Jessica narrates the tale of a police detective sent to teach a university criminology class and challenges his students to solve a real homicide.Jessica narrates the tale of a police detective sent to teach a university criminology class and challenges his students to solve a real homicide.Jessica narrates the tale of a police detective sent to teach a university criminology class and challenges his students to solve a real homicide.
Photos
- Joanne Summerfield
- (as Elinor O'Connell)
- Leo Gunderson
- (as William Brochtrup)
- Girl
- (as Holly Clark)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis is one of several episodes where Jessica Fletcher only appears briefly as the narrator of a frame story. In this case, the episode centers on the investigation by one of her many friends and acquaintances, Lt. Jake Ballinger. These episodes that featured Fletcher only as a narrator were primarily used as a device to give an overworked Angela Lansbury a bit of a break.
- GoofsIn a ridiculous scene, Lt. Ballinger discharges a firearm in a crowded lecture hall just to get the attention of talkative students. Even assuming that the gun was loaded with blanks (that is not clear from the scene), such an action would have been unthinkable in a 1980s university. If an instructor fired a gun in a classroom, again even loaded with blanks, they would have been summarily fired and would likely have faced serious criminal charges. It seems likely that an experienced police lieutenant would know of the potential repercussions of discharging a firearm in a classroom and would have avoided doing so for such a frivolous reason.
- Quotes
[first lines]
Jessica Fletcher: [on phone] Jake, I'm sorry, but you're wrong.
[pause]
Jessica Fletcher: No! That is absolutely untrue. You have not been put out to graze.
[pause]
Jessica Fletcher: Yes. Yes, I'm sure you do.
[pause]
Jessica Fletcher: Now, look, I may be flying out there in a month, and I promise I will call you the minute that I land.
[pause]
Jessica Fletcher: Wonderful. Well, love to Janie. Bye.
- SoundtracksMurder She Wrote Theme
Written by John Addison
As far as the bookend episodes go, there are certainly worse than "Class Act" before and after. It is a long way from being one of the best 'Murder She Wrote' episodes and one of the lesser episodes of the sixth season. Some of the bookend episodes suffer from Jessica's absence and having a lead character not as compelling. Luckily, what makes "Class Act" better than those episodes is that it does have a compelling lead, aided by a terrific performance from Barry Newman.
Newman is aided very well by Grant Heslov and particularly Lise Hilboldt, the chemistry he has with the latter is one of the biggest charms and high-points of the episode. Some of the story intrigues with some clever parts to the mystery and entertaining classroom scenes.
Production values as ever are slick and stylish. The music has energy and has presence but also not making the mistake of over-scoring, while it is hard to forget or resist the theme tune. The writing is thought-provoking, light-hearted and amiable particularly between Newman and Hilboldt.
However, "Class Act" does have pacing issues. It does drag badly. Extraneous padding, some of it pointless, doesn't help, nor does that not all the characters serve much of a purpose at all. The story does intrigue at times but doesn't feel like a standalone episode of 'Murder She Wrote', more a pilot to a show that never materialised.
Those of Hallie Todd (wasted) and Heather McAdam (could have been left out entirely and one wouldn't miss a thing) are especially pointless and the two actresses struggle to bring anything to them.
In conclusion, decent but not quite classy enough. 6/10 Bethany Cox
- TheLittleSongbird
- Sep 30, 2017