Murder, She Wrote Season 3, Episode 16
“Death Takes a Dive”
Original airdate: February 22, 1987
Writer: Peter S. Fischer
Director: Seymour Robbie
Cast: Angela Lansbury, Jerry Orbach, John Amos, Ernest Borgnine, LeVar Burton, Bradford Dillman, Ray Girardin, Caren Kaye, Michael McGrady, Lynne Moody, Harold Sylvester, Adam West, Bill Capizzi
Tonight we check in on Harry McGraw (Orbach) one more time before he departs for his own (woefully short-lived) spinoff series. Consider this a retroactive feature-length pilot vehicle for the smart-talking P.I. from the pen of MSW co-creator Peter S. Fischer himself. It’s star-studded, too, with guest spots from the likes of LeVar Burton, John Amos, Adam West, and Ernest Borgnine (hot off of TV’s Airwolf, something of a proving ground for MSW guest stars).
Requiem for a Harryweight
As ever, Boston P.I. Harry McGraw finds himself indebted to all the wrong people. In this case it’s Benny Falcone, an unhappy former client with muscle to spare. Short on funds, Harry turns to Pinky Schultz, a fight promoter and fellow denizen of barrel’s bottom, to recoup on a loan. Before he can collect, Pinky up and dies by natural causes. Harry attends the wake where a lawyer informs him he’s inherited the dead man’s contract with a boxer, Blaster Boyle, who happens to be the only other mourner in attendance. You may recognize actor Harold Sylvester from a recurring role as Al Bundy’s friend Griff on Married…With Children or his recent spot on The Pitt.
Blaster’s a decent fighter but knows he’s past his prime. These days he’s resigned to putting younger fighters over, just another stop on their rise to glory. Harry hurries him over to Ponzini’s Gym in the hopes of trading the contract for quick cash. One thing leads to another and Harry and Blaster find themselves signed for a bout with Sean “The Irish Shillelagh” Shaleen (McGrady). Now Harry needs even more money to keep ahead of Blaster’s macros. Time to call the Bank of Jessica Fletcher for yet another business loan.
It’s a good thing too, reproachful as Jessica is upon arriving in Boston to help with Harry’s “emergency.” Things are about to get messy. After indulging him with a visit to Ponzini’s to see Blaster in action, an exasperated Jessica writes them a check for $5,000. Blaster is grateful but says he doubts she’ll see a return on her investment. Of course, Jessica is already emotionally involved, adamant that Blaster will win. That would be in direct opposition to preppy promoter Wade Talmadge’s wishes. Do you want to go against Adam West when he wants you to intentionally throw the match in the other fighter’s favor?
If Jessica believes she’s going to make a quick turnaround to Maine, she’s got another think coming. Harry comes to blows with Talmadge over the preordained outcome of the fight. Mr. Ponzini himself (Borgnine) steps in with a haymaker when Harry defensively pulls out his gun. That looks pretty bad when Talmadge turns up dead the next day. It doesn’t help optics that his arm candy, Lois Ames (Caren Kaye of The Betty White Show), spent the night in Harry’s bed either. No alibi for the time of the murder of course; he was driving around looking for Blaster. Gosh, Harry. This time Lt. Casey (Girardin) may have you dead to rights.
Now it’s up to Jessica to scour Boston’s underbelly to vindicate a man so confident in her abilities he refuses to hire a lawyer.
Training Montage!
Jessica and Blaster, her ever-hungry, ever-vigilant bodyguard, doggedly pursue each new lead to exonerate Harry. All this shoe-leather doubles as cardio for the boxer’s ongoing fitness regimen; the bout with Shaleen is still on. We even get a scene where Jessica laces up her Reeboks to join in a montage. Blaster’s trainer Doc Penrose (the always tremendous John Amos) puts them through the paces in the park and helps Jessica navigate a boxing community openly hostile to women. Old man Ponzini is about as welcoming to lady-folk as a Mos Eisley barkeep to a pair of droids.
Jessica gets a good chunk of information out of Tribune sports reporter Dave Robinson (Burton) and his photographer Pam Collins (Moody, reuniting with her Roots co-star). Thankfully, the pair have already done much of the digging for a planned hit piece on Talmadge. Robinson is consumed with hatred for the crooked promoter after one of his fighters brutally beat his father, leaving permanent brain damage.
One of the big sticking points against Harry is the assertion that his gun was used in the murder. Talmadge’s gal pal Lois is the only other person with *ahem* easy access to the weapon while Harry slept off their sweaty encounter. We learn she only pursued Harry that night as a favor (ouch) to Shaleen’s manager, Denny (Dillman), the true object of her affections. Could one of them have lured Talmadge out to that bridge in Marblehead to shoot him with Harry’s gun, then returned it to his holster in time?
A few stray clues lead Jessica to an alternative theory. Talmadge was found in slacks and a t-shirt, hardly up to his typical polished fit, as though he’d been re-dressed after he died. Then she remembers a detail from a televised news report on Shaleen: he’d been an accomplished duck hunter since childhood. Lt. Casey agrees to set Harry loose so they can lure Shaleen to Ponzini’s gym late at night, ostensibly to reenact the scuffle with Talmadge that led Harry to fire his gun. They find a scorched hole in a couch cushion and surmise that Shaleen retrieved the bullet, loaded it into his rifle, and killed Talmadge the next day. The paranoid boxer appears from the shadows just in time for Casey and his men to make the arrest.
Naturally, the big bout never happens, affording Blaster and Doc the opportunity to break from the boxing business and open the dairy farm Blaster’s long wanted. Seriously, he’d earlier expressed this plan to Jessica in the way that typically signals a soldier isn’t going to make it through the final reel. But they’re doing it! Oh, and Pam finally convinces Dave to settle down and focus on their relationship. Not that Doc — four times divorced — can condone such silliness.
Harry even hands Jessica a check to repay her loan, announcing that he’d sold the rights to the story we just watched to a big producer. You know, that caper he just solved all on his own? Oh, Harry.
Next week we return to Maine for a tale of passion and betrayal in the shockingly fraught Cabot Cove art scene!
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