Novel Connection (7.9)

[Doc Ibold]

There is no way in heck I'd have Angela Lansbury work with me!

I'd LOVE to be off work by 6 each night!

[Doc Ibold]

There is no way in heck I'd have Angela Lansbury work with me!

I'd LOVE to be off work by 6 each night!

Actually, maybe thats why TS seemed so irritated throughout the episode!

I've always noticed that his performance seemed a little "off". If this were a spin off of "Murder She Wrote", I don't think I would have watched Magnum...

[Rutledal]

I've never seen the syndicated version of this episode. For those that have seen it, how does the story end? Surely it can't be with Magnum's arrest.

I just saw this episode today and the syndicated version ends with Magnum shooting and killing Paul Mayfield. Before the typical Magnum "after-action" scene, which is a conversation between Magnum and Higgins about how the land that TM, TC and Rick invested in is basically worthless, but Magnum will still pay his part since he feels an obligation towards Rick and TC. Higgins on the other hand starts talking about taking a trip to Maine because the beatiful orchids there before he leaves the guesthouse. The End.

Also I noticed a flub: When Magnum chases Mayfield trough Jason Bryan's party what looks like water spots appear, and disappear on Magnum's shirt. You can barley see them on the one of rubber chickens pictures marked "5".

[golfmobile]

because the beatiful orchids there before he leaves the guesthouse.

I'm sorry, I'm confused by that phrase. Before WHO leaves the guesthouse?

golf

[Rutledal]

Higgins on the other hand starts talking about taking a trip to Maine because of the beautiful orchids there. He then leaves the guesthouse.

I see the problem and I have tried to correct the horrible language. The answer to your question is: it's Higgins that leaves the guesthouse.

[golfmobile]

Okay, thanks. I understand now. I didn't realize that the scene was shot with Higgins AT the guesthouse visiting Magnum (interior shot). For some reason, I was picturing them sitting outside at the table in the low-wall-enclosed area of the yard in front of the house in this last scene of the episode.

Thanks for the clarification.

golf

[Jaybird]

I've always thought that this episode would be a good way to spend an evening with friends who might not know anything about MPI or not be rabid fans... a good intro or nostalgic visit to 80's TV.
It is a thoroughly enjoyable two part episode and it had me guessing 'whodunit" right 'till the very end.

[Jay-Firestorm]

An extra review from me this week, as I wanted to cover both parts of this story. Which, by the way, I find incredibly dull, and possibly the weakest of the seventh season

[rating=5.5]

After Higgins is run off the road when driving some of Robin Masters guests to the Estate, Thomas finds himself investigating whether he likes it or not. But one of the guests insists on bringing in her own mainland investigator. A dull crossover ep…

-----

After a great run of seventh season episodes (enjoyable ‘A.A.P.I.’, and classics ‘Death and Taxes’, ‘Little Girl Who’ and ‘Paper War’), things inevitably come crashing down with this terrible crossover story with ‘Murder She Wrote’.

This is the second of two MPI crossover episodes, the first being the third season’s ‘Ki’I’s Don’t Lie’, which was a crossover with ‘Simon and Simon’. Although not perfect, ‘Ki’I’s…’ was an enjoyable tale that didn’t take itself too seriously. ‘Novel Connection’, on the other hand, feels very forced and pointless, and ends up as one of my least favourite episodes.

It doesn’t help that I am not a ‘Murder She Wrote’ fan in the first place – I find Jessica Fletcher irritating, and making matters worse, in the early-mid 1990s, my local ITV region ran the episodes over and over and OVER again, when most of the surrounding regions had stuff I loved, such as ‘The A-Team’ and ‘Knight Rider’, which made me dislike MSW even more!

There is little to really note in ‘Novel Connection’. I find the guest characters uninteresting (I couldn’t care less about them), and the story plods along with little real interest. When they only moment I remotely liked is when Higgins, annoyed that Magnum has been invited to join the guests at dinner, makes him sit on a little table all of his own, is the only moment that made me giggle, signs are it’s a pretty bad episode.

Jessica Fletcher herself does not appear to halfway through the story, and when she does, it feels like two different shows awkwardly welded together, and does not work at all.
I’ve also heard that Angela Lansbury when filming MSW had some ‘eccentric’ working methods, such as walking off of set on the dot of 6 p.m. no matter how far filming had progressed; and filming this crossover episode, was even more set on doing this, making completion of the episode awkward.

As with aforementioned ‘Ki’I’s Don’t Lie’, there are two versions of this episode – one that rounds the story off in a single episode, and the originally broadcast version which leads on to part II in ‘Murder She Wrote’. The DVD version features the original two-part crossover, but I also have a recording from (Channel) Five in 2003 which is the single part syndicated version.
The single part version shows Magnum to be defending himself against gunman Mayfield, thus he is not arrested and does not lead to a second part. Instead, there is a final scene where Magnum mentions to Higgins that he, with Rick and T.C., plan to make back the money they spent on the land hoax (a thin sub-plot from the episode that never fells fully developed), before settling down to read Jessica Fletcher’s latest novel.

In case you haven’t realised yet (!), I really don’t care for this episode very much at all. I find it dull and tedious, and a very awkward crossover. I must be a sucker for punishment, but being a completist, I still have to sit through the MSW second half, ‘Magnum on Ice’, to finish off the story. Oh dear!...

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Another case of act breaks abridged on the DVD version. They do it to annoy me.

* The original broadcast version has the edit of the closing them usually reserved for feature-length / two-part stories (though I suppose this is a two-parter in a way).

* On the single part syndicated version (see review), the closing credits use the shorter version of the closing theme, just using the stills (the bit where the picture freezes) from the original, longer closing.

* I find it very disappointing that after six seasons featuring many classic episodes, it is not until this point that the DVDs contain a feature about this episode. After so many greats, it is very annoying that they chose this total dud to focus on.

* I’m not sure what version of this ep (if any) was shown when ITV broadcast MPI. They also had the rights to MSW, but I don’t think they packaged these two episodes together. The BBC now hold the rights to MSW (it’s currently going through it’s umpteenth millionth run through) and last year broadcast ‘Magnum on Ice’ as part of their run. The announcer commented that it was a confusing story – not surprising without them showing part one of the story!

[Doc Ibold]

An extra review from me this week, as I wanted to cover both parts of this story. Which, by the way, I find incredibly dull, and possibly the weakest of the seventh season

[rating=5.5]

After Higgins is run off the road when driving some of Robin Masters guests to the Estate, Thomas finds himself investigating whether he likes it or not. But one of the guests insists on bringing in her own mainland investigator. A dull crossover ep…

-----

After a great run of seventh season episodes (enjoyable ‘A.A.P.I.’, and classics ‘Death and Taxes’, ‘Little Girl Who’ and ‘Paper War’), things inevitably come crashing down with this terrible crossover story with ‘Murder She Wrote’.

This is the second of two MPI crossover episodes, the first being the third season’s ‘Ki’I’s Don’t Lie’, which was a crossover with ‘Simon and Simon’. Although not perfect, ‘Ki’I’s…’ was an enjoyable tale that didn’t take itself too seriously. ‘Novel Connection’, on the other hand, feels very forced and pointless, and ends up as one of my least favourite episodes.

It doesn’t help that I am not a ‘Murder She Wrote’ fan in the first place – I find Jessica Fletcher irritating, and making matters worse, in the early-mid 1990s, my local ITV region ran the episodes over and over and OVER again, when most of the surrounding regions had stuff I loved, such as ‘The A-Team’ and ‘Knight Rider’, which made me dislike MSW even more!

There is little to really note in ‘Novel Connection’. I find the guest characters uninteresting (I couldn’t care less about them), and the story plods along with little real interest. When they only moment I remotely liked is when Higgins, annoyed that Magnum has been invited to join the guests at dinner, makes him sit on a little table all of his own, is the only moment that made me giggle, signs are it’s a pretty bad episode.

Jessica Fletcher herself does not appear to halfway through the story, and when she does, it feels like two different shows awkwardly welded together, and does not work at all.
I’ve also heard that Angela Lansbury when filming MSW had some ‘eccentric’ working methods, such as walking off of set on the dot of 6 p.m. no matter how far filming had progressed; and filming this crossover episode, was even more set on doing this, making completion of the episode awkward.

As with aforementioned ‘Ki’I’s Don’t Lie’, there are two versions of this episode – one that rounds the story off in a single episode, and the originally broadcast version which leads on to part II in ‘Murder She Wrote’. The DVD version features the original two-part crossover, but I also have a recording from (Channel) Five in 2003 which is the single part syndicated version.
The single part version shows Magnum to be defending himself against gunman Mayfield, thus he is not arrested and does not lead to a second part. Instead, there is a final scene where Magnum mentions to Higgins that he, with Rick and T.C., plan to make back the money they spent on the land hoax (a thin sub-plot from the episode that never fells fully developed), before settling down to read Jessica Fletcher’s latest novel.

In case you haven’t realised yet (!), I really don’t care for this episode very much at all. I find it dull and tedious, and a very awkward crossover. I must be a sucker for punishment, but being a completist, I still have to sit through the MSW second half, ‘Magnum on Ice’, to finish off the story. Oh dear!...

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Another case of act breaks abridged on the DVD version. They do it to annoy me.

* The original broadcast version has the edit of the closing them usually reserved for feature-length / two-part stories (though I suppose this is a two-parter in a way).

* On the single part syndicated version (see review), the closing credits use the shorter version of the closing theme, just using the stills (the bit where the picture freezes) from the original, longer closing.

* I find it very disappointing that after six seasons featuring many classic episodes, it is not until this point that the DVDs contain a feature about this episode. After so many greats, it is very annoying that they chose this total dud to focus on.

* I’m not sure what version of this ep (if any) was shown when ITV broadcast MPI. They also had the rights to MSW, but I don’t think they packaged these two episodes together. The BBC now hold the rights to MSW (it’s currently going through it’s umpteenth millionth run through) and last year broadcast ‘Magnum on Ice’ as part of their run. The announcer commented that it was a confusing story – not surprising without them showing part one of the story!

Totally Agree, although "Magnum on Ice" DID present the only time when the "Karate Chop of Doom" actually worked.

[Jay-Firestorm]

Totally Agree, although "Magnum on Ice" DID present the only time when the "Karate Chop of Doom" actually worked.

I finally know where your avatar comes from - I was wondering why I didn't recognise it!

[Italian Ice]

Good review Jay. Yes, this episode, and even Magnum on Ice, didn't do it for me. They were both pretty boring.

Plus, the whole 'parallel universe' where the karate chop works, well that was kind of amusing........

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

I can't hear the words Murder She Wrote without thinking of The 40 Year Old Virgin. It cracks me up everytime!

[J.J. Walters]

LOL IKWYT!

[Carol the Dabbler]

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolul ... -On-Oaahu/

In the first house listed and described, the writer says the architect was "given free reign . . . . "

AAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

What is HAPPENING to our language???? I would expect that maybe in a high school senior's essay, not in a published magazine!

I've seen the same phrase used in Harvard magazine (yes, that Harvard). I think this sort of thing is becoming common for two reasons:

1. Most people nowadays were born long after the horse-and-buggy era, so have never had occasion to give a horse free rein (i.e., let it go where it wants). They likewise have never had a hard row [of beans, e.g.] to hoe the weeds out of, so somehow they've come up with "a hard road to hoe" (now that would be hard!).

2. Even professional publishers apparently believe that spellcheck takes the place of a proofreader. But spellcheck doesn't care if you use the wrong word -- just as long as you spell it correctly.

As you say, AAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

[nlgbbbblth]

Hi, I have a query regarding this episode.

So the broadcast version is on the region 1 DVD set.

Does anyone know if the version on the region 2 set is the broadcast or syndicated one?

Thanks