UPDATE: Original Murder, She Wrote star Angela Lansbury told the BBC that she’s “terribly pleased and relieved”; by news that NBC wasn’t proceeding with its remake. “I knew it was a terrible mistake. I didn’t want to sully the memory,”; she said. “Octavia Spencer is a superb actress. She had no business being put into a situation that she couldn’t win.”;
After receiving a lot of buzz when it was first announced in October, NBC’s planned reboot of Murder, She Wrote now appears to be dead — at least for the time being.
The new version of the long-running mystery hit would have starred The Help“s Octavia Spencer as a hospital administrator and self-published mystery novelist who spends her spare time as an amateur sleuth.
Angela Lansbury, star of the original, made headlines when she called plans to revive the series “a mistake”; since this new show would be nothing like the old Murder, She Wrote. “I think it’s a mistake to call it Murder, She Wrote,”; said Lansbury, “because Murder, She Wrote will always be about a Cabot Cove and this wonderful little group of people who told those lovely stories and enjoyed a piece of that place, and also enjoyed Jessica Fletcher, who is a rare and very individual kind of person.”;
According to Deadline, NBC execs decided not to proceed with the pilot, but haven’t thrown in the towel altogether, and the network is said to be thinking of ways to approach Murder, She Wrote “in a different way, possibly with a new concept.”;
Reboots of classic TV series are nothing new, but the few successes (90210, Hawaii Five-0) are outnumbered by the numerous failures (Knight Rider, Melrose Place, Charlie’s Angels, etc.).
NBC’s axing of Murder, She Wrote, notes Deadline, has a silver lining by freeing up in-demand Spencer to take on another TV project for next season.
