Jessica Fletcher is back in New York City for this episode, meeting with her publisher to discuss the paperback release of her recent bestseller The Uncaught. While there, she is served legal papers notifying her that she is being sued by the owner of a local discount electronics store for using his wife’s murder from five years ago as the inspiration for her bestseller’s plot.
Just the facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was “Daffy” Dave!Click to reveal the killer
It was the victim’s wife/ex-secretary!Click to reveal the weapon
The victim was hit with his father-in-law’s cane!Click to reveal the location
It was after hours inside the discount electronics store!Click to reveal the motive
It was because the victim had figured out who actually killed his wife!Click to reveal the major clue
It was the missing remote control garage door opener, and the fact that the secretary in the book was running her boss’s personal errands!Cast of characters (in order of appearance):
- John Allsopp as Jed Collins, working on the paperback edition of Jessica’s latest bestseller for Hartley Publishing. This is Allsopp’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “The Mole“.
- Bruce Gray as Ted Hartley, Jessica’s publisher. This is Gray’s fourth of five total appearances on MSW and his second appearance as Ted Hartley; he previously appeared in “A Killing in Vegas“.
- Jenny Burgess as the Receptionist at Hartley Publishing who tried (unsuccessfully) to intercept a process server.
- John Petlock as the Man who serves legal papers to Jessica and Ted. This is Petlock’s fifth and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “The Search for Peter Kerry“, “Murder on Madison Avenue“, and “Dead Eye“.
- George Segal as “Daffy” Dave Novaro, owner of a discount electronics store “Daffy Dave’s Videorama” who is suing Jessica Fletcher and claiming she used the death of his wife as inspiration for her latest bestseller.
- Darnell Harrison as Eli the Video Director for Daffy Dave’s commercial.
- Elaine Joyce as Lillian Conway, an employee in charge of finances at Daffy Dave’s store. This is Joyce’s third and final appearance on MSW; she previously appeared in “The Big Show of 1965“.
- Sam Anderson as Neil Fraser, Dave Novaro’s business partner. This is Anderson’s second of four appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Dead to Rights“.
- Spencer Garrett as Aaron Woodman, the lawyer for Hartley Publishing. This is Garrett’s first of two appearances on MSW. Fans of detective shows might recognize him from his recent recurring role on Bosch.
- Morgan Fairchild as Iris Novaro, Dave’s new wife and former secretary.
- John Enos as Randy Konig, a young roofer that Iris Novaro is having an affair with.
- Sandy Ward as Norman Trent, the father of Dave Navaro’s dead wife. This is Ward’s third and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “The Big Kill“.
- Herbert Edelman as Lt. Artie Gelber, who had initially investigating the murder of Novaro’s first wife. This is Edelman’s 8th of 10 total appearances on MSW and his fifth appearance as Artie Gelber.
- Julianna Margulies as Rachel Novaro, Dave Novaro’s daughter and his lawyer.
- Robert Rigamonti as Maitre D’ at the restaurant where Iris Novaro approaches Jessica and Ted Hartley. This is Rigamonti’s third and final appearance on MSW; he previously also played minor roles in “Deadpan” and “The Fixer-Upper“.
- Sylvia Sage Lane as Hilda the Bag Lady who comes to Daffy Dave’s store to ask for money.
- Leonard Lightfoot as Detective Henderson, Lt. Gelber’s partner. This is Lightfoot’s third of five appearances on MSW, each time playing Detective Henderson. He previously appeared in “For Whom the Ball Tolls” and “The Phantom Killer“.
- James Daughton as the Minister leading the victim’s funeral service.
Final thoughts and other trivia:
There are several major things we learn about Jessica’s life and career from this episode.
The first major one is that we learn a bit about her latest book–The Uncaught–which has apparently been on the bestseller list for the past 9 months. Not only do we see the hardcover version of it, we also see a mockup cover for the paperback release. Besides learning about the various similarities between the plot of the book and the real-life murder of Dave Novaro’s wife, we also hear Jessica reading a passage from the novel at one point during the episode:
“Alex smiled. Every base was covered. Kelly, his secretary, would order him in a sandwich before leaving to run a long list of personal errands, giving him more than enough time to slip out the fire exit, drive home, dispose of Rebecca, then slip back into his office to resume the mantle of office workaholic.”
Quote from The Uncaught by J.B. Fletcher
Another major piece of trivia we learn from this episode is Jessica’s complete New York City address. About half-way through the episode, when Dave Novaro calls Jessica and asks to meet her, she tells him that her address is 941 West 60th Street, Apartment 4B. (This of course is fictional and the building numbers on W 60th St don’t go that high.) When looking up the address, I found it interesting that, not long after this episode aired, it was listed among other fictional New York City addresses in a 1994 article from New York Magazine.
Aside from that, this is another episode that brings back some recurring characters. Not only do we see Lt. Artie Gelber and Det. Henderson (as we have already seen in multiple episodes this season), this episode also brings back Jessica’s publisher Ted Hartley from Season 8. Notably, however, although Jessica purportedly gets a phone call from her doorman Richie, the voice is not the same as the voice of the actor who previously appeared as the character in Season 9’s “Threshold of Fear“.
And finally, Jessica spends much of the episode lamenting the fact that she can’t go on vacation to Maui, so I did want to point out that we do eventually see her take a trip to Hawaii in an episode in the subsequent season.
Murder, She Watched 