Murder, She Wrote Season 3, Episode 14
“Murder in a Minor Key”
Original Airdate: February 8, 1987
Story by : Arthur Marks
Teleplay by : Gerald K. Siegel and Peter S. Fischer
Director: Nick Havinga
Cast: Angela Lansbury, René Auberjonois, Shaun Cassidy, Paul Clemens, Karen Grassle, George Grizzard, Tom Hallick, Jennifer Holmes, Scott Jacoby, Dinah Manoff, Alex Henteloff
After 57 grizzly capers, Jessica decides it’s time for us to pick up the slack and solve some murders on our own. “Murder in a Minor Key” is the first of 14 special episodes where Jessica breaks the fourth wall and narrates the story. She introduces the week’s caper like a TCM host presenting an MGM classic and checks back in with us around each commercial break. These are fun little backdoor pilots with fresh-faced crimestoppers that serve as bite-size movies-of-the-week. Some leave us wanting more, and others feature a young Bill Maher.
Jessica is puttering around the house proofreading her latest novel, which happens to be tonight’s story.
The Day the Music Lied
Three college friends pull up to a SoCal piano bar in a Chevy more Bondo than Blazer. Michael (Clemens) is a budding composer with a chip on his shoulder. Jenny (Manoff) is a social worker with all the social connections. Her boyfriend, Chad, a “soft spoken law student from the deep south” is played by Shaun Cassidy of TV’s The Hardy Boys. Shaun’s mother, Shirley Jones would go on to appear in two episodes of MSW. His father, Jack, likely would’ve appeared in twelve of them if he hadn’t died in 1976; dude was in every other episode of Columbo. Okay, three.
Noshing on peanuts over a pitcher, Michael and Jenny rag on Chad for selling out. He’s toying with a career in corporate law, namely with an outfit called Transacom that has the campus in a froth. Chad laughs it off, but not before accusing Michael for feeding into the same system by sending his compositions to Nashville. Meanwhile the lady at the piano introduces her next number, a selection from a musical soon to hit Broadway. Michael’s ears perk up. Then his smile fades. Not because it’s bad (though it absolutely is).
“That’s my music.”
Michael rushes to the piano, grabbing for the sheet music. The performer takes it on the chin, scooting over so he can try playing by memory. He doesn’t miss a note. He storms off with the sheet music. He doesn’t recognize the name on it, but he knows only one other person familiar enough with his work to pass it off as their own.
Back on campus Michael barges into a rehearsal to angrily accuse his professor, Tyler Sternham (Grizzard) of plagiarizing his work. After raging at Michael for interrupting, the thorny old fraud follows him to his office where he abandons all pretense of innocence. Instead he threatens the young man, insistent that no one will take Michael’s word over his. Then, in a classic gaffe, Michael vows revenge while brandishing a tuning fork at Sternham. Of course Sternham’s long suffering underling, Professor Papazian is there at the door to witness it. Add a thick layer of Silly Putty to his face and you may recognize him as Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Michael makes his retreat, which is just as well because Sternham’s got a long waitlist of angry colleagues and loved ones who need to make their feelings known. More on that shortly.
The next night, as a campus protest of Transacom rages outside, Michael returns to the music department to search Sternham’s records for evidence of the old man’s theft. Hidden in an adjacent store room, he overhears an argument between Sternham and Papazian. Then, observing the light on a phone extension, notes that he’s taking a phone call. When he finally enters the darkened office to search the files he fails to notice Sternham’s dead body on the floor. That’s when campus security enters, flips on the light, and catches Michael in an extremely unfortunate position.
Michael is assigned a real clockwatcher of a lawyer with little faith in his innocence. Luckily Chad and Jenny have nothing better to do than cheerfully chase down interviews with the larger suspect pool. They hardly seem anxious that their friend is booked for murder. It kinda seems like they’re turned on by the whole thing. Every new lead is foreplay. Call it Hart to Hart but paycheck-to-paycheck. It’s a good thing they’ve got so much energy; a lot of people hated Professor Sternham.
Death Knell
Papazian, it turns out, also has a professional grudge with Sternham taking credit for his work. They were working on a book together and Sternham flat-out took Papazian’s name off the manuscript. Papazian also stood to gain from the man’s murder because he was next in line for the role of department head. He’s pretty erratic too, even breaking into Sternham’s house after the murder to look for records. Mrs. Sternham actually pulls a gun on the would-be burglar and puts one in his arm before he can crash through a window.
There’s also Reagan Miller (Holmes), a young woman from San Diego whose lyrics Sternham paired with Michael’s music. Reagan may also have been romantically involved with Sternham? It’s a little unclear, but he was definitely taking advantage of her youth and inexperience. She was actually at the university on the night of the murder to confront the man she knew as “Alden Gilbert” but by that point the police were already locking down the building.
Sternham’s trips to San Diego also aroused the suspicion of his wife, Christine (Grassle), who found herself increasingly belittled in the marriage. We get a very sad glimpse into their daily life the morning before his murder. He’s deeply condescending, turning every reasonable question around on the poor woman.
Christine even cautions a visiting Chad not to rush into marriage, which turns out to be a curious little undercurrent of the whole affair. Chad and Jenny are perfectly content “living in sin.” They’re very much in love with a great sex life (for the time slot) and work well as investigators. Meanwhile Christine is a prisoner of her own loveless covenant.
I should also mention the university’s Vice Chancellor August Simon (Hallick), who isn’t so much a professional rival of Sternham’s, but a former beau of Christine’s–if the university newspaper is to be believed. Which–is that a thing university newspapers report on? I just used the Drexel Triangle for art projects and to read the occasional funny. Anyway, he’s back in the picture with the widow shortly after the murder.
Crescendo
In one of her interludes, Jessica asks if we’ve picked up on the clues to solving the case. I’ll be honest in that I still don’t fully understand how Chad puts it all together, but I’ve never come to MSW for the plot.
Chad somehow gets permission from every party involved, from the police and the university, Sternham’s widow, and even the protestors from the night of the murder to do a full recreation at the scene. This includes Michael and his reluctant attorney (to play the role of Sternham of course). He instructs all the students outside to make the same amount of noise they did on the night in question, all to duplicate the environment. Inside, with Jenny keeping track with a stop watch, Chad directs Michael and the others through a tightly choreographed reenactment of the night. The timing is crucial because the carefully composed arrangement of arguments actually contradicts the statement made by Christine Sternham. If everything went as multiple parties agreed, she could not have reached her husband by phone when she claimed. Which obviously means she’s the killer.
Jessica wraps up her tale by saying an exonerated Michael and Reagan traveled to Broadway to enjoy the success of their new musical. Meanwhile, Chad and Jenny are Mississippi-bound to meet the folks when they run into a de-frocked priest and a professional wrestler. She catches herself before giving too much of the sequel away. Sadly, we never do get this sequel or see these characters again. Sounds like a case for Benoit Blanc if you ask me!
Next week, what say we check in with our old pal Harry McGraw in the case of a boxer who refuses to take the fall.
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