Although remakes of Ironside, Bionic Woman, Knight Rider and Prime Suspect were all bombs, NBC isn’t giving up trying to breathe new life into existing properties. Next up: Murder, She Wrote.
The peacock network is eyeing rebooting the Angela Lansbury series which ran on CBS for 12 seasons and four follow-up movies. It would be a new take from writer Alexandra Cunningham (Desperate Housewives) and producer David Janollari. Both would executive produce.
Oscar winner Octavia Spencer (The Help) would have the lead role as the amateur detective but Lansbury has been approached about taking part. The 88-year-old actress is still active on Broadway.
NBC has committed to a pilot thus far.
In the new version, Spencer would play a hospital administrator and amateur sleuth who self-publishes her first mystery novel. Her avid fascination with true crime leads her to become an active participant in the investigations she hears about in the news.
What do you think? Would you check out this new version? Would you be more open to watching a new Murder, She Wrote if Lansbury has a role in it?
Here’s a neat trick- call it something else! It’s not the same show so don’t change and then steal the old shows title. This is dead anyway, Spencer is in a series on FOX now.
Hallmark channel already revived the concept in mystery woman how about reviving that instead of messing up what was good series.
I LOVE the idea. Instead of making the lead politically correct, go with what works. Put Angela Landsbury star in the role and Ease in another similar, Mature (but in her 60’s) Actress to take over the sleuth work when the inevitable happens. After all look what happened to Dallas, you need to have a back-up plan. I cant stand when networks bring back classics and over think it. We have all had a favorite Music Group that tried to stage a come back and THOUGHT they needed to create a NEW sound. (Earth Wind & Fire, Hall & Oates,… Read more »
Only interested if Angela is her mentor and she discusses cases with her for advice. Angela, “Have you looked at this? When you talk to this person, don’t let him know you suspect when you hint that… ” Let the new gal have an attitude problem and Angela helps her overcome it. Also, she was really, really observant, etc., and often didn’t want to get involved…, but the new one sounds like she does want to be involved…remember, she still has to write to make a living. Maybe she could be a former student who is making it vs the… Read more »
D.O.A.
Cable TV can come up with so many new and interesting shows, but NBC can only remake Murder She Wrote. Maybe throw us a real curve and make the lead an Asian.
Try coming up with something new instead of using old series. They could have this same show, different title, change it up some. They use the same title with changes any way. Give it a better chance to survive
NBC rebooting a series that didn’t even originally air on the network, yet is produced by a sibling studio (Universal TV). A consequence of the pre-1948 “Paramount Case” situation (in which a film produced/distributed by a studio has to be shown only on theaters owned by said studio). It’s the era of produced-in-house scripted network TV shows these days. Personally, I hope this doesn’t get ordered to series. If it does, that’s an automatic cancellation after a few episodes due to low ratings and bad reviews. Not every reboot of an old TV series has to be a “Hawaii Five-Zero”.… Read more »
I love the idea. Forget the negative responses, this would be a wonderful opportunity to revisit a delightful show that the entire family can watch, give Ms. Spencer a nice way of bringing her talents to a large viewing community and allowing the wonderful Ms. Lansbury back into our lives. I say go for it!
It’s about time. The show should never have gone off the air. My uncle and other geriatrics loved this show. I even found it pretty good. Right now there is too much garbage on t v. This should bring some values back. At least, I hope so.
It was a good show but all things come to an end, personally preferred the cabit cove episodes but how many more murders can happen in a small town before you run down the population to 1 lol. I agrees there is way to much garbage on currently but sadly the new murder she wrote would not be anything like the original and will end up on the heap as well.
sounds dreadful. How about something original instead of reviving “dead” tv shows? I am surprised Octavia Spencer agreed to do this. I guess they gave her a paycheck she couldn’t say NO to.