Murder, She Wrote - Magnum on Ice

Rate, review & discuss the Simon & Simon and Murder, She Wrote crossover episodes

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
2%
9.5 (One of the Best)
3
7%
9.0 (Excellent)
3
7%
8.5 (Very Good)
7
16%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
9
20%
7.5 (Decent)
2
5%
7.0 (Average at Best)
4
9%
6.5 (Not So Good)
6
14%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
4
9%
5.0 (Just Awful)
5
11%
 
Total votes: 44

Message
Author
User avatar
Jean-Claude Fornier
Rear Admiral
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2007 8:43 pm
Location: Paris, France

#11 Post by Jean-Claude Fornier »

ps: are there more episodes where Magnum visits Jessica?
It would have been funny to watch Magnum driving his Ferrari at Angela's small fishing village "Cabot Cove" ! :wink:

User avatar
J.J. Walters
Founding Father
Posts: 4196
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:54 pm
Location: Suburbia, USA
Contact:

#12 Post by J.J. Walters »

Magnum's too smart to go anywhere near Cabots Cove. That place has the highest per capita murder rate in the history of mankind! Death seems to follow Jessica wherever she goes. Coincidence? :)
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

User avatar
lutherhgillis
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 528
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:54 pm

#13 Post by lutherhgillis »

I did not love the MSW version of MPI. The novelist/crime solver persona of MSW was never believable in the least to me. I do agree that Angela Landsbury was a great acress however.

I found the script very cheesy and the lady characters were somewhat irritating and grating. I compare them to Cassie Yates, almost.

One thing stood out to me , however. The footage of the show was much clearer and more "professional" than the way the Magnum shows were filmed. The MPI shows had more of a rough-cut look to them. I think MSW must have been a high-budget show as compared to MPI.

For the life of me, I do not see why MSW was on the air for as long as it was. Even with Magnum and Higgins in this episode, it was still a snoozer.

They should have used Luther to help out ...

User avatar
wilko
Captain
Posts: 58
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:24 pm
Location: Trinidad

#14 Post by wilko »

What would have been really fun to watch is an episode with Jessica Fletcher and Luther Gillis teaming up :!:

User avatar
IslandHopper
Master Flub Spotter
Posts: 729
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:08 am

#15 Post by IslandHopper »

For those of you who don't have Season 7 on DVD, the Hallmark channel is showing "Magnum On Ice" tonight (1/13/2008) at 7:00 p.m., E.S.T.
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

User avatar
Steve
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 1852
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:13 pm
Location: Chicago, Illinois

#16 Post by Steve »

I caught this on The Hallmark Channel last night, it's only the second time I have seen it as I was never a Murder She Wrote fan.
I do seem to recall back in the eighties when this was being filmed, there were some reports in the media that Tom Selleck and John Hillerman were frustrated working with the ladies in this episode as they would take forever getting their makeup applied and wardrobe together so they would look just right. If I remember correctly, there was a bit of tension on the set as TM & JH were used to a faster pace in filming scenes. Now, take this with a grain of salt as I don't even remember where I read it but the memory has always stuck with me. I also like the prominent use of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in this Ep. as well.........

Steve
Chicago

User avatar
MPS
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 359
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:47 pm
Location: Southern California

#17 Post by MPS »

I see I’m not the only one to become reacquainted with MPI due to this crossover episode! Glad to have found this site.

AJL
Commander
Posts: 36
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 5:29 pm
Location: Denmark

#18 Post by AJL »

WOW, people have very different opinions on this one! I personally voted it "not so good".
One beef I really have with this episode: Whatever happened to the TC/Rick sidestory about the property??
Also, how did the syndicated version of MPI wrap this up??? Could anybody please explain?? :D
Was vaccinated with a phonograph needle one summer break
Same summer that I kissed her on her daddy's boat
And shot across the lake
Singing all the way...
Oh I say mama
Living Ain't a luxury
Oh I say mama
And a lil' ain't enough for me

User avatar
Zudobug
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:20 pm
Location: England

#19 Post by Zudobug »

I'm not a fan of MSW and this crossover episode doesn't do anything for me as a result. As far as I can make out this episode doesn't take place after Novel Connection but rather halfway through the episode or near the end of it (it's been about a year since I saw it). Novel Connection was an okay episode but Magnum on Ice wasn't. The only other episodes that I don't have a fondness for are the ones written by Jay Huguely. He tended to throw in a bit of humour that I couldn't get to grips with in his episodes.

User avatar
lutherhgillis
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 528
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:54 pm

#20 Post by lutherhgillis »

Not a good episode. Why oh why did MPI take on water by doing this shipwreck? MPI needed no help in the ratings and MSW was alread established. Maybe the writers had a 'how can we piss off the loyal viewers' meeting and decided to crossover with Jessica Fletcher and her band of pre-menstrual-to-post-menapausal posse.

If they were going to cross over, why the heck didn't they do an MPI/Rockford Files movie cross? At least this would have been interesting. Jim could have said upon meeting TM, "Hey, you look familiar to me but I cannot place you." (reference the Lance White character)

Heck, a crossover with KnightRider would have been better than MSW... Maybe Hasslehoff and Selleck could have sung Karaoke in a bar...
Who's Dot Matrix, and what has she got to do with this?

User avatar
Doc Ibold
Maniac Emeritus
Posts: 1741
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:16 pm
Location: Detroit

#21 Post by Doc Ibold »

lutherhgillis wrote:Not a good episode. Why oh why did MPI take on water by doing this shipwreck? MPI needed no help in the ratings and MSW was alread established. Maybe the writers had a 'how can we piss off the loyal viewers' meeting and decided to crossover with Jessica Fletcher and her band of pre-menstrual-to-post-menapausal posse.

If they were going to cross over, why the heck didn't they do an MPI/Rockford Files movie cross? At least this would have been interesting. Jim could have said upon meeting TM, "Hey, you look familiar to me but I cannot place you." (reference the Lance White character)

Heck, a crossover with KnightRider would have been better than MSW... Maybe Hasslehoff and Selleck could have sung Karaoke in a bar...
Could you imagine a Higgins and KITT exchange? That would be priceless!

MrMoustache
Commander
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:10 pm

#22 Post by MrMoustache »

ha!

although after watching the tragically short Buck rogers series, I got 4 episodes into Knight Rider and could stomach anymore melodrama. But it rekindled my love affair with MPI though!

I never understood MSW.. an entire series full of agatha christie style parlor murder whodunnits.. it was fun for a while, but it's so one dimensional. Rosemary & Thyme is an excellent substitute. it's an english series available on netflix. it's worth a view as the characters are strong enough to carry the series and there's usually enough touching or interesting moments balance out the "somebody died again" monotony.

I always used to ask my mom too about MSW: why did people keep inviting her to all those parties?

User avatar
Jay-Firestorm
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 387
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:01 am
Location: Berkshire, United Kingdom
Contact:

#23 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

I found this hard to sit though. I shouldn’t be such a completist!

[rating=5.5]

Thomas Magnum has been arrested for supposedly killing a hitman in cold blood. Jessica looks into the case and tries to identify who really shot the hitman, and find who the true target is. A confusing and bland conclusion to this crossover story…

-----

I am hardly a fan of ‘Murder, She Wrote’, and sat through this episode after watching the first part, ‘Magnum, p.i.’s ‘Novel Connection’, feeling obliged to watch this conclusion just to be completist! I’m a glutton for punishment.

As I said in my review for ‘Novel Connection’, I find Jessica Fletcher irritating. Also making me dislike the show further is the fact that, here in the UK, my local ITV region ran the episodes over and OVER again when most of the surrounding regions had stuff I love, such as ‘The A-Team’ and ‘Knight Rider’.

Anyway… I found it hard to keep up with all of the twists of this story – although, I confess, maybe I just didn’t really care enough.
In fairness, the mystery element works better than in ‘Novel Connection’, but the whole overall story just comes across as uninteresting, and if they insisted on doing such a crossover, I just can’t help but feel that the whole thing could have been done so much better.

Although not one of my favourites, I supposed MSW can occasionally dish up a reasonable mystery (I seem to recall that a 1992 episode, ‘Murder on Madison Avenue’, featuring John ‘Higgins’ Hillerman as board games manufacturer, wasn’t too bad), but this is hardly an example of both MPI and MSW at their finest hour. They shouldn’t have bothered.
To quote myself on my review for ‘Novel Connection’, “it feels like two different shows awkwardly welded together, and does not work at all”.

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* I didn’t care enough to stop much more with this episode! :lol:

Oh, and mrmuscle, how can you not stomach 'Knight Rider' - it's one of my favourites (hey, I have a lot of favourites!!) :lol:
JAY FIRESTORM

Facebook: Jay Gathergood / Twitter: Jay_Firestorm NEW BLOG: http://thea-teamcaptured.blogspot.com/

My A-Team site - http://thea-team.org aiming to be the most detailed A-Team site on the Net - if I ever get around to updating it!!

MACattack
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 553
Joined: Sat Nov 15, 2008 11:52 pm
Location: Santa Barbara, CA

#24 Post by MACattack »

This was the only Murder She Wrote episode I enjoyed. But as a MPI episode, it's lacking something......
I just don't give a damn!

MACattack
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 553
Joined: Sat Nov 15, 2008 11:52 pm
Location: Santa Barbara, CA

#25 Post by MACattack »

very silly episode.
I just don't give a damn!

Post Reply