Helen's Cabot Cove Corner

A page about Jessica Fletcher and her friends,
from a Maine grandmother

Hello, and welcome to my corner of the computer. My name is Helen Mahon. I am 82 years old and I live in Bangor, Maine. I worked as a telephone operator for forty-one years, so I know a thing or two about listening in, and I have watched Murder, She Wrote every Sunday night since it began in the fall of 1984.

My grandson Eric set up this computer for me over Christmas and showed me how to type my page into it. He is back at college now, so if anything on here looks peculiar, that is my doing and not his. I type with two fingers, but I get there.

A few words now that it's over

The very last episode was on Sunday night, May 19. It was called "Death by Demographics," and it was about a radio station changing over its music to suit a younger crowd. I don't believe that was an accident, and I don't believe I was the only one watching who noticed.

Twelve years. Twelve years of Sunday nights, with my supper on a tray and the telephone off the hook. My husband Frank (the same name as Jessica's late husband, which tickled him no end) used to say Jessica Fletcher was the only woman he ever had to share me with. He passed in 1991, and I kept on watching for the both of us. I'm going to miss her the way you miss a friend who has moved away. You know she's out there somewhere, solving things, but she doesn't come by anymore.

About the program

For twelve seasons Angela Lansbury played Jessica Fletcher, a retired English teacher and a widow from the little town of Cabot Cove, Maine, who started writing mystery novels and became famous at it. Her first book was "The Corpse Danced at Midnight." She writes under the name J.B. Fletcher. She doesn't drive. She rides her bicycle, she knows everybody, and wherever she goes, somebody gets murdered, and she figures out who did it before the police do. Every single time.

What I love about Jessica is that she is never in a hurry and she is never rude, and she always notices the one little thing. She is a lady. There aren't many ladies on television anymore.

Who's who in Cabot Cove

Dr. Seth Hazlitt (William Windom). The town doctor and Jessica's dearest friend. Crotchety, stubborn, and tender underneath. He reminds me of my brother-in-law, and I mean that kindly.

Sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley). The sheriff for the first few years. A sweet man and not a very fast thinker, but he always came around, and Jessica never once made him feel foolish.

Sheriff Mort Metzger (Ron Masak). Came up from the New York City police to have a quiet life in a small town, and found out about Cabot Cove. I grew fond of Mort. He and his wife are the kind of people you'd have over for chowder.

Grady Fletcher (Michael Horton). Jessica's nephew, an accountant, who never has any luck. Every aunt in America has a Grady.

My ten favorites

I am not going to tell you who did it in any of these. Find them yourself.

1. "The Murder of Sherlock Holmes" (1984). The very first one, with a costume party. I knew before the first commercial that this was my kind of program.
2. "Hooray for Homicide" (1984). Hollywood wants to turn Jessica's book into a trashy picture. She gives them what for, politely.
3. "Tough Guys Don't Die" (1985). The first time we meet Harry McGraw, the private detective. Rough around the edges, and I liked him right off.
4. "Murder Takes the Bus" (1985). A bus trip to Portland with a murderer aboard. I have ridden that bus, without the murder.
5. "Sing a Song of Murder" (1985). Jessica goes to London, and Angela Lansbury plays her cousin over there too. Two of her for the price of one.
6. "Keep the Home Fries Burning" (1986). Cabot Cove at its coziest, at a new inn, until people start taking sick. Seth is wonderful in it.
7. "Murder in the Electric Cathedral" (1986). A television preacher. That's all I'll say.
8. "Indian Giver" (1987). A man turns up who says part of Cabot Cove rightfully belongs to his people. It gave me something to think about besides the murder.
9. "Who Killed J.B. Fletcher?" (1991). Down in Texas somebody has been going around pretending to be Jessica. As if anyone could.
10. "Murder, Plain & Simple" (1991). Jessica stranded among the Amish people in Pennsylvania. Very peaceful, until it isn't.

Two complaints

Thursday nights. This past fall, CBS moved Murder, She Wrote off of Sunday nights and onto Thursdays, after eleven years. Eleven years! They put it up against a program about some young people in New York who sit around in a coffee shop. I am told it is very popular. Well, it isn't Murder, She Wrote. My whole week was out of sorts, and so were the ladies at church, I can tell you. They did put it back on Sundays for the last few, which was the least they could do.

"Maine." Cabot Cove is supposed to be here in Maine. It is not. Eric looked it up for me, and they filmed the town in a place called Mendocino, California. I knew it all along. I have lived in Maine my whole life, and those are not our trees, and that is not our ocean, and not one person in twelve years of Cabot Cove ever said "ayuh." I forgive them, mostly, because it's a pretty place. But it isn't Maine.