The series focuses on the life of Jessica Fletcher, a mystery writer and amateur detective,[4][5] who becomes involved in solving murders that take place in the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine, across the United States, and abroad.

The program ran for 12 seasons from September 30, 1984, to May 19, 1996, for a total of 264 episodes and included amongst its recurring cast Tom Bosley, William Windom and Ron Masak, as well as a vast array of guest cast members including Mickey Rooney, Michael Horton, Keith Michell, George Segal, Kevin McCarthy, Gene Barry, Martin Milner, Earl Holliman, Pat Morita, Tom Wopat, John Astin, Loretta Swit, John Saxon, Ruth Roman, Kathryn Grayson, Ken Howard, Bradford Dillman, Jean Peters, Neil Patrick Harris, Harvey Fierstein, Bill Maher, Cynthia Nixon, Bryan Cranston, and Julie Adams.

The series was a ratings hit during its broadcast, becoming a staple of CBS Sunday night TV schedule for around a decade, while achieving distinction as one of the most successful and longest-running television shows in history, averaging 25 million viewers per week in its prime.

Series producers Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link developed the lead role for actress Jean Stapleton, who was initially somewhat interested but eventually turned it down, threatening the project.

[11] Scrambling to find another major star, the producers thought Angela Lansbury would be perfect for the part of Jessica Fletcher but did not think that she would be interested in a television series.

Earlier, she had acted in two film adaptations of Agatha Christie's mystery novels: as Salome Otterbourne in Death on the Nile (1978) and as Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack'd (1980).

It also made Lansbury, known previously for her motion picture and Broadway stage work, a household name for millions of television viewers.

The show revolves around the day-to-day life of Jessica Fletcher (née MacGill, which was Lansbury's mother's maiden name), a widowed and retired English teacher, who becomes a successful mystery writer.

Murder occurred with such regularity in her vicinity that the term "Cabot Cove syndrome" was coined to describe the constant appearance of dead bodies in remote locations.

[16] In August 1988, Lansbury expressed weariness of her commitment to the series as she was not sure, at 63, that she could continue at the pace now required of her; she specifically cited the change from seven to eight days to shoot each episode.

Meanwhile, over at NBC, their Thursday night Must See TV lineup had been a ratings powerhouse for years and CBS decided to use Murder, She Wrote in an effort to cut into their viewership.

Almost Perfect found itself relocated to Monday night in the hopes of improving its ratings; its replacement, a retooled Bonnie, lasted five episodes on Sunday before it was cancelled.

Ultimately, Murder, She Wrote finished in 58th place in the final ratings and CBS opted not to renew the series for a thirteenth season.

Both of these episodes pulled in significantly higher ratings than the show had been garnering on Thursday, approaching nearly twenty million viewers for each of the two airings.

In the episode's plot, Jessica comes to Hawaii to investigate an attempt to murder Robin Masters' guests, and then tries to clear Magnum when he's accused of killing the hitman.

Lansbury herself holds the record for the most Emmy nominations for outstanding lead actress in a drama series with twelve, one for each season.

However, at the beginning of its 12th season in 1995, CBS moved the show from its extremely popular Sunday night time slot to Thursday night forcing it to compete with NBC's Must See TV line up, and as a result the ratings plummeted, during Season 11 and 12 CBS lost affiliates during the television realignment, meaning major markets could not find the network.

The show rated as the following: Deadline Hollywood reported in October 2013 that NBC was planning a reboot of the series, starring Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer as a "hospital administrator and amateur sleuth who self-publishes her first mystery novel.

"[47] The next month, Lansbury said that while she was a fan of Spencer, she was not a fan of using the title; she said "I think it's a mistake to call it Murder, She Wrote because Murder, She Wrote will always be about 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."

Dumb Money screenwriters Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo will write the script while Amy Pascal acts as producer.