Did Angela Lansbury Read Every "Murder She Wrote" Script?

or did she merely get her sides, and deliver the lines? Maybe someone gave an overview as to what the plot was. She was shooting over 20 episodes a season. That''s about 10 movies a year. I can''t see her reading every script, and having time to act in it all. She was probably flown from one set to the next. Does anyone know anything about the production of the show? Would they still be filming a particular episode even after she was done with her scenes? Would she start filming another episode while the previous episode was still in production? Did she go back and forth filming scenes for different episodes?\ \ That must have been a hell of a job for 12 years! I remember that they downscaled her job. She was contracted to not have to be in two episodes a season towards the end.

• Why in hell would she have to read the script? Every one of them called just called for her to look annoyingly quizzical and mug shamelessly.

• Scene 1: Jessica runs into old friend/young relative who has troubles.\ \ Scene 2: Jessica nearby when a dead body is found (connected in some way to old friend/young relative).\ \ Scene 3: Jessica annoys local police. \ \ Scene 4: Jessica annoys local police some more.\ \ Scene 5: Someone says they are a fan of her books.\ \ Scene 6: Jessica breaks into an office. Almost gets caught. \ \ Scene 7: Someone tries to kill Jessica.\ \ Scene 8: Jessica annoys local police.\ \ Scene 9: Jessica annoys local police some more.\ \ Scene 10: Jessica knows who done it.

  JB Fletcher of course!

• I loved that Jessica always got young dick in every town she visited. She was a filthy old cunt.

• Oh, fuck you, R1. It was a brilliant show and unparalleled to the crap currently airing on television.

  Anonymous

• You''re forgetting the part where she says that she''s not an investigator, she leaves that up to the police.

  OP

• Don''t forget in almost every episode she said to whoever would listen: "If I''m not mistaken....."\ \ Next time you watch MSW listen for it. She won''t disappoint you at all, if I''m not mistaken.

• Really, R4? ''Unparalled''? It was perhaps edgy for geriatric fare but a middling NBC show at that time blew it away.

• R6 is not mistaken if I''m not mistaken.

• They had a 10 day shooting schedule. The first morning their was a read through with Angela and all the guest and regular cast. The writers would take two hours and make changes while they had a break and they would begin filming in the afternoon.

• Angela was only in a handful of scenes, and they did location and sound stage filming. No way she would have waited around in a trailer for all the other bits to be shot. She probably came on set for a few days, said her lines, and then hightailed it to the other episode''s set. I can''t see them shooting a full episode in 10 days, and then moving onto another one and meeting their deadline. They must have been producing multiple episodes at a time. They had a slew of directors.

• Whether you can see it or not they did shoot one episode at a time. \ \ Angela did all of her scenes in 3 days. She would not film on the reading day.

• My parents were avid fans of the show. My mother claimed that the person on the screen at 40 minutes into the show would turn out to be the killer.

• What is all this "flew her to the other set" crap? 90% of MSW was filmed on the Universal backlot and indoor sets. There was very little real location shooting (with Angela on location).

• [italic]My mother claimed that the person on the screen at 40 minutes into the show would turn out to be the killer.[/italic]\ \ It was a 44 minute show.

• It WAS brilliant... that is not an exaggeration at all for r4 to say that about the show. Samuel Beckett wrote several of the first-season screenplays under a pseudonym, as did Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Dario Fo in later seasons. Similarly, David Lean, Agnes Varda and Akira Kurosawa directed some episodes also under assumed names. True genius at work.

• r15, who the fuck are any of those people??

• You''re admitting you don''t have the slightest idea who Beckett and Kurosawa are, r16?\ \ Wow, we''ve hit a new all-time low tonight.

  skip on back to play with your XBox, junior

• I probably should have been more specific just for you r14 and mentioned 40 minutes from the moment the show began - including opening credits, station break, and commercials.

• R17 is the one who needs to go home and think about what he''s done.\ \ Carry on, R16.

• R7, it was CBS. It was on every Sunday evening for years after 60 minutes. Then they switched it to Thursday and started trying to kill it. then they came close, but it went on life support. Then, it really was Murder, she wrote.

• "Stacy/Stephanie/Miranda, you need to come forward. We can put this pervert away so he never hurts anyone else ever again." -- Olivia Benson

  All shows repeat their themes

• r17 has a ''Judy'' room in his house.

• I''m getting strange numbering in this thread - 16 followed by 18 followed by 17. But when I go to post a reply, they''re in the correct order. After hitting "save post" it goes back to the messed up numbering.

• R23, if I am not mistaken, it would be possible for someone to "hack" into the system to renumber responses and give himself an alibi.

• After Angie took over as EP she worked it out that she only worked four days a week, in a seven day shooting schedule.

• Usually in these long running series, you see the lead appear onscreen less and less as the years go by.

• I hated the episodes where her on-off beau, that smarmy jewel thief, stood in.

• I watch them now, in the afternoon, and love them still. Worse than the upcoming prison sentence for the revealed murderer is the look of disappointment on Jessica's face. She is always so clearly disappointed in the murderer, not angry - much like my parents when I did something wrong as a teenager. That look of disappointment is the worst!

• It's the only show I can think of that ran for 12 years and NEVER had anyone else but the star as a regular character. Angie did 264 episodes, and she was no spring chicken at the time. The next highest number of episodes were done by the recently departed William Windom (53.) He'd be considered a "recurring" character, at best.

• No - she just forwarded them to the Activities Director at the Actors Retirement Home.