Murder, She Wrote: If It's Thursday, It Must Be Beverly Rewatch
May 23, 2015 8:55 AM - Season 4, Episode 7 - Subscribe
Jessica is back in Cabot Cove, where life is going on as normal with the chatty mailman delivering letters and New Hampshire lottery tickets (Maine doesn't have as many lottery hounds, it seems, so the payouts are much lower), and Seth Hazlitt chatting about his patients with JB. Well, everything's normal until the Night Deputy, Jonathan Martin, is a widow by apparent suicide, and what was scandalous hair salon gossip becomes grounds to suspect folks as murderers.
This is the first of ten appearances on Murder, She Wrote for Julie Adams as Eve Simpson, and a few of the other ladies will return in a couple of future episodes: Gloria DeHaven as Phyllis Grant, Kathryn Grayson as Ideal Molloy, Ruth Roman as Loretta Spiegel (or Speigel), and Sally Klein as Corinne (or Coreen). Ray Girardin, seen in this episode as the jolly mailman George Tibbits, has undergone something of a personality change, as he was previously Lieutenant Casey (S02E17 and S03E16).
This is the first of ten appearances on Murder, She Wrote for Julie Adams as Eve Simpson, and a few of the other ladies will return in a couple of future episodes: Gloria DeHaven as Phyllis Grant, Kathryn Grayson as Ideal Molloy, Ruth Roman as Loretta Spiegel (or Speigel), and Sally Klein as Corinne (or Coreen). Ray Girardin, seen in this episode as the jolly mailman George Tibbits, has undergone something of a personality change, as he was previously Lieutenant Casey (S02E17 and S03E16).
There are some great lines, and some great acting. I particularly liked the two times Amos got really uncomfortable with talk of sex. First there were the oh-so-subtle inuendoes:
Jessica: Eve, according to the Sheriff's logbook, Deputy Martin stopped in to help you with your cat on a fairly regular basis.
Eve: Oh, she's a very bad cat. And the deputy seems to have a way with her.
And then the honest truth:
Beverly: It was good clean sex once a week.
Seth: Uh, I'm gonna step over there and have some coffee. Cream and sugar, Amos?
That said, I was sad that all the ladies had the notions that Deputy Jonathan was going to leave his wife for them, and they weren't simply people who were fulfilling their sexual desires in a (mostly) open way. I was also sad for Audrey, Jonathan's wife, who hated the small-town lack of culture in Cabot Cove. Everyone knew she was miserable, and most were OK with the notion that she killed herself. Amos asked someone in the salon, "Did she seem particularly depressed?" The answer? "No worse than usual."
posted by filthy light thief at 11:58 AM on May 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
Jessica: Eve, according to the Sheriff's logbook, Deputy Martin stopped in to help you with your cat on a fairly regular basis.
Eve: Oh, she's a very bad cat. And the deputy seems to have a way with her.
And then the honest truth:
Beverly: It was good clean sex once a week.
Seth: Uh, I'm gonna step over there and have some coffee. Cream and sugar, Amos?
That said, I was sad that all the ladies had the notions that Deputy Jonathan was going to leave his wife for them, and they weren't simply people who were fulfilling their sexual desires in a (mostly) open way. I was also sad for Audrey, Jonathan's wife, who hated the small-town lack of culture in Cabot Cove. Everyone knew she was miserable, and most were OK with the notion that she killed herself. Amos asked someone in the salon, "Did she seem particularly depressed?" The answer? "No worse than usual."
posted by filthy light thief at 11:58 AM on May 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
I also feel sad for Audrey who was oblivious to Cabot Cove's insane murder rate and kept the door open.
I agree: I wish the salon ladies just decided to have no-strings fun instead of holding a torch for the yutz.
And the salon: so, so pink!
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 12:14 PM on May 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
I agree: I wish the salon ladies just decided to have no-strings fun instead of holding a torch for the yutz.
And the salon: so, so pink!
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 12:14 PM on May 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh, that was hysterical! In keeping with how bizarre the whole scenario was, I wish Audrey had died from some freakish accident instead of there being an actual murder, which turned the story so very dark in the end (even the cute escargot joke couldn't quite set it right).
Beverly was a hoot. She should have had her own spinoff series where she crisscrosses the country looking for fun: honky tonks, speakeasies, and foxy boxing!
posted by mochapickle at 10:33 PM on May 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
Beverly was a hoot. She should have had her own spinoff series where she crisscrosses the country looking for fun: honky tonks, speakeasies, and foxy boxing!
posted by mochapickle at 10:33 PM on May 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
Whoa, for a 30-year-old show aimed at the AARP-eligible set, that was a hell of a lot more progressive than I expected. I was glad there wasn't a Maude Flanders type decrying all this sinful activity. That was rather sex-positive!
posted by Monochrome at 11:14 AM on January 19, 2019
posted by Monochrome at 11:14 AM on January 19, 2019
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posted by dorothyisunderwood at 9:51 AM on May 23, 2015 [2 favorites]