Murder, She Wrote - Season 1

Retired English teacher Jessica Fletcher is in for a surprise when her nephew Grady tells her that he found a manuscript she wrote and showed it a friend in the publishing world. Jessica's mystery novel soon becomes a bestseller and she soon finds herself in New York on a whirlwind promotional tour that ends with a murder.

Production Notes: This season contains the first opening segment.

When a supposedly dead businessman, disguised as a handyman turns up on Jessica's doorstep, she soon discovers that he was swept overboard his yacht the previous night during a hurricane following a fight with his daughters. When she returns home to get some answers from her new "handyman," she promptly discovers his dead body, Jessica aids Sheriff Tupper in his investigation to see which of his daughters hated him enough to want him dead.

Jessica meets up with her niece Victoria in San Francisco before her wedding to a young man named Howard. When Victoria confides in Jessica that she fears Howard may be cheating on her, they soon discover he's a performer at a local drag club. Things take a surprising turn when the club owner is found dead and Howard is the prime suspect.

Jessica travels to Hollywood in an effort to stop a sleazy producer from turning one of her novels into a steamy film. When the movie mogul turns up dead, she is horrified to learn that she is the chief suspect.

While visiting a friend in the South, Jessica discovers that backstabbing among family members is pretty common when her host is found dead and has left his estate to his beloved dog as a result. Furious about getting nothing, the man's family begin looking for a way to break the will in an attempt to get their hands on his money. When the dog's caretaker is found dead and the dog appears to be the likely culprit, Jessica begins to suspect that the jilted heirs are working together to get what they think is theirs.

While in Seattle for a series of lectures, Jessica is drawn into a dangerous case involving young secretary David Tolliver accused of killing his wealthy older lady friend Allison Brevard.

Jessica and the police are baffled by a seemingly driver-less car that suddenly appears in Cabot Cove and runs down a visitor who had fired local inventor Dan O'Brien.

While visiting relatives in Kansas, Jessica gets caught up in the plot of scheming theme park owner who wants to turn her novel into an attraction at her park. After she politely turns him down and he ends up being murdered inside his self-locking private office, Jessica is propositioned by the police to help find the culprit.

In Boston, Jessica attends a special performance by a Soviet Ballet Company with her friend Leo Peterson. When she discovers that Leo's niece, a prima ballerina, and her husband defect the same night a security guard is found murdered, she has to prove the pair's innocence while helping the FBI and KGB agents find the actual killer.

Jessica gets talked into going to a well-known and disliked hypnotist's show at a popular night club by her editor's assistant. Not long after she arrives, the hypnotist gets murdered in a locked roomful of journalists, who happen to be under the man's spell. The baffled police have no shortage of suspects and soon turn to Jessica's assistance in solving the crime.

After the congressman representing her district suddenly dies of a heart attack, Jessica is asked to temporarily fill in, until a replacement is elected. While in Washington, she soon discovers the dark dealings of the political arena and that serving in elected offices can be murder.

Jessica investigates the attempted murders of a legendary Broadway actress and her talented daughter, due to star in a new musical production. But as Jessica uncovers the truth, her own life is put in danger.

Jessica arrives early in New Orleans on a book tour and spends some time as a tourist in the French Corner. On the night her host takes her out to a night club for the final performance of a popular Jazz band before relocating out of state, the leader drops dead, apparently from a heart attack. However, at Jessica's prodding, the police discover he was actually poisoned and there were several people, including several bandmates, who wanted the man dead.

Jessica goes on a cruise with her friend Pamela, who has just been released from a sanatorium where she was recovering from the suicide of her husband Johnny. However, on board the ship Pamela is the victim of a terror campaign, and then another passenger is found dead.

Jessica investigates the death of her friend Diego Santana, a famous painter. But which of his friends and family had a killer's motive?

Jessica is working a new novel that is based on actual murder case that happened years before. When the private investigator she hired to look into the case is murdered in his office, she and the investigator's partner, tough guy Harry McGraw, reluctantly team up to see which of his cases lead to his death.

Jessica inherits part of a professional football team, and soon discovers that the sport can be murder. When a fellow co-owner is found dead following a team party and the star quarterback is the prime suspect, Jessica has her work cut out for her to prove his innocence.

Jessica meets up with a poet friend in San Francisco for a special literary awards banquet. While at the party the poet gets into a scuffle with an author who claims to have wrote the "definitive" novel about the Vietnam War. When the author is later found in his room and his manuscript missing, the poet is the prime suspect. Jessica then sets out to prove to the police that her friend is innocent of the crime.

While on their way to a Sheriff's convention is Boston, Sheriff Tupper and Jessica find that their bus has to take a detour to a small roadside diner due to bad weather. However, they can't leave a murder investigation at home when one of their fellow passengers is found dead on the bus and have to find out who wanted the man dead.

Upon her arrival in Texas to give a deposition, Jessica gets in a small accident that results in her leg being broken. Not long after being taken to the hospital, she soon discovers that the politics on the administration level can be murder when the hospital's chief of staff is found dead at home the guilty party lets a nurse working at the hospital take the blame for the crime.

Jessica arrives at a popular California desert resort town to visit an old friend and her family for the weekend. It doesn't take long for her to become involved in a murder investigation, when her friend's ex-husband was found murdered in an apparently locked room in his estate. Jessica soon discovers that the suspect list is lengthy since he had several enemies, and some of the people who wanted him gone were family.

Jessica is in Wyoming for the funeral of an old friend and soon gets involved in a murder investigation when an old business associate who arrived for the funeral, claiming to be the rightful heir of the deceased's property, is found murdered in the barn. As Jessica begins to wade through the clues, she soon discovers that the rancher's old army buddies and brother all had their reasons for wanting the man dead, and those reasons included a secret involving the rancher's daughter.