Episode 79: Carmen Doesn't Get Paid Enough For This

TONIGHT ON MURDER, SHE WROTE, we return to the magical backstage world of network television and all of the terrible people who make it! JB Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is famous enough to get ripped off; she learns from an intrepid novice telewriter, Gayle (Kim Miyori), that her latest novel will be used nearly plot point for plot point in an upcoming medical soap.  Instead of seeking a lawyer, or even flinching at the notion of plagiarism, she offers to help Gayle write a new plotline instead, and when that isn't good enough for the head writer of the show (Bradford Dillman), only then does she decide to make it to the set to argue her position.  When appealing to the network exec (Gail Strickland), she learns the true villain behind the schemes is Sid Sharkey (Ken Swofford), who everyone seems to detest. Unsurprisingly, the worst person we've met meets an untimely end: an indelicate bomb blast via a package in "feminine pink" wrapping paper.  Jessica and Gayle are high on the list of suspects, but so is the head writer, the exec, and the equally douchey show director (Vincent Baggetta), and even some of the cast (an exhausting Doug McClure and a delightful Lenore Kasdorf) might be in on it.  When she finds an enthusiastic ally in Sharkey's resilient secretary Freida (the fantastic Fionnula Flanagan), and a reluctant one via the police department (Yaphet Kotto!), she may finally be able to press into the true matter that led to the big boss' death. STEAL ME A STORY is a somewhat overfilled dance card of plot lines in a live-in world, so stick with Petra and Viktor as they keep up with all of these similarly profiled white men and glamorous ladies for an amusingly meta yet cynical view on the era of the late 80s primetime murder mystery drama series.