Have You Seen This Woman?

My mom recently confided in my girlfriend that she was concerned for me as a child because, she thought, I had a crush on Angela Landsbury. First of all, Mom, I did not have a crush on Angela Landsbury and even if I did, so what? Her character on the show, Jessica Fletcher, is probably one of, if not, the most underrated private eye in the modern cannon. Here's a still of J.F. in action to prove it:







Come on, you can't tell me that's not awesome: A murder mystery serial about a murder mystery serial writer who solves actual murder mysteries. Thank you! A meta-narrative of the first order without any critical theory to totally ruin your day.

I used to watch Murder She Wrote every Sunday night immediately following 60 Minutes in what was in hindsight one of the great back-to-back television programming coups in history. First, you've got the classic 60 Minutes team of Morley Safer, Ed Bradley (who, incidentally, did a great piece on Michael Jordan which I recommend to everyone, that you can see here:



And here:



...a great reminder to anyone who might have forgotten how intelligent and special Jordan was or if you were actually in danger of believing Kobe Bryant is in the same class as him, but I digress).

Back to the 60 Minutes line-up: Mike Wallace (Chris Wallace's more level-headed father. On a side-side-note: How often does this happen when you have a father-son duo where the father is far cooler and more down to earth than his son? What has to happen for a son to become more stodgy and hard to be around than his dad? I wonder...). And of course the legendary (and still working) Andy Rooney. My theory why 60 Minutes is/was so successful (beside the fact that the show is staffed with intelligent people who perpetually find really compelling stories that the show's producers aren't compelled to turn into sensationalized fluff) is the really minimal, program design. It's brilliant. That black background with the large ticking clock (the best television theme song, hands down). Decade after decade it's relevant. It's never tacky or outdated. It's like a Beckett play. It's Time.

So after your dose of top-notch television journalism, you take a quick bathroom break (or in my case a five minute phone call from my grandparents) and then it's straight into Murder She Wrote and then bed time. Boom-boom-and-boom. Thank you very much.