Murder, She Wrote: Season 5

1988 · 22 episodes · ★ 6.8

What Season 5 of Murder, She Wrote

Jessica Fletcher is a retired English teacher who, after being widowed in the early fifties, decides to devote herself to writing mystery novels. She lives in Cabot Cove, a small Maine town where most of the stories take place. Soon she finds herself caught up in solving murders that happen in the town, elsewhere in the United States, and even abroad. Angela Lansbury stars as Jessica in every episode. She combines investigation with her work as a writer, and each case pulls her between home and the cities where she is needed.

22episodes

Oct 23, 1988aired

May 21, 1989latest episode

16.5 hrtotal runtime

Season 5 Episodes

5x01 J.B. as in Jailbird
Oct 23, 1988 · 45 min
When Jessica is arrested for murder, secret agent Michael Haggerty and her nephew Grady conspire to keep her safely in jail while they seek the real killer.
Directing: Anthony Pullen Shaw · Writer: Robert E. Swanson · Starring: Maxwell Caulfield, Michael Horton, Len Cariou, Leslie Easterbrook
5x02 A Little Night Work
Oct 30, 1988 · 45 min
A senatorial hopeful is murdered and his wife's necklace stolen.
Directed by: Walter Grauman · Writer: Peter S. Fischer · Starring: John Dye, Jamie Farr, William Cort, Leann Hunley
5x03 Mr. Penroy's Vacation
Nov 6, 1988 · 45 min
The sisters used a new type of fertilizer to make their chrysanthemums best of show.
Directed by: Anthony Pullen Shaw · Writer: Robert E. Swanson · Starring: Joan Leslie, Tim Choate, Ron Masak, Richard Paul
5x04 Snow White, Blood Red
Nov 13, 1988 · 45 min
A blizzard interrupts a skiing vacation and traps everyone, including a killer.
Directed by: Vincent McEveety · Writer: Chris Manheim · Starring: Tony O'Dell, Bo Svenson, Cyril O'Reilly, Ronnie Claire Edwards
5x05 Coal Miner's Slaughter
Nov 20, 1988 · 45 min · ★ 4.7
The coal miner's daughter thinks the mine owner is responsible for her father's death and someone takes action.
Directing: Walter Grauman · Writer: Chris Manheim · Starring: Jared Rushton, Barbara Bain, Cliff DeYoung, Hoyt Axton
5x06 Wearing of the Green
Nov 27, 1988 · 45 min
A Fletcher novel is the entree to a legendary actress who is a hermit refusing to meet anyone. The occasion is the theft of a famous tiara.
Directing: Seymour Robbie · Writer: Peter S. Fischer · Starring: Erin Gray, Barry Dennen, David Naughton, Barbara Bosson
5x07 The Last Flight of the Dixie Damsel
Dec 18, 1988 · 45 min
The airplane her late husband bailed out of in 1952 has finally been found -- with a body inside.
Directed by Vincent McEveety · Written by Peter S. Fischer · Starring Danny Hassel, Dale Robertson, Michael Ansara, Jane Greer
5x08 Prediction: Murder
Jan 1, 1989 · 45 min
A psychic's predictions have come true, convincing a rancher's daughter that the next one, a fatal fire, will happen.
Directing: Walter Grauman · Starring: Lisa Pelikan, Dale Robertson, David Birney, Melody Anderson
5x09 Something Borrowed, Someone Blue
Jan 8, 1989 · 45 min
Grady's wedding seems doomed when someone does in the persnickety housekeeper.
Directing: John Llewellyn Moxey · Starring: Rick Hurst, Gale Storm, Ray Buktenica, Howard Morris
5x10 Weave a Tangled Web
Jan 15, 1989 · 45 min
Things look bad when a married woman's keys are found by the body in a motel room and she can't explain why.
Directed by: Seymour Robbie · Writer: Robert E. Swanson · Starring: George Chakiris, Pamela Bellwood, Ron Masak, Will Nye
5x11 The Search for Peter Kerry
Feb 5, 1989 · 45 min
A long missing heir turns up and trouble ensues.
Directing: Walter Grauman · Writer: Peter S. Fischer · Starring: Lane Smith, Sam Bottoms, Marc Singer, Mason Adams
5x12 Smooth Operators
Feb 12, 1989 · 45 min
When a drunk is found dead in the alley, it raises a lot of questions. He was well dressed (but only one shoe) and had no id or money--a robbery or something else?
Directed by: Anthony Pullen Shaw · Writer: Gerald K. Siegel · Starring: Dirk Benedict, Edward Winter, Nicolas Coster, Barney Martin
5x13 Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble
Feb 19, 1989 · 45 min
A very attractive young witch appears in Cabot Cove making some residents wonder if she really died a century or so ago.
Directed by Vincent McEveety · Written by Tom Sawyer · Starring Bill Maher, Ron Masak, Brad Dourif, Will Nye
5x14 From Russia ... With Blood
Feb 26, 1989 · 45 min
A purse snatcher gets Jessica in big trouble in Moscow. What they found in her purse shouldn't have been there.
Directing: Vincent McEveety · Writer: Donald Ross · Starring: Anthony Geary, Adrian Zmed, Jeremy Kemp, Peter Donat
5x15 Alma Murder
Mar 12, 1989 · 45 min
An old English professor is caught red-handed over a young girl's body and insists he did it, but a young man later confesses. Whodunit?
Directing: Anthony Pullen Shaw · Writer: Chris Manheim · Starring: David Wilson, Owen Bush, Jason Beghe, E.G. Marshall
5x16 Truck Stop
Apr 2, 1989 · 45 min
Walter tells his story by way of black and white flashbacks which makes an interesting change from the usual. He has made a tape of the events that ended with his murder and we see the events unfold.
Directing: Vincent McEveety · Starring: Jill Schoelen, Mike Connors, Elizabeth Ashley, Andrew Prine
5x17 The Sins of Castle Cove
Apr 9, 1989 · 45 min
A red hot novel, written by a former Fletcher student, seems to expose the small town's secrets and inspires murder. Julie Adams, Gloria DeHaven, Kathryn Grayson and Ruth Roman appear again as the local gossips.
Directing: John Llewellyn Moxey · Starring: Kathryn Grayson, Gloria DeHaven, Ron Masak, Will Nye
5x18 Trevor Hudson's Legacy
Apr 16, 1989 · 45 min
A small town editor in Montana threatens to claim in public that he is the real author of a dead man's manuscript.
Directing: Walter Grauman · Writer: Paul Savage · Starring: Michael Learned, Robert Klein, Steve Forrest, Georgia Brown
5x19 Double Exposure
Apr 30, 1989 · 45 min
In a strange case, Jessica bumps into an old friend who is supposed to be dead. His widow insists he is dead and Jessica hires Harry McGraw to investigate.
Directed by: Anthony Pullen Shaw · Writer: Robert E. Swanson · Starring: Earl Boen, William Lucking, Jerry Orbach, Karen Morrow
5x20 Three Strikes, You're Out
May 7, 1989 · 45 min
A surprised burglar is blamed for the death of the team's pre-game TV Host.
Directing: Seymour Robbie · Writer: Donald Ross · Starring: Vince Edwards, Paul Sorvino, Robert Mandan, Tim Dunigan
5x21 Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall (1)
May 14, 1989 · 45 min
Eudora McVeigh, a rival mystery writer, arrives at Jessica's door with seemingly friendly intentions, but the discovery of a corpse and a web of deceit follows her to Cabot Cove leading Jessica to suspect the woman of ulterior and sinister motives.
Directed by: Vincent McEveety · Writer: Peter S. Fischer · Starring: Richard Anderson, Daniel McDonald, Ron Masak, Will Nye
5x22 Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall (2) Season Finale
May 21, 1989 · 45 min
After Seth is hospitalized and diagnosed as poisoned, with an apple Eudora gave Jessica, she still believes in her colleague's innocence. Sheriff Metzger discovers the murdered P.I. was following her husband, Hank Shipton, and found him adulterous with rich Victor Casper's wife, Lisa. Hank's son, Bobby, is beaten up by local Arnie on account of pool bet debts. Jessica ties up all the loose ends.
Directed by: Vincent McEveety · Writer: Peter S. Fischer · Starring: Richard Anderson, Daniel McDonald, Ron Masak, Will Nye