‘Murder, She Wrote’ Recap: “Tough Guys Don’t Die”

Murder, She Wrote Season 1, Episode 16
"Tough Guys Don’t Die"
Original airdate: February 24, 1985
Writer: Peter S. Fischer
Director: Seymour Robbie
Cast: Angela Lansbury, Jerry Orbach, John Furey, Nancy Lee Grahn, Barbara Babcock, John McMartin, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Alex Rocco, Fritz Weaver, Paul Winfield, Floyd Levine, Tina Gifford

This week we meet one of Jessica's most colorful recurring characters, Jerry Orbach's hardboiled Harry McGraw. The character, a hard-luck Phillip Marlowe type, would go on to appear in five more episodes as well as his own short-lived spinoff, The Law & Harry McGraw. Barbara Babcock would co-star as his foil, attorney Ellie Maginnis. As for today's episode, she features as a wholly unrelated character, magazine editor Priscilla Daniels.