon
     NYPD Blue
The 1980s brought us mystery shows that included:
     The Return of Sherlock Holmes
     Rumpole (Yes, again…)
     P. D. James’ Adam Dalgliesh
     Simon and Simon (Another show that went on to the 1990s list)
     Cagney and Lacey
     Moonlighting
     Murder, She Wrote (Jessica was also busy in the 1990s!)
     Matlock
     The New Mike Hammer
     Remington Steele
     Quincy
     Magnum, P. I.
     Lou Grant
     Hill Street Blues
     Matt Houston
     Wiseguy
     Miami Vice
The 1970s’ mystery shows (and I have to admit… I remember them very well!) included:
     Columbo
     Quincy
     Rockford Files
     Streets of San Francisco
     Kojak
     Vega$
     Baretta
     Police Story
     Policewoman
     Hawaii Five-O
     McCloud
     Mannix
     Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law
     Toma
     Mod Squad
     Petrocelli
     Rod Serling’s Night Galery
     ABC Movie of the Week
     NBC Movie of the Week
The 1960s:  (Hmmm… maybe I only remember these in recent reruns!)
     Judd for Defense
     Mission: Impossible 
     Alfred Hitchcock Presents 
      I, Spy
     Honey West  
     The Fugitive 
     The Defenders
     Dupont Show of the Week
     Kraft Suspense Hour and Kraft Mystery Theatre 
     Dow Hour of Great Mysteries 
     Bob Hope Presents
The 1950s: (Now I KNOW I wouldn’t have remembered Dragnet without the benefit of reruns!)
     Dragnet
     Studio One
     Alcoa Hour
     Elgin Hour
     Playhouse 90 
    

Agatha Christie's Marple… (with Geraldine McEwan)

Just recently, one of my very favorite actresses took a stab at portraying one of the most famous cozy mystery characters of all time… Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Geraldine McEwan (the particular actress) brings a fresh portrayal of Miss Marple with almost the same mischievous glint in her expressive eyes as she displayed while portraying E. F. Benson’s Lucia. (That last sentence will probably only make sense to those of you who have been lucky enough to see the first season of Mapp and Lucia… another cozy, although not a mystery, production.)

In 2005, Great Britain (a Granada production) gave us yet another wonderful “television event.” For the purposes of this review, I will refer to these shows as the “Miss Marple”series… Yes, I know that before McEwan we had Margaret Rutherford, Helen Hayes, and Joan Hickson, amongst several other actress who portrayed Miss Jane Marple, but for the purposes of this blog, McEwan is Miss Marple.

Hmmm… “McEwan is Miss Marple.”

I have read reviews that state… essentially… that McEwan is NOT Miss Marple. I have to say that I strongly disagree. I think that McEwan puts into the Miss Marple character the same patient grace that she seems most capable of conveying. She is able to smile demurely while delivering a quick-witted come-back which her targeted person thinks is simply an observation. She is absolutely delightful as Miss Marple. So delightful, that I can imagine Agatha Christie saying “Yes, by gosh, she’s got it!”

As usual, we get the beautiful backdrop of quaint villages, whether they are Miss Marple’s very own St. Mary Mead, or another locale where Miss Marple is visiting. We have all of the obligatory eccentric characters and the gorgeous wardrobe is of course, authentic to the period. The series delivers just what we expect from the PBS imported British “Mystery! programmes.”

Series 1 includes: The Murder at the Vicarage (1930), with another one of my very favorite “British exports”… Sir Derek Jacobi. And, for all of you Ballykissangel fans out there… You will be delighted to see your favorite priest (Stephen Tomkinson) as the police inspector, who as usual, sees beyond Miss Marple’s elderly lady façade. Also presented in series one are: The Body in the Library (1942) with the phenomenal Joanna Lumley, A Murder is Announced (1950), and 4:50 from Paddington (1957), which all of you Christie fans might know as What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!

Series 2 includes: Sleeping Murder (1976), By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968), The Moving Finger (1943), and  The Sittaford Mystery (1931) I have to admit that I did not care for By the Pricking of my Thumbs at all. Miss Marple seems totally superfluous in this Tommy and Tuppence “movie.” And, since I never cared for that particular Christie series, it stands to reason that I didn’t like this show. I felt like McEwan’s talents were being wasted by having her play second fiddle to an alcoholic Tuppence.

Series 3 includes: Towards Zero (1944), Nemesis (1971, At Bertram’s Hotel (1965), and Ordeal by Innocence (1958). While I haven’t seen the third season of these shows, I am a little concerned that Ordeal by Innocence and Towards Zero are not Miss Marple books. I sure hope that Miss Marple isn’t again used as a secondary character as she was in the second season’s By the Pricking of My Thumbs!

All in all, if you are looking for a really fun time, these “movies” might be exactly what you want!

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

If You Missed Miss Marple Last Night…Go Check Your Local PBS Listings

I should ‘a, would ‘a… told you to not miss the first installment of the PBS showings of the new Miss Marple shows. I sure hope that no one missed them last night. I have not actually watched the first installment yet, but anything with Geraldine McEwan is OK by me! (That is if you don’t count the Mulberry series!)

You may wonder why I am writing my blog about a show that I haven’t seen yet… The answer is easy. If your local PBS station is anything like mine, they will rerun the show some time this week, so if you missed it, you can catch it when they re-air the very same Mystery! show.

I have, however, seen all eight of the previous Geraldine McEwan outings as Miss Marple. And, since each episode is like a stand-alone movie, we are actually going to be getting four new Miss Marple "movies" this season.  What a treat!

I’m going to keep this blog very short, since I want to write a TV & Movies blog/article about the series. I’ll try to post it either tonight or early tomorrow… but in the mean time… go check your local PBS schedules for the first Miss Marple (Towards Zero)! 

I Would Like to Know How I Missed Jesse Stone?!?

Well, I wondered why CBS showed two “Jesse Stone” movies in the wrong sequence. The episode that I thought was the first episode actually aired a week after the second episode. Luckily, I was way behind in watching my recorded shows, so I was able to watch them in the sequence I thought they should be in. When I went online to investigate I found that CBS has been airing these shows since ’05… and I can only wonder how I missed them!

Jesse Stone is an ex-Los Angeles Police Department officer who is transplanting himself to Massachusetts…. after being fired for what appears to be a life of very hard drinking. This is where I started the show, and I really enjoyed it. (But, I could be totally wrong, since I haven’t seen the actual first episode…. which aired in February of  ’05.)

There are four movies in the series… Tom Selleck (yes, Tom Selleck aka Magnum, P. I.) stars as Jesse Stone, and he is very convincing as a fiftyish ex-LAPD, with a penchant for Scotch. He takes on the job of chief of police, after interviewing for the job smelling “like a brewery”…. He corrects that…. It wasn’t beer, it was Scotch! The “feeling” of Jesse Stone is… Spenser for Hire. And, it is no small wonder since both Jesse and Spenser are written by Robert B. Parker. 

What I liked about the show is the promise of some great characters. Jesse and Boomer (his Bloodhound) are a wonderful example of true friendship… never judgemental, always loving. Also, something I really liked is that this was the first time I have seen a movie with the leading man questioning the age difference between himself, a fiftyish man, and a prospective girlfriend, a thirtyish woman. Bravo to them for actually being aware of the “problem.” (Although I am guessing that most men don’t see that as a problem!)

On the negative side, though, is why CBS showed these movies so spaced out in time….

Stone Cold… February ’05
Night Passage… January ’06
Death in Paradise… April ’06
Sea Change… May ’07

Since I watch very little actual television (relying on mostly old movies and BBC-type series), I can understand how I could have missed these movies. But, I have programmed “Jesse Stone” on my DVR, and will watch for the movies to be shown again. If I see that they are going to be airing them,  I will definitely post the times and dates in my blog!

(Please let me know if you happened to see any of the four Jesse Stone movies… Click on Comment below… I would love to know if anyone else saw them… and if so, I wonder if  they like them as much as I did…)

PS>>>> Thin Ice just aired in 2009!
              No Remorse will air in May of 2010.

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