Trivia:
Angela Lansbury was the fourth choice to play Jessica Fletcher. Jean
Stapleton was offered the part but turned it down, as did Doris Day.
Jessica's maiden name was McGill, taken from Angela
Lansbury's real-life mother, Moyna McGill.
Angela Lansbury also played Jessica's look-alike cousin Emma, who was a
performer on the London stage.
On several episodes, Angela Lansbury, as Jessica, would just appear briefly at the beginning
to introduce that week's episode and many of those episodes would feature Keith Michell as Jessica's friend Dennis Stanton.
Jessica Fletcher lived at 698 Candelwood, Cabot Cove, Maine.
Jessica's late husband Frank was a bomber pilot in Korea.
Before she met and married her late husband, Frank, Jessica was studying to become
a journalist.
The name of Jessica's first novel was 'The Corpse Danced at Midnight'.
The show's title is a reference to the Miss Marple mystery 'Murder, She Said' (1961),
which was based on a novel by Agatha Christie.
The episodes 'Jack and Bill' and 'Whatever Happened to Mary Margaret' are apparently
pilot episodes for other shows that were broadcast as Murder, She Wrote episodes in an attempt to create a spin-off. The only
successful spin-off of the series was 'The Law and Harry McGraw' (1987).
Jessica never drove a car. She always rode
her bicycle or took a cab.
The harbor of Jessica's home town, Cabot Cove, is actually the Jaw's lake on the
Universal Studios tram tour.
The German version of Murder, She Wrote is called 'Mord ist ihr hobby'.
